The Short Forever (Stone Barrington 8)

“Are you kidding? I came over here to get you out of this, not to send you to Wormy Scrubbers.”

“Wormwood Scrubs.”

“Whatever.”

“All right, here’s how it went,” Stone said.

“You better start at the beginning, so we don’t have to go backwards.”

“All right; this guy showed up in my office, sent by Woodman and Weld.” Stone began to take Dino, blow by blow, through what had happened since he’d arrived in London. He got as far as the explosion at the antiques market when dinner arrived. The waiter served it and left.

When he had gone, Stone continued with the events at the Farm Street house. When he got to the dinner of the night before, he stopped, not wanting to talk about Sarah or Arrington.

“So,” Dino said, “how’s Sarah? How’s Arrington?”

“How did you know Arrington was here?”

“She called me a few days ago, said she was headed to London and how were you?”

“Why didn’t she call me?”

“I guess she did, and you weren’t there, so she called me. She’s buying an apartment in New York.”

“I heard.”

“So tell me about Sarah and Arrington, and how you’re keeping them both happy.”

Stone did the best he could.

“So Arrington is on her way to New York?”

“Right.”

“And Sarah is filthy rich, having knocked off her boyfriend?”

“She didn’t knock him off, it was an accident; I was there.”

“Sure, like Arrington didn’t knock off Vance Calder.”

“You don’t really think she did that, do you?”

“Nobody’s proved to me that she didn’t.”

“Dino, you’re a very suspicious person, do you know that?”

“It’s useful in my work; and if I weren’t a suspicious person, somebody would have knocked you off by now.”

“You’re probably right,” Stone admitted. Dino had gotten him out of the soup more than once.

“You know what I think?” Dino said, pushing back from the table.

“What?”

“I think I’m going to bed. I hear jet lag is a bitch if you don’t get any sleep.”

“So, you’re going to bed without having solved any of my problems?”

“You betcha.” He got up, went to the door of his room, and opened it. “I’ll do that tomorrow.” He closed the door.