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“Okay,” Dino said. “You’re a working stiff who toils away on the mainland every day, and you get on the ferry to go home, and there’s a bar. You’re going to turn down a drink?”
“All right, that’s conceivable,” Stone said, “but only just. The kind of people who live on the island are not working stiffs.”
“And that kind of people don’t like a drink at the end of the day?”
“If they do, they have it at home or, maybe, at the yacht club. We need a better story.”
Nobody said anything.
11
That was a nice evening,”Vanessa said, when they had returned to Stone’s house for a nightcap. “Interesting people and conversation, even if it did seem to keep returning to John.”
“I’m told that, at NYU, he was always called Jack by those who knew him.”
“That was shortly before my time,” she said. “He introduced himself as John, so I always called him that.”
“Did you know a lot of people he knew at NYU?”
“No, I met him after he had gotten his law degree.”
“How did you meet?”
“Through one of his old professors, a man named Samuel Bernard.”
“Who was an active recruiter for the Agency over the years. Still is, for all I know. Is he how John was recruited?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that. He was Bernard’s great admirer.”
“So is everyone who knows him. He made a pass at recruiting me, but I had fallen in love with police work and was no longer a prospect. So John was already an Agency officer when you met him?”
“Yes, he had just completed his training at the Farm, which he wouldn’t talk about much. His first assignment was something at the UN—I never knew exactly what.”
“Probably something to do with the Russians,” Stone said, then he stopped himself with an idea.
“What?” she said. “You seem to have hit a roadblock.”
“Nothing much,” Stone said. “Anyway, I find you a more interesting subject than CIA recruitment.”
She kissed him lightly, and Stone’s index finger somehow came into contact with a nipple. “Nowthatwas a good idea,” she said.
He did it again, and this time with more intent. Everything was a little blurred, until they were naked in bed and had already achieved an orgasm.
“Now I feel more comfortable with you,” Vanessa said.
“I should hope so. Is there anything else I can do that would make you even more comfortable?”
“As a matter of fact, there is,” she said, pulling him down to her.
—
The following morning,they had breakfast in bed and read theTimesand watchedMorning Joe. Stone’s phone rang, and somehow he knew who it would be. Vanessa excused herself for the bathroom, and Stone picked up the phone. “Good morning, Lance.”
“I hope I haven’t caught you during an awkward moment,” Lance said.
“It’s all right. The awkward moment just went to the bathroom.”
“Something occurred to me about your old and dear friend and classmate Collins,” Lance said.
