Cold Paradise

“Do they know about you, or just me?” Ma

“I don’t know, but I can get Thad to tell me. Don’t worry, I can deal with Thad. He’ll believe whatever I tell him.”

Stone looked at Thad. He looks worse than I do, he thought.

“The money is already in the Caymans,” Ma

“All right,” Allison said. “I hear a gurney. They’re coming for you.”

“Better get out of here and back to Shames.”

“I love you,” she said.

Thad stepped over to the curtain and drew it back. Allison spun around and looked at her husband and the other two men. It took her only a moment to recover. “Thad! Thank God you’re here!”

“Hello, Liz,” he said. “Or, perhaps I should say, Allison.”

“Did you hear all that?” she asked. “Paul is crazy, you know. I was trying to find out what he did with your two million dollars.”

Dino left the cubicle.

“Were you?” Thad asked. “Well, I guess you found out, didn’t you? It’s in the Cayman Islands, and you know the account number.”

“Thad…”

Thad held up a hand. “Don’t. You’ll just embarrass us both.”

Dino returned with Dan Griggs and the Houston detective, Fritz Parker.

“Mrs., ah, Shames, I guess it is,” Griggs said. “You’re going to have to come with me. This detective has some questions he’d like to ask you, and I have a few, myself.”

Allison looked at Thad. “You’ve got to help me,” she said.

“I don’t see how I can,” Thad replied. Then he turned and walked away.

“Stone,” she said, “you’ve got to represent me. I need your help.”

“You don’t need me, Allison,” Stone said. “You can afford the very best. Paul probably has a phone number in his pocket.”

“Please, please,” she begged.

“Goodbye, Allison,” Stone said. “I expect I’ll see you in court.”

They led her away, then Griggs came back. “We took a nine-millimeter away from Ma

Stone thought about that for a moment, then he shook his head and closed his eyes.

“We didn’t recover the slug.”

Good, Stone thought.

“I understand there was some sort of scuffle in the garden after Ma

Stone opened his eyes. “A drunken guest,” he said. Apparently Griggs thought he’d been shot by Ma

Stone was comfortable in a reclining seat on the G IV. His arm was still numb, and he was still in a slight morphine haze.

Callie put a pillow behind his head. “Anything else I can do for you?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, “but not right now. Could I have a telephone, please?”

“I’ll get you one.”

Stone looked at his watch. Just past seven a.m. He had been taken to the airplane on a stretcher, but he had managed to walk up the airstair steps on his own. Callie had packed his clothes. They had been in the air for half an hour, and Dino was dozing across the aisle.

Callie brought him the phone. “After your call, you should get some sleep.”

“Have you got the phone number for the Breakers Hotel?” he asked.

She took the phone, dialed the number for him, handed the phone back and walked back toward the front of the airplane.

“The Breakers,” an operator said.

“Please co

“One moment.” The phone began ringing.

“Hello,” a sleepy voice said.

Stone thought for a second, then pressed the off button on the phone.

Dino stirred and turned toward Stone. “Who was that?” he asked.

“Good question,” Stone said.

“Why did you hang up?”

“Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?”

“When?”

“When a man answers.”