Strategic Moves (Stone Barrington 19)

“Mike called me yesterday and declined to be involved in the situation I outlined to him.”

“Good. That was my advice.”

“Actually, that situation was entirely hypothetical, designed to test Freeman’s willingness to be involved with us. I expect we’ll find other ways for him and his company to be useful to us.”

“You were never able to get Jim Hackett to play ball with you, were you, Lance?” Stone was guessing now.

“That was a different time. Jim is gone now.”

“Well, you should expect Mike Freeman to treat your offers with equal skepticism.”

“I certainly hope not, Stone, for your sake as well as his.”

Stone was rendered speechless by this remark, and by the time he recovered himself, Lance had hung up. Stone went back to the living room.

“You don’t look very happy,” she said.

“I had a business phone call at a time when I didn’t want one,” Stone replied. “How about a walk? I’ll show you around.”

Adele went to get her coat and boots, while Stone tried to put Lance Cabot out of his mind.

FOURTEEN

They walked along the water, carefully picking their way over rocks on the shore. The harbor was empty of boats, and the Tarratine Yacht Club was closed and shuttered.

“It’s beautifully desolate, isn’t it?” Adele said.

“Well-chosen words.”

“I like it that you brought me up here,” she said. “Most men would have taken me south to someplace warm.”

“I wanted you all to myself,” Stone said. “Up here I don’t have to compete with your friends and the tourists and the shops for your attention.”

“You have my undivided attention,” she said, squeezing his hand.

They were gone an hour, and when they returned Mary made them hot buttered rum, and that warmed them up.

At dinnertime Mary had managed to produce lobster Thermidor, and they ate it with a bottle of good white Burgundy from Dick Stone’s cellar.

Back in the living room, Adele stood at the window and watched the moon rising. “Are these windows tinted?” she asked. “The moon is a funny color.”

“Let me tell you about the house,” Stone said. “My cousin Dick was a lifelong employee of the Central Intelligence Agency, something I didn’t know until shortly before his death. Dick finally got the job he’d wanted all his life, deputy director for operations, but he died before he could assume the office. When he built the house, the Agency, in consideration of Dick’s importance to it, added many security features, among them thick, armored glass in all the windows. That’s why the moon’s color may seem a little odd.”

“Dick Stone was from your mother’s side of the family?”

“Yes, he was her brother’s son.”

“How did he die?”

“He was murdered, along with his wife and daughter.”

Adele looked shocked. “Was this in connection with his work?”

“No, it was a family matter. Say, can I show you the bedroom?”

She laughed and kissed him. “I’d love to see it,” she said.

He led her upstairs, and they helped each other undress, then plunged under the eiderdown duvet and clung to each other for warmth.