Foreign Affairs

—

Hedy peeked over a rock and watched, astonished, as the uniforms crowded into the house. A higher ranking officer was behind them, exhorting them to get inside. She climbed over the rocks and ran toward the house, crossing the deck and catching up with the officer as he entered the house. She tapped him rudely on the shoulder, and he spun around.

“I am Hedy Kiesler. Are you looking for me?”

—

Inside, a semblance of order had been restored. “Who turned off the power?” Dante was yelling.

“We don’t know,” one of the red-jacketed waiters replied. “Perhaps one of the guards in the security post downstairs.”

“Attend to them at once!” Dante shouted.

Stone was standing behind him, looking into the living room full of people on the floor. Guido had taken the microphone again. “All women, get up and come to the elevator,” he a

Stone was watching this happen when someone took him by the shoulder and spun him around, then he caught a fist in his new nose.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Hedy said, looking appalled. “I thought you were someone else.”

Stone pulled off his latex nose. “Want another swing?” he asked, then ducked as it came.

58

Stone blocked her swing and caught her wrist, then pulled off his mustache. “Am I more familiar, now?” She started to swing again, but he caught her wrists and pi

“You miserable bastard!” Hedy shouted back. “Where have you been? I’ve been living rough outside for two nights!”

“Stop struggling, relax, and listen to me,” Stone said.

Reluctantly, she did so. “All right, explain.”

“We were unable to confirm your location until very recently.”

“That’s a lie! I told you where I was in my first text!”

“You said only that you were on a coast.”

“I said I was on the A coast!”

Stone was baffled, then he got it. “The A coast?”

“Yes!”

“I’m sorry, we didn’t get that, the big A.”

“I’ve been living under a rock. I got out of my room during the night after I talked to you on the phone.”

“That was the night we figured it out. Look, we’ll sit down tomorrow after you’ve had a bath and a good night’s sleep, and I’ll take you through everything we did to find you.”

“Are you saying I need a bath?” Her voice was rising again.

“Well, yes, don’t you think so? Just tell me what you want, Hedy, and I’ll arrange it. Just tell me.”

“All right: I want to be driven back to Rome right now. I want to go to my apartment, where I can have the bath I apparently need so much, and pack my things. I want to be on a plane for New York tomorrow afternoon. Can you handle all that?”

“Just a moment,” Stone said, and snagged the passing Dante. He explained what Hedy needed.

“All right,” Dante said. “Do you have a passport?”

Hedy looked nonplussed. “No, it’s in Paris, in my handbag, in Stone’s house.”

“All right, someone will drive you to Rome now. You’ll be picked up tomorrow morning at eleven o’clock and driven to the American Embassy, which will issue you a new passport, then you will be driven to the airport. I’ll see that you have a seat on the two PM Alitalia flight to New York, and that a ticket is waiting for you. Is that satisfactory?”

“Most satisfactory,” Hedy said.

“You must remember that you will need to return to Rome for Casselli’s trial, in a few months.”

“All right, if I have to.”

“I’ll have your things at my Paris house overnighted to New York tomorrow,” Stone said. He handed her his telephone. “Now call Arthur.”

She took the phone and walked a few steps away. “How do I call the States?” she asked. Stone gave her the code. She was apparently co

“Is there anything else I can do for you?” Stone asked.

“I’ll let you know if I think of something.”

“You have my number. Do you still have your cell phone?”

“Yes,” she said, patting her pocket. “And you wouldn’t believe where it’s been.”

Dante stepped up with his female officer. “This is Maria. She will drive you to Rome and your apartment. Are you ready to go?”

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to go,” she said. She grabbed a plate of food and a glass of wine from a kitchen counter. “Let’s go, Maria.”

Stone and Dante watched them walk to the elevator and go down. “What was that all about?” Dante asked.

“Hedy felt that we had taken too long to find her. I’ll explain it all tomorrow, if she’s speaking to me.”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Dante said. “She’s pretty angry.”

“What’s going on over there?” Stone asked. Two of his men were sitting at the dining table, speaking to one of the male guests.

“We’re identifying all the men and checking our computer for arrest warrants. At the very least, we’ll be charging them with associating with criminals—that is, Casselli and the other guests. I believe we’ll net a couple of dozen convictions from this crowd.”

Dino walked up. “What’s going on? I just saw Hedy leave with a policewoman.”

“She’s upset with me, says I didn’t do enough to find her quickly.”

Dino shook his head. “Are you ready to get out of here? I don’t think they need us anymore.”

“I’ll get someone to drive you,” Dante said.

“It’s a pity you didn’t speak up sooner,” Stone said. “We could have ridden with Hedy.”

Dino laughed. “From the look of her, she’d probably go for my gun.”

“What about your drums?”

“I gave them to Guido—they’re his problem now.”

“Viv will be so relieved.”

59

There was no one available to drive them, so they were given a car with a GPS and Dino drove.

“So, what are your plans now?” he asked Stone.

“Tomorrow, I’m going to go over the hotel plans with Marcel, and see if there’s anything else to help him with. The day after, I’m going to fly the airplane to England. I have an invitation from Felicity Devonshire. She says she’s got something she wants to show me.”

“Yeah, I’ll bet she does.”

“Something besides that.”

“What?”

“I don’t know—she says it’s a secret.”

“And you’re willing to fly to England for that?”

“It’s got to be important, or she wouldn’t have insisted I come. Anyway, it’ll be nice to see her, especially since Hedy is never going to speak to me again.”

“And after that?”

“I’ll fly the airplane back to Teterboro, via Lisbon and the Azores. I should be back by the end of the week, at the most. Are you leaving tomorrow?”

“I spoke to Viv. She’s making our travel arrangements now.”

“You might be on the airplane with Hedy,” Stone pointed out. “Dante is putting her on the Alitalia flight at two PM.”

“That’s our flight, I think.”

“If you get the opportunity, tell Hedy what we’ve been doing for the past few days, will you?”

“I’ll let Viv handle that, I think.”

“Smart move.”

It was past midnight before they were back at Marcel’s place and in their beds.

—

The following morning Stone called Felicity, and he was put through immediately by her assistant.