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James Long was shown into the room by a guard and had his handcuffs removed. He was a tall, slender man in his fifties with graying hair and the start of a beard. He was wearing the standard orange jumpsuit. They shook hands.
“Mr. Barrington? Harvey Stein said you were coming to talk to me. I’m glad to see you; it’s good to talk to anybody besides my cellmate.”
“I understand,” Stone replied. “I hope you’re being treated well.”
“Not especially,” Long said. “I’m in here, not because I’ve committed a crime, but because they want me to rat out my friend Barbara Eagle. Funny thing is, I don’t have any knowledge of what they say she did. All I did was meet her in Mexico and fly her to Yuma, where she left us. In the process, she, of course, met my pilot, and it’s that introduction that they’re holding me on as an accessory. Somebody murdered him in his home, so he can’t back me up.”
“I hear Barbara escaped from jail down there,” Stone said.
“I didn’t know that. She called and asked me to meet her in Acapulco, and I did. We spent a couple of days there, then came back to this country. I don’t even know where she went after Yuma. In any case, she’s managed to get herself a pardon in Mexico, so she’s not wanted for anything. The LAPD has gone nuts over this business, and she’s not even in L.A.; she’s in San Francisco.”
“Has your attorney explained all this to the D.A.?”
“Of course he has, but they don’t want to listen to the truth; they just want a witness against Barbara. Harvey is filing for a writ of habeas corpus to get me out.”
“Well, good luck. In the meantime I have some good news. A client of mine is interested in buying your shares in Centurion Studios.”
“What is he offering?”
“It’s a she, and she’s offering twenty-five hundred dollars a share.”
“Yeah, I heard about Terry Prince’s takeover attempt of the studio. I’ll bet he’d give me more than twenty-five hundred.”
“Twenty-five hundred is his current offer, and I have some reason to believe that the deal is not going to work out for him, and if that happens, then his current offer disappears, so your shares might be worth quite a lot less.”
“Yeah, so you say.”
“It’s up to you, Mr. Long: you can accept my client’s offer or stick with Prince and take a chance of losing a lot of money on your shares. It’s up to you.”
Long fidgeted in his seat. “Oh, hell, all right; I’d rather be on Rick Barron’s side in all this, anyway.”
“Rick has asked me to give you his regards and to thank you for selling to us. This way, you’ll still have a studio to go back to when you get out of here. If Prince got his hands on the property, it would have made it impossible for Centurion to continue as they have.”
“All right, how do we go about this?”
“Where are your share certificates?”
“In my office safe at Centurion.”
“Does your attorney have the combination?”
“I’ll give it to him when I see him; he’s coming tomorrow.”
“I’ll see that he gets the sales documents to sign, so he can bring them with him. He asked me to tell you to call him as soon as you can.”
“I’ll try to call him this afternoon, if I can get to the phone. There’s always a line.”
“I’ll have the documents faxed to him from New York first thing tomorrow morning. They’re already closed for the day.”
“I’m sure that will be fine. When will I get the money?”
“As soon as Harvey sends me the signed documents, I’ll have it wired to your bank account. We might be able to manage it tomorrow, certainly the day after.”
“Good.” Long stood up and rapped on the door. The guard came in and cuffed him. “Nice to meet you,” Long said.
“I hope you get your writ,” Stone said.
Dino was waiting on the front steps when Stone emerged from the building. “How’d it go?”
