“Now you’re being rude to your secretary,” Arrington said.
Stone looked at his bedside clock and got out of bed. “I’ve got a ten o’clock appointment,” he said, “and it’s nine-thirty now.”
Arrington looked at him. “So now you’re going to parade around naked and try to turn me on.”
“It’s a desperate move, but it’s the only card I have left to play.”
“It’s working,” she said, walking over to him, dropping the duffel.
She made a grab at his crotch, but he dodged her and ran toward the bathroom. “Oh, no,” he called back, “you’re going to have to wait until I can make room in my busy schedule for you.”
“Bastard!” she yelled after him. “I’ll call you tonight.” She picked up the duffel and left.
Stone arrived at Woodman & Weld five minutes late and went directly to Bill Eggers’s office.
“Come in, Stone, and have a seat,” Eggers said, pointing at a chair next to the sofa. “You know Glynnis Hickock from Amanda Dart’s dinner party last week.”
Dick Hickock’s wife sat primly at one end of the sofa. “Good morning,” she said.
Stone sat down. “Of course. How are you?”
“Just great,” the woman said through clenched teeth.
“Would anyone like some coffee?” Eggers asked.
“I would,” Glynnis responded.
“Bill, could I speak with you outside for just a minute?” Stone asked. He had an idea of where this might be leading, and he wanted to head it off before it got started.
“Stone, don’t worry, anything you’ve got to say you can say in front of Glynnis.” He set a cup on the coffee table and poured from a Thermos. “The short version of this is, Glynn
is needs some surveillance on her husband, in preparation for divorce proceedings.”
“Bill, I really have to speak to you alone, and right now.”
Eggers looked at him, surprised. “Glynnis, I’m sorry, will you excuse us for just a moment?”
Glynnis crossed her legs and picked up her coffee cup but said nothing.
Stone walked into the adjacent conference room, waited for Eggers, then closed the door. “I can’t be involved in this,” he said.
“Now you tell me,” Eggers cried. “Do you know how big a divorce this is going to be?”
“I can guess, but I can’t be involved. I have a conflict.”
“What kind of conflict?” Eggers was working up an anger now.
“I’m representing her husband on this DIRT thing.”
“What? You’re supposed to be representing Amanda on that, not Dick Hickock.”
“Hickock called me when he saw the sheet; I told him I couldn’t represent him, so he called Amanda, and she called me and told me to go ahead.”
“As an investigator, then, not as a lawyer?”
“Same thing, as far as I’m concerned. If you’d talked to me ahead of time, I could have explained it to you.”
“What am I going to tell Glynnis?”