Kisser (Stone Barrington 17)

“If you say so.”

“I say so,” Stone said. Then he looked across the room and saw Hildy Parsons being seated at a table alone.

“Excuse me,” Stone said. “Somebody I’ve got to talk to.” He got up and headed toward Hildy.

48

STONE WALKED UP to her table and held out his hand. “Hello, Hildy,” he said.

Hildy took his hand. “Oh, hello, Stone.”

?

??May I speak with you for a moment?”

“Sure, please sit down. I’m expecting a friend, but I’m a little early.”

“Hildy, I have some information for you, but I’m going to have to ask you to give me your word that you will not discuss this with any other person.”

“All right.”

“I mean, not with your father, not with Derek Sharpe, and not with anyone else.”

She looked at him suspiciously. “Are you going to try to talk me out of seeing Derek?”

“I’m not going to try to talk you out of anything. I just have important but highly confidential information to give you.”

“All right, I promise I won’t discuss it with anyone else.”

“I’ll trust you to do that.”

“Well, what is it?

“How much do you know about Derek?”

“I know that he’s from Texas and that he had a hardscrabble childhood.”

“Wrong. He’s the son of a prosperous junk dealer, and he grew up with money.”

“Look, I don’t need this from you, Stone. This smacks of something my father would do. Are you working for him?”

“I’m telling you this of my own knowledge,” Stone said.

“I don’t care whose knowledge it is-I don’t want to hear about it. I’m a grown woman, and I can judge people for myself.”

“All right, then let me tell you something you don’t know that might help you form your own judgment.”

She sighed. “All right, and then this conversation will be over.”

“If you continue to be close to Derek for so much as another day, it is likely that you will be arrested.” That seemed to register with her, so he continued. “And it is very likely that you will end up in prison.”

She stared at him wide-eyed but said nothing.

“That’s all I have to tell you,” Stone said. “If you pass that on to Derek, someone could get killed. I would advise you to absent yourself from Derek for a few days-a death in the family, a sick friend, any excuse.”

“Derek and I are about to take a vacation,” she said. “Out of the country.”

“If you go with him, you will find yourself a fugitive from justice,” Stone said. “I tell you this only because I don’t want anything bad to happen to you. I hope you understand that.”