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“Hey. How you doing?”
“Not so good,” Stone said. “A woman tried to kill Dino and me at Clarke’s last night, and she seriously injured a detective after Dino had her arrested.”
“Good God! You’d better stay away from women.”
“That’s too difficult a cure,” Stone said. “Dino and I were just talking about abandoning New York for a bit. He wants to talk to Viv about it when she gets home tonight. Are you up for more travel?”
“Where did you have in mind?”
“At the moment, the choices are L.A. or Key West.”
“I’ve never been to Key West.”
“Have you been talking to your ex-husband?”
“Nope. Haven’t heard a word.”
“Try and keep it that way, until we figure this out.”
“Okay.”
“Not a word to anybody.”
“I swear.”
“I’ll call you when Dino has talked to Viv.”
“I’ll stay by the phone.” The both hung up.
“Vanessa is good to go—just about anywhere, I think.”
They were nearly ready for dinner when Viv called Dino, and they chatted for a while. Dino hung up. “Viv is good for Key West, but she’d like to wait until the day after tomorrow, so she can clear her head of the jet lag.”
“Okay, wheels up at tenamthe day after tomorrow.”
“You’re on,” Dino said.
Stone called Vanessa and gave her the news, and she was on board for the trip.
“We’ll snatch you off the curb at nineamsharp, day after tomorrow,” he said.
“I’ll be there.”
Stone called Joan and asked her to alert Faith and her crew, then Dino turned their attention to dinner, which Fred was serving.
—
Stone packed lightly,then got into the car to pick up the Bacchettis and Vanessa, who lived in the same building. When he arrived, Vanessa’s luggage was sitting under the building’s awning, and he asked her doorman to load it into the Bentley. Viv and Dino appeared and loaded up.
Stone went to see the doorman at the desk. “Heard from Ms. Morgan?” he asked the man.
“No, sir. I brought her bags down, but that was fifteen minutes ago.”
“Call her, please.”
The doorman rang her apartment, waited, then hung up. “No reply, Mr. Barrington.”
Stone went and got Dino. “Get the doorman to give you a key to Vanessa’s apartment.” Dino did so, and they took the elevator to her floor. They stepped into the vestibule outside her door.
