“He thinks I was involved in the murder of the two Israelis.”
“Why would he think that?”
“Because one of them was wearing my raincoat.”
“How the hell—”
“I took off the raincoat when I was doing my little survey of Lance Cabot’s house, and apparently when I left, I picked up the wrong coat. The murderer dressed one of the two corpses in mine.”
“Oh, swell, now you’ve come to the attention of the local police.”
“You could say that.”
“That greatly reduces your value to me.”
“You expect me to feel guilty about that? Let me remind you that I came to their attention while trying to get information for you.”
“In the old days, we’d have just shot you; as it is, I’ll have to fire you.”
“As you wish—you’ll recall that I’ve already resigned once.”
“This time let’s make it permanent; I can’t have anything more to do with you.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to be stuck with a continuing hotel bill.”
“Why is that? As far as I’m concerned, you can get on the next airplane out of here.”
“Not at the moment; the police have taken my passport. When I went to the airport yesterday to, ah, see off a friend, they dragged me out and sent me back to the Connaught.”
“Well, as far as I’m concerned, pal, you’re on your own.”
“You can discuss it with the accounting department at Woodman and Weld,” Stone said. “And while you’re at it, remember that I’ve been on double my hourly rate for a while.”
“Not anymore; as I said, you’re fired.” Hedger hung up.
Dino came into the room, dressed. “Who was that?”
“Hedger; when he heard the police were interested in me, he fired me.”
“Well, I hope you don’t still feel any loyalty to him.”
“He’s not my client anymore.”
“So fuck him and the horse he rode in on.”
“Yep.”
“Let’s call Throckmorton and tell him who beat up Bobby Jones.”
“He already knows Hedger was behind it; Ted Cricket would have told him; he just can’t prove that Hedger sicced the hoods onto Jones.”
“Oh. Well, what are you going to do today?”
“I don’t know; what were you going to do?”
“I was going to follow you around at a safe distance, to see if anybody else was following you.”
“Good idea; I guess I’d better go somewhere.”