“Is that what this is about? The baby?”
“Certainly, that’s part of it; that’s what you used as bait to get me out here.”
“Stone, I’m terribly sorry I asked you to come. When…the situation changed, I tried to make it profitable for you to have made the trip.”
“I cannot describe the trip as profitable,” Stone said.
“What is it you want, personally?”
“I want Arrington to be free to…come home or do whatever she wants to do.”
“Like go back to you?”
“Do you think that’s what she wants?”
“I don’t know what she wants; we can’t talk about that in our phone conversations.”
“Vance, I am not going to walk away from this, and you’d better get used to the idea.” There had been no mention of Arrington’s car; perhaps Vance hadn’t been in the garage yet.
“Stone, if they find out that you’re not back in New York, they’ll…there’s no telling what they’ll do.”
“They know I’m not in New York.”
“What?” Vance asked, alarmed.
“They think I’m dead.”
“Dead?” he asked weakly.
“Did you go to a dinner party on Ippolito’s yacht at Catalina a few nights ago?”
“I was invited but I didn’t go.”
“I was invited and didn’t go, either. On the way to the party, I got dumped into the Pacific with my hands and feet bound and an anchor shackled to me.”
Vance’s mouth dropped open. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “They wouldn’t do something like that to…”
“They’ve been threatening to do it to Arrington, haven’t they? Why wouldn’t they do it to me?”
Vance buried his face in his hands. “Oh, shit, shit, shit. I’m so sorry, Stone; I never meant for something like that to happen to you, and it’s my fault.”
“How so?”
“I told them you were at the Bel-Air.”
“And how did you know?” Stone asked, knowing the answer.
“Betty told me.”
“She told you not them?”
“Yes. She doesn’t know who’s involved; she doesn’t know anything about this, except what she might imagine. She told me because she would never hide anything from me.”
“I’m glad to hear she didn’t tell Ippolito,” Stone said, and he was. He felt better about Betty now.
“Betty would never do anything to harm you,” Vance said. “I think she’s half in love with you.”
“You’re very lucky to have her,” Stone said, reflecting that Vance seemed to have the women he wanted.