Swimming to Catalina (Stone Barrington 4)

“Put him in the back of the car, no cuffs, no fuss, and take him to the hotel,” Rick said. “Then get his house keys, go there, and get him some clothes. I don’t want him touched.”

The men departed with O’Hara.

Rick picked up the phone again and called Hank Cable at the FBI. “Hank,” he said, “we’ve got a witness against Ippolito, Sturmack, and Barone.” He gave him the name of the hotel. “Can you and Rubens meet us there in an hour? Ask for me at the front desk.” He hung up and turned to Stone. “Let’s get over there; I want Cable and Rubens to interrogate Billy. Once that’s done we’ll know our next move.”

60

Stone was shaken awake by Rick Grant. He was laying fully dressed on a bed in one of the two bedrooms of Rick’s secure hotel suite.

“Come on into the living room,” Rick said.

Stone looked at his watch; it was seven-thirty in the morning. He followed Rick into the living room, where two video cameras, two tape recorders, and some lights had been set up. “Where’s O’Hara?” Stone asked.

“We let him get some sleep,” Rick said. “Hank and John have pretty much bled him dry, and it’s all on video and audio. They want to talk to you.”

Stone sat down and poured himself some coffee from a thermos. “How’d it go, gentlemen?”

“It went very well,” Hank Cable said, “but he may not be all we need.”

Stone didn’t like the sound of that. “Why not?”

“He’ll be a good witness, but a defense lawyer of the quality that Ippolito and Sturmack will hire will give him a very hard time on the stand.”

“So?”

“Sturmack and Ippolito will take the stand and say that sure, they hired him to help in acquiring the Centurion stock, but that was all. They’ll blame any of his confessed illegal activity on O’Hara himself, and their lawyer will make much of O’Hara’s accepting bribes from organized crime and his involvement in murder.”

“So what are you saying?” Stone asked.

“I’m saying that as good as O’Hara is, he may not be enough. If we could persuade Vance Calder to testify, that would help, of course, but…”

“But Vance is not going to do it,” Stone said. “You can’t count on that for a minute.”

“If we want to button this thing up, we’re going to need more,” Cable said.

“What about your wiretaps? Surely O’Hara’s testimony will get you extensions on your search warrants and some new warrants, too.”

“That will take time,” Rick Grant said. “Sturmack will hear that Regenstein has fired O’Hara, and Ippolito’s people are going to notice that O’Hara has vanished off the face of the earth. When they do, they could shut down Barone’s operation, leaving us high and dry. They could even cut and run, if they’re nervous enough. I just don’t think we have weeks or months to sit and listen to wiretaps and try to decipher them.”

“Have you arrested Barone yet? He knows where the bodies are buried, and I’ll bet he could be broken.”

“Maybe, but he’ll more than likely lawyer up, get out on bail, and disappear. We don’t want to take him until our case is solid.”

“Anybody got any ideas?” Stone asked.

There followed a long silence on the part of everybody.

Finally Hank Cable said, “We were hoping that you might have an idea. You’ve been pretty good so far.”

It was Stone’s turn to be silent. “Ippolito doesn’t know that I’m alive,” he said at last.

“We’re not absolutely certain of that,” Rick said. “Remember, Ippolito’s yacht captain knows you by sight.”

“But not by name. O’Hara doesn’t think Ippolito knows I’m alive.”

“Okay, maybe he doesn’t know,” Rick agreed.

“Why don’t I pay him a visit? Have a talk with him? You could wire me.”