L.A. Dead (Stone Barrington 6)

"Come on in, and let me fix you a drink."

"I could use one," he replied. They settled in the little sitting room off the master suite. "I have to go back to New York for a little while," he said.

"Oh, no," she replied. "You're all I've got right now, Stone."

Stone explained about the roof and his impatient clients. "If there's as much water as Joan says there is, then it's going to take me some time to get things sorted out."

"But what will I do without you here?"

"Marc Blumberg is in charge of your case, anyway, I'm just an adviser."

"Marc is good, but he's no smarter than you are," she said.

"Thank you, but we're on his turf, and he knows it a lot better than I do. Who else could have gotten you bail on a Saturday?"

"I suppose you're right."

"I'll call every day" he said.

"You getting the red-eye?"

"Yes."

"Let's have some dinner before you go, then." She picked up a phone, buzzed Manolo, and ordered food. "And after dinner, will you please drive Mr. Barrington to the airport?" She thanked him and hung up. "I don't know what I would have done without Manolo," she said. "He's the most intensely loyal person I've ever met, besides you. Do you know that as soon as Vance was buried, he started getting offers from people, some of them my friends? And he turned down every one of them. He and Maria have just been wonderful."

"You're lucky to have them," Stone agreed. "On the subject of loyal help, Betty Southard told me this afternoon that she's going to leave as soon as Vance's affairs are settled, probably move to Hawaii."

"I don't blame her," Arrington said. "She's never liked me, particularly, so maybe it's best."

"She said she'd find somebody to work for you."

"Good."

"I'd like to wash up before dinner; will you excuse me?"

"Use Vance's bathroom, it's the closest," she said, pointing to the hallway.

Stone left her and found the bathroom. As he came back up the hallway, past Vance's dressing room, he thought something was odd, but he wasn't sure what. He walked back to the bathroom and looked at the wall backing up onto the dressing room, then he walked down the hallway and looked at the dressing room. There was something wrong with the proportions, but the bourbon he had just had on an empty stomach was keeping him from figuring it out. He went back and joined Arrington.

"How old is this house?" he asked.

"It was built during the twenties," she said, "but when Vance bought it in the seventies, he gutted it and started over."

"Did he make a lot of changes?"

"He changed everything; he might as well have torn it down and started over, but Vance was too keen on costs to waste the shell of a perfectly good house. After we were married, I redecorated the master suite, with his approval on fabrics and so forth."

"Did you tear down any walls then?"

"No, the space was already divided as you see it. Even though

Vance was a bachelor when he rebuilt the house, he provided for what he called 'the putative woman.'" Stone laughed.

They had dinner in the small dining room and talked about old times, which weren't really that old, Stone reflected. A lot had happened in the few years they had known each other.

"I think I'd go back to Virginia, if I were allowed to leave town," Arrington said, "and just spend a few weeks or months. Do a lot of riding. I miss that."

"You've got room for horses here," Stone said.