Loitering With Intent (Stone Barrington 16)

“Are you guys always this lucky?” Tommy asked. “’Cause I’m not. You stroll into an airport hangar a few hours after a shooting and find a guy who landed with a rifle case and a handgun case in his backseat? That never happens to me.”

“Then you’re not working hard enough, Tommy,” Dino said. “I find that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”

“Just how much work have you done this morning, Dino? You and Stone had a chat over breakfast and decided to amble out here?

That kind of work?”

“There’s a certain amount of instinct involved, too,” Dino said, blandly.

Tommy burst out laughing. “It’s a pity vaudeville is dead,” he said. “You’d make a great duo on the stage.”

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S t u a r t W o o d s

“I didn’t say anything,” Stone pointed out.

“You didn’t need to; I was supplying all the straight lines.”

DePoo’s desk phone rang. “Yes? Did he mention what hotel he’s in? Okay, thanks.” He hung up. “This Ted Larson, or whoever he is, just called and said he’d be staying a day or two longer.”

“Please ask her to describe the man,” Stone said. DePoo called back to the desk, asked and hung up. “White guy, middle-aged, medium height and weight, wearing a yellow baseball cap.”

“Well,” Tommy said, “I choose not to wait for him to show up or to institute a manhunt for a guy answering that description. Paul, will you call me the minute he shows up?”

“Sure,” DePoo answered. He wrote down Tommy’s cell number.

“Take mine, too,” Stone said, handing him a card. The three men walked outside to the parking lot.

“You two sticking around?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah, for a few days,” Stone said.

“You really think you’re on to something here?”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to wait until Evan Keating gets shot at again before we’ll know for sure. I hope he doesn’t get dead in the process.”

“I’d put a police guard on him, if he didn’t have the lovely Gigi to watch his back,” Tommy said.

“At least she knows how to shoot back,” Dino said.

“Tommy,” Stone said, “do you know if Evan is being discharged this morning?”

“Looks like he’s going to be there another day,” Tommy replied.

“Apparently, he’s running a fever, and they’ve got him on intravenous antibiotics. Best guess now is tomorrow. My uniformed guy is still on him, though, so he’ll be okay.”

“See you later, then,” Stone said, and they went to their respective cars. 1 4 8

L o i t e r i n g w i t h I n t e n t

“So you want to go looking for Ted Larson or Frank Harmon or whatever his name is?”

“What’s the point? If I were a hit man, I’d fly in here and give a false name, then register in a hotel under another false name and give anybody I met another false name.”

“I’m glad he doesn’t know who we are,” Dino said. 1 4 9

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