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“Prince isn’t going to buy it,” Stone said, “unless he can come up with two hundred twenty-five million dollars by noon, Friday, and I hear his backing has fallen through. But there’s another buyer in line, same terms.” He explained about Carolyn Blaine and Eleanor Grosvenor.
“Well, I’m glad I don’t have to sell it to Prince,” Arrington said.
“Now you have to decide whether to sell it to Mrs. Grosvenor. She wants to build the hotel, and Ms. Blaine wants to run the project.”
Mike spoke up. “Does Mrs. Grosvenor have enough money to handle that?” he asked.
“Not without other backers.”
“Stone,” Arrington said, “let me ask you one question, then you can make the decision.”
“All right.”
“Given everything we know about Mrs. Grosvenor, do you want to be in business with her?”
“Absolutely not,” Stone replied. “And I don’t want to be in business with Carolyn Blaine, either.” He explained her apparent background and current legal situation.
“Good God!” Arrington said. “These two women are Bonnie and Bonnie.”
“They’re also Clyde and Clyde,” Stone said.
“Let me ask you a question, Arrington,” Mike said. “If I could put together a syndicate of my clients to finance the project, would you like to be in the hotel business?”
Arrington thought about that for a moment. “As long as I could have a house on the property, yes,” she said. “Stone, do you agree that it would be a good business move?”
“Without a doubt,” Stone said. “You might even invest some of the proceeds of the sale of the land in the new venture.”
“Well
, then,” Arrington said, “all we have to do is wait for Terrence Prince to default on Friday. The Bonnies and Clydes can take a walk.”
58
Stone arrived for breakfast the following morning to be greeted with a front-page story in the Los Angeles Times about Terry Prince, starting with the Centurion meeting, continuing with his arrest, and finally, with his being released on five million dollars bail, cash.
Dino came to the table, and Stone tossed him the paper. “You were right, pal. Prince is on the loose again.”
Dino glanced through the piece. “So he had at least five million cash. I wonder how much he has left.”
“I expect Carolyn knows what she’s talking about when she says he can’t swing the property deal by himself. She’s been his closest associate for some time, now, and I’d be very surprised if she didn’t have a copy of his financial statement.” Stone looked at his watch. “Ed Eagle will have his DNA sample pretty soon.”
“Yeah, and if Carolyn is taken out of the equation and Prince can’t swing the deal, then you’re left with Mrs. Grosvenor to deal with. That’s gonna be fun.”
“Don’t remind me,” Stone said. “Anyway, we’ve now got Strategic Services to step into the deal.”
“Yeah, and you know if you get into bed with Mike Freeman, you’re not going to wake up with his fangs in your neck.”
“That’s a comforting thought, Dino. I hadn’t thought of Mrs. Grosvenor having fangs, but…” His cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“It’s Carolyn Blaine,” she said. “Have you heard that Terry is out on bail?”
“It’s all over the papers,” Stone said.
“I want you to know that he will not be able to close the deal.”
“Well, we’ll just have to wait until noon Friday to see, won’t we?”
“We can be making other plans in the meantime,” she said.
