Hot Mahogany (Stone Barrington 15)

“But it was empty on both arrival and departure.”

“There might be a very good reason for that.”

“What would that be?”

“The crate was also of a size and shape that one could use to see if it would fit well in an empty space in Ab’s study.”

“Ah.”

“Ah, indeed.”

Stone got into the car. “We’ll talk more about this.”

“Good.”

Stone started his car and drove away, relieved to have Carla off his hands, at least temporarily and maybe permanently.

35

Stone arrived at Elaine’s that evening to find Dino parked at the usual table, but this time in the company of the lovely Genevieve. “Good evening,” he said, sitting down. Somebody placed a glass of Knob Creek before him.

“How was the country?” Genevieve

asked.

Stone noticed that she was wearing a small but lovely diamond bracelet that he hadn’t seen before. “Like a picture postcard,” he said. “The foliage is at its very peak. Why don’t the two of you run up there for a couple of days and use the house?”

“What a nice idea,” she said. “We’ll have to coordinate our schedules, Dino, and see what we can arrange.”

“I’m am at your beck and call,” Dino said. Whatever his transgression against Genevieve might have been, he had apparently been absolved and had promised not to sin again.

Genevieve excused herself and went to the ladies’.

“Did you figure out what you did?” Stone asked Dino.

“Something to do with the relative placement of our shoes in the closet, I think. I’m still not sure exactly what.”

“Never touch anything of hers, unless you’re helping her remove it from her body,” Stone said.

“Sage advice, for once.”

“What do you mean, for once? I always give sage advice. Your life would be so much richer and fuller and happier if you would just take my sage advice. If you’ll cast your thoughts back a few years, you’ll recall that I advised you not to marry Mary Ann.”

“Yeah, but you waited until she was pregnant to advise me.”

“I didn’t say my advice was always timely, just sage.”

“It wasn’t very timely with Genevieve, either.”

“You had only to ask.”

“You mean, I should call you up and ask you about the arrangement of her clothes in the closet?”

“Such a call might have saved you the purchase of a diamond bracelet.”

Dino reddened slightly. “You noticed that, huh?”

“Noticed it? She was waving it back and forth under my nose. My eyes must have looked like I was watching a tennis match.”