Dirt (Stone Barrington 2)

“Does she know anybody else who knows him”

“Not a soul; it’s a dead end.”

“What’s happening on your tape stakeout?”

“What’s happening is, she comes home at night, fixes dinner, and cries. He hasn’t called again.”

“Sounds like she’s been dumped; you can pull the plug on that one.”

“Will do. What else can I do for you?”

“Why don’t you drop by here in, say, an hour; we’ll see where we are.”

“See you then.”

Stone hung up.

“We’ve only got an hour?” she asked with mock sadness.

“Let’s use it well,” he replied, rolling toward her. Then the phone rang again.

“Hello?”

“It’s Dino. I want you to come over here and go over some stuff with me.”

“When?”

“This morning.”

“Around eleven?”

“That’s good; you can buy me lunch.”

“Can I bring Cantor?”

“Why not? Maybe he’ll have some sort of a take on this.”

“On what?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.” Dino hung up.

Stone hung up and rolled toward Arrington again. “Sorry about that,” he said.

“Don’t let it happen again,” she said.

He reached over and took the phone off the hook.

“Good boy,” she said, reaching for him.

Chapter 40

Stone and Bob Cantor arrived at the 19th Precinct on time and were sent to Dino’s office right away. Both men still knew detectives working there, and they said a few hellos along the way. Stone hadn’t often been back to the 19th since he’d taken retirement, and he’d never been really close to anybody there but Dino, so his reception was on the cool side. Once they were in Dino’s office, the reception got hostile.

“You remember Ernie Martinez, Stone,” Dino said.

“Sure. Hi, Ernie.”

Martinez nodded. He was a portly detective of Puerto Rican extraction who didn’t like anybody who wasn’t Puerto Rican. He didn’t like Dino much, and he certainly didn’t like Stone.