Worst Fears Realized (Stone Barrington 5)

“Yeah, all right, I fucked her. We had lunch at a little hotel in the Sixties; I kept a room there, at the time.”

“Was there anything else she said about her marriage, anything at all?”

Goldsmith thought for a moment. “Yeah, there was: she said she thought her husband had another wife, that he was a bigamist.”

“Did she say who or where the other wife was?”

“No; we were…getting involved about that time, and we didn’t get back to that. I would have asked her, of course, if she had called me back.”

“Of course.”

“Stone?”

“Yeah?”

“Should I watch my back?”

“Bruce, if I were you, I’d leave town; that’s what I’m doing.”

“Hang on,” Goldsmith said. “Millie, tell Moyle that I’ll do the deposition in San Francisco, and get his plane ticket changed to my name. He’s on the two o’clock flight, isn’t he? I don’t care what he says, just do it.” He came back to Stone. “Thanks, pal, I appreciate the warning.”

“And I appreciate your recollections,” Stone said, feeling slightly soiled from having received them. He hung up and called Dino. He was headed north on the Saw Mill River Parkway.

“Bacchetti,” Dino said.

“It’s Stone. You may get a call from a guy named Palmer, who…”

“I just did.”

“So, you’re on top of that?”

“You bet I am. Anything else come up?”

“Yes. Arlene Mitteldorfer saw a divorce lawyer right before she was murdered. He told me that she said she thought Herbie had another wife.”

“Before her?”

“During her.”

“Herbie was a bigamist?”

“Could be. I don’t know if the marriage records were computerized that long ago, but it might be worth doing a search; I’d sure like to talk to the other Mrs. Mitteldorfer. Maybe she’s hiding him.”

“I’m on it,” Dino said.

“I’m on the way to Connecticut, now; let me give you the numbers up there; they’ll be working later today.” Stone gave him the numbers and his new car-phone number. “I’ll be in the car for another hour and a half if you need to reach me.”

Stone continued up the Saw Mill, through a bright, spring day, with new, green leaves on the trees. It was a winding road and fun to drive on.

He called his own number and tapped in the code for the answering machine. The mechanical voice said, You have two messages. One:

“Hi, it’s Dolce. The Carlyle said you’d checked out. I don’t know if you have any plans for the weekend; if not, call me, and we’ll do something interesting.”

Two:

“Stone, it’s Vance Calder; I hope you’re well. Arrington and I are in the East this weekend, and we’d like you to join us for dinner, if you’re free. We’d both love to see you, and, of course, you haven’t seen the baby yet, and we’d like you to. Please call me.” He left a number.

Stone found the breath momentarily sucked out of him. He had known that this would happen, eventually, but he hadn’t expected them to turn up in town this soon. He wasn’t sure he could handle this, and he was going to be in the country, anyway, so he had an excuse not to see them. He dialed the number.