Swimming to Catalina (Stone Barrington 4)

“Not even to you?”

“Sometimes, not often.”

“Did he repeatedly get calls from the same person?”

She thought about that. “I remember, the day after Arrington left, Lou Regenstein called him several times over the afternoon, but that’s not really unusual. They do a lot of business together, and they’re very close.”

“Any calls from David Sturmack?”

“Not that I recall, but that wouldn’t have been unusual, either.”

“Any from Onofrio Ippolito?”

“That’s a name I had never even heard until Vance gave me an invitation list for the dinner party with his name on it. Although I noticed him at the party, I didn’t put a face to the name until we saw him at Grimaldi’s.”

/> “So Vance and Ippolito aren’t friends and haven’t done business?”

“Not that I’m aware of, and there isn’t much in Vance’s life that I’m not aware of.”

“Let me ask you something else: from my perspective, Vance seems to have a seamlessly successful life—he’s handsome, rich, at the top of his career, married to a wonderful woman, and has the esteem of everyone he knows and millions that he doesn’t.”

“That’s a pretty fair assessment, I guess.”

“What are his weaknesses?”

“Personal? Business?”

“Both.”

“Well, on a personal level, he’s not as good a lover as you are.”

Stone laughed. “I’m flattered. So, you’ve had an affair with Vance?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to call it that. Vance has probably slept with very nearly every woman he knows, at least once.”

“So how often did you sleep with him?”

“Now you’re straying into my personal life.”

“You’re right; I’m sorry.”

“An even dozen times,” she said. “I counted.”

“Why did you stop?”

“He stopped. It was his call.”

“Why his call?”

“Because he’s a movie star.”

“And that’s more than just a man?”

“In this town, it is. You don’t know anything about movie stars, do you?”

“No; Vance is the only one I’ve ever had a conversation with.”

“Let me tell you about movie stars.”