“I want a definitive, provable, but very quiet end to this well before our man’s term is up.”
“That’s eighteen months. Have we got that long?”
“Make it a year.”
“I can do it in that time,” Todd said.
“I think you can, too,” she replied, “and if you can
t, there’s always that big pot of oil we keep on simmer down in the basement, waiting for your tender carcass.” She hung up.
Todd hung up, too, and then he gulped. It wouldn’t be boiling oil, he knew; it would probably be something worse.
15
STONE AND DINO WERE HAVING BREAKFAST WHEN THE PHONE rang, and Stone picked it up.
“Mr. Barrington?”
“Yes.”
“This is Fair Sutherlin.”
“Good morning. You’re up early.”
“It’s eight o‘clock. I’ve been in my office for an hour. Oh, that’s right, I forgot: you’re on vacation.”
Stone ignored the dig. “I’m an attorney. I keep banker’s hours.”
She laughed. “I’m sorry, I can’t resist getting at real people, who have a business life and a private life. When you work at the White House,~ey>iv>
“You make it sound like drudgery,” Stone said.
“Oh, no, it’s too exciting for drudgery. It’s more like combat.”
“I see.”
“I’m breaking out and giving a small dinner party on Saturday night,” she said. “Could you both come? I’ll get Mr. Bacchetti a dinner partner, if he needs one.”
“Hang on,” Stone said, and turned to Dino. “Fair Sutherlin wants us for dinner Saturday night. Do you want her to get you a date?”
“I already have a date,” Dino said. “I’ll bring her.”
Stone went back to the phone. “Is a female FBI agent okay?”
“Oh, that’s perfect,” Fair said. “Nobody there will ever have met a female FBI agent.”
“Where and what time?”
“Seven-thirty for eight.” She gave him the address. “Of course, everything will be off if the country suddenly goes to hell, as it so often does. You’ll be called, in that case.”
“I understand,” Stone said. “The country comes first.”
“But not necessarily in my heart,” she said. “See you then.” She hung up.
“That’s a surprise,” Stone said.
“You’re too easily surprised,” Dino said. “You always were. If I’d put my mind to it, I could have predicted the invitation. She was looking at you