“Mr. Jones, when was the last time you paid Mr. James any money?”
“Last month, when Tumult came out. His contract calls for a payment on publication.”
“All right. Dig out your most recent bank statement.”
“It’s right here in my bottom drawer, with all my bank statements,” Jones said.
Stone heard the man struggling with a desk drawer. “Got it,” Jones said.
“Now, go through the canceled checks until you find the one to James.”
“Okay, let’s see: laundry, phone bill, liquor store—hey, that’s a big one!” More laughter. “Here it is!”
“Turn the check over.”
“It’s over.”
“There is a bank’s name stamped on the back. That always happens when a check is deposited.”
“Right, there is. It’s kind of dim, though. Let me turn on a light and get my glasses.”
Stone had visions of the man sitting in a dark office strewn with empty liquor bottles.
“Okay, I can see it now. It says, ‘First Cayman Bank.’”
“Swell,” Stone said.
“You like that, do you?”
“It’s no help at all, I’m afraid. Mr. Jones, imagine for a moment that you absolutely had to get in touch with Mr. James. How would you go about it?”
“I’d e-mail him,” Jones said. “I’m not much on computers, but my nephew set it up so that I can get to my e-mail without screwing it up. You want the e-mail address?”
“Thanks, but you already gave it to me.”
“I did? Well, okay. Good luck finding him.” Jones hung up.
“What?” Dino asked.
“His bank is in the Cayman Islands, well known for banking secrecy. We’re not going to find him that way.”
“What about his e-mail address? We could call his provider. Who is it? AOL or Hotmail? One of those?”
“Nope. He’s got a domain of his own: frederickjames dot com.”
“Then it’s got to be registered somewhere.”
“Yeah, but even if we could track it down, we’d find that his address is One Vanderbilt, or some hotel where he stayed for a few days.”
“We could see if he has a phone number in New York.”
“If he does, it will be unlisted.”
“If it’s unlisted, I can find out the number.”
“I just had a thought,” Stone said. He picked up a phone and called Dan Griggs.
“Griggs.”