“I know,” she replied. “I have them all the time.”
“Ideas?”
“Wonderful ideas.”
“Well, so far I have no complaints about your ideas, only your ex-boyfriends.”
“Harlan is a pig,” she said.
“What did you ever see in him?”
“He’s one of those men who can be perfectly charming when you first meet him, then, as time wears on, becomes first awfully boring, then finally just awful.”
“I’ve known women like that.”
“Really? I thought it was exclusively a male characteristic.”
Stone sat up on the blanket and picked up the binoculars.
“What is it?” Carla asked.
“A truck,” he replied.
“It is a very Harlanlike characteristic to find a truck more interesting than I,” she said, archly.
“Oh, I don’t find it nearly as interesting as you, but you’re too close for binoculars,” he replied, focusing more finely.
She pulled the binoculars away from his face and kissed him. “Does that help?”
“That was delightful, but they’re unloading something from the truck, and I’d like to see what it is, if you’ll give me just a moment, then you will have my undivided attention.”
“Oh, all right,” she said, handing him the binoculars.
Stone watched as four men removed a large crate from the back of the truck and began carrying it up the front steps of the house. The two men at the rear of the crate then hoisted it above their heads and climbed the steps.
“It’s light,” Stone said.
“Swell.”
“And it’s bigger at the bottom than at the top.”
“Fascinating.”
Someone opened the front doors wide, and the men carried in the crate.
“It’s empty,” Stone said.
“What?”
“Four men are carrying a large, empty crate into Ab Kramer’s house.”
“Ab Kramer? The financial guy?”
“One and the same. Now why would they take an empty crate into his house.”
“Maybe they’re going to pack something in the crate and take it away.”
“Now that is an eminently sensible observation,” he said, putting down the binoculars, taking her into his arms and pulling her down to the blanket. “And you have my undivided attention.”