“I’ll call you,” she said. “I’ve left my job, and I’m staying with a friend. Don’t worry, we’ll see each other. You’ll see me sooner than you think. Pay no attention to what you hear.”
“What am I going to hear?” he asked.
She ignored his question; her brow was furrowed. “There’s something I never told you,” she said. “I should have told you a long time ago.” She seemed to be wrestling with whether to tell him now.
“What is it?”
She looked at the floor. “Barron wasn’t on that airplane from Rome.”
Stone stared at her. “But Dino saw him…”
She looked up at him, then slipped through the door. “Dino didn’t do his job,” she said, then closed the door behind her, leaving him alone in the room.
Stone went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face, his mind racing. Then he rejoined the crowd and found Dino, who was making his way out of the party with Mary Ann. He could see the car outside, festooned with tin cans and old shoes.
“Dino, when you went to the airport to meet Barron Hark-ness’s plane, did you actually see him get off?”
“Stone, c’mon, okay?” He kissed an old lady on the lips.
Stone managed to stay alongside him. “You didn’t actually see him, did you?”
“I checked the manifest, all right? Hey, Cheech, how you doin’?”
Stone bodily prevented a fat woman from squeezing between them. “Dino, you didn’t see him.”
“Stone, I’m leaving on my honeymoon; gimme a major fucking break, will you?”
Stone stopped moving, and the crowd surged past him. He watched Dino carried along by the crowd to the car, then he was driving away, waving.
Chapter 43
Late in the evening, as Stone was drifting off to sleep, the telephone rang. He fumbled for it. “Hello?”
“Mr. Barrington?” The voice was vaguely familiar.
“Yes?”
“This is Herbert Van Fleet.”
Stone looked at the clock. “Jesus Christ,” he muttered under his breath. “What is it?”
“I know I must have awakened you. I’m very sorry.”
“What do you want, Mr. Van Fleet?”
“I want to retain you.”
“Retain me?”
“I understand that you are practicing law now.”
“Yes, that’s right, but why do we need to talk about this at eleven o’clock on a Sunday night? Can you call my office number tomorrow morning?”
“I’m afraid it’s more urgent than that. I’ve been arrested.”
Stone sighed and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “What were you arrested for, Mr. Van Fleet?”
“Please call me Herb.”