By noon a steady drizzle had enveloped the city, and by the time they left the synagogue a hard rain was falling. Stone sat in the back of the big Ford police car with Dino, while two young detectives took the front. The drive to Brooklyn was painfully slow.
“Traffic always goes to hell in this city when it rains,” Dino said.
“Yeah.”
“You sure this business can’t be connected somehow with what you’re working on?” Dino asked.
“I’ve thought about it again and again,” Stone replied, “and I don’t see how it could be. Arnie had finished the job with me.”
“Arnie’s wife said he went to the movies yesterday afternoon, and he was planning to eat out; it was her bridge night.”
“Does that sound like he was working for me?”
“I guess not. I’m sorry to harp on this, Stone, it’s just that I don’t have anywhere else to go with it.”
“Maybe it really was some stupid junkie.”
“Maybe it was, but it just doesn’t sit right.”
“I know; it doesn’t sit right with me, either.”
“You know if Arnie was working for somebody else? Some other PI?”
Stone shook his head. “He didn’t say anything about it if he was.”
They drove on in the rain. As they crossed the bridge, the sky suddenly began to clear. They buried Arnie Millman in bright sunshine, under a cloudless sky.
Stone stood at the graveside with fifty other cops and looked up to see Amanda Dart standing on the other side, at the rear of the crowd. When the service was over, Stone said to Dino, “I won’t need a ride home.” He hurried after Amanda, who was walking quickly toward her waiting car.
“Hi,” he said, catching up to her. “Can I catch a lift back to Manhattan?”
“Hello, Stone. Sorry, I’m not going back to Manhattan for a while; I have some business on this side of the river.”
“I’m surprised to see you here,” he said. “Did you know Arnie Millman?”
She nodded. “He was an occasional source for me.”
“Arnie?”
“Yes, and I liked him. Why are you so surprised?”
“Somehow, he didn’t seem the type to be hobnobbing with newspaper columnists.”
“Stone, Arnie didn’t hobnob with me; he called me on the phone when we had to talk. I really only met the man face-to-face on one occasion. Anyway, you would be amazed to know who some of my sources are.” She glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to run, darling. Want to get together later this week?”
He knew what that meant, and he thought of Arrington. “Ah… I’ll call you, if that’s okay.”
“That’s okay.” She got into the back of her car, and the driver closed the door.
Stone sprinted toward Dino’s departing cruiser, barely catching it in time.
“Ride didn’t work out?” Dino asked.
“Nah, she wasn’t going back to Manhattan.”
r /> “You know a woman who gets chauffeured around in a Mercedes?”
“That was Amanda Dart.”