He walked quickly to the men’s room, used it, and hurried out. The Mercedes was gone.
“It’s gone,” Stone said to the girl.
“Yeah, a woman just got in it and left.”
“Shit,” he muttered.
“What? Did you want me to shoot out the tires or something?”
“Sorry, thanks for your help. Oh, what did she look like?”
“Tall, dark hair, wearing a bikini with a guy’s shirt over it.”
“Thanks.” Stone ran for the parking lot and looked up and down. The car was nowhere in sight. He ran to his own car and raced through the car park to the street, looking both ways. Lots of traffic, no white Mercedes. No Arrington.
He pounded on the wheel again and again, swearing.
22
S tone found the Greek restaurant on Melrose, was seated at a good table, and ordered a drink. He had half an hour’s wait before Rick Grant showed up. “Sorry to be late,” Grant said as he slid into a chair and ordered a scotch. “Somebody squatted in my office for half an hour just as I was about to leave.”
“That’s okay; it gave me some thinking time, not that it did much good.”
“How’d it go with Arrington’s car?”
“Your guys did good; they were still there when I arrived. Marina Del Rey is a big place; lots of people there. I waited and watched for more than two hours, and the second I went to the can she drove away.”
“The girl was the driver?”
“Yeah; somebody saw her.”
“Were you in plain sight all of this time?”
“Most of it I was sitting in my car; I did walk around a little when I first got there.”
“Could somebody have recognized you?”
“Well, I was standing on top of an ice machine with binoculars for a good five minutes. I’d have been hard to miss.”
“If somebody had an eye on you, she could have waited for you to disappear into the john before driving off.”
“I don’t think Arrington is avoiding me,” Stone replied. “After all, she’s tried to telephone me twice.”
“Good point. Was anybody with her when she drove off?”
“No, and what’s more, she was wearing a bikini under a man’s shirt.”
“Sounds like she was just sunning herself on somebody’s boat and decided to leave.”
“Yeah, that’s twice she’s been seen alone in her car, and I have to think she could have driven anywhere she wanted to, including back to Calder’s house.”
“Doesn’t sound like there’s any duress involved.”
Stone sighed. “There’s all kinds of duress.”
Grant handed him a menu. “Let’s order.”
“You order for me; I don’t think I can get my mind around a menu right now.”