Stone Barrington: The Short Forever Part 44

Morgan picked up a magazine. f.u.c.k the emergency procedures, he thought. He wanted a double Scotch.

Stan Hedger left the airport in disgust, along with one of his people, and got into a waiting car. He did not notice, nor did his driver, that the car was followed by another, which kept a respectful distance.

Stone and Dino stuck it out until nearly midnight, when departures slowed dramatically, then they drove back to the Brewer's Arms.

Carpenter, Mason, and Plumber were all in the suite when they arrived. "Anything?" Carpenter asked.

"Morgan was at the airport," Stone said. "One of the security people found his discarded hat, coat, and pa.s.sport in a men's room. We covered the departures for Spain all evening, but there were too many departing flights to cover them all. What have you heard about Lance?"

"A farmer about eighty miles west of here reported that a light airplane landed and took off again at a disused RAF airfield near his house. Two local police officers found a brand-new BMW motorcycle abandoned there."

"You think it was Lance's?"

"It was wiped completely clean of fingerprints," she said, "and it was properly registered to someone in London. We're checking it out now, but who else would abandon an expensive motorbike at an old airfield and wipe off the prints?"

"I doubt if he's coming back for it," Stone said.

"The police are keeping a watch, to see if anyone picks it up."

Stone sank into a sofa. "This hasn't gone well, has it?"

Carpenter sat down next to him. "No, it hasn't, but it's not your fault; you were a big help. And you've lost all that money."

Stone raised a hand. "Please, don't mention that again."

"I'll do what I can to get you reimbursed, but I'm not very hopeful. My management are very annoyed that we've let these people get away."

"Can I give you a lift back to London?"

"I have to stay here, but I'll walk you downstairs."

They walked through the inn to the parking lot, and Dino got behind the wheel.

"I don't suppose we'll be seeing each other again," Carpenter said.

"Oh, I don't know; I might get to London, from time to time." He handed her his card. "You might even get to New York."

"Possible, I suppose. Let me give you a telephone number; memorize it, don't write it down." She gave him the number, then repeated it. "If you call that number at any hour of the day or night, you'll hear a beep; leave a message for Carpenter, and I'll get back to you when I can."

"I'm sorry about the device," he said.

"Spilt milk," she replied. "They don't have the electronics to make it work, and they don't have the software-especially the software. It will take them months, hopefully years, to figure out how to use it, and by that time we'll have something better."

Stone offered her his hand, but she snaked an arm around his neck and planted a wet kiss on his ear. "Hope I'll hear from you," she said, then she turned and walked back into the Brewer's Arms.

Stone got into the car, and Dino drove off. "Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, gone," he sighed.

Dino laughed. "And I was looking forward to a finder's fee."

As they drove back along the M4, Stone looked out at the rolling landscape. He'd heard that the road had been planned to show off the countryside. "I love this country," he said. "I feel as though I've been here forever."

"A pretty short forever," Dino replied.

58.

LANCE CABOT WOKE UP IN HIS ZURICH hotel room at noon, wakened by his travel alarm. He showered, shaved, dressed, and applied his false beard, which on inspection in the mirror, he thought very becoming. Maybe he'd better grow one, he thought, since he was going to be hot for a while, even though no one had anything on him. Stan Hedger was his only real worry; Hedger wanted him badly, and he wouldn't stop looking. He felt sorry about Erica, but he couldn't contact her for a long time, he knew.

He called Ali's room. "I'm off," he said. "As soon as the transaction is complete I'll pick you up here. Our flight to Cairo isn't until five o'clock. We'll change pa.s.sports again." He hung up.

Lance arrived at the bank on time. He gave the appropriate name to an officer and was escorted into a conference room. Two men of Middle Eastern appearance sat at the large table. They stood up when he arrived.

"There's a buzzer on the table, there," the bank officer said. "Ring when you need me."

Lance nodded and sat down.

"You have the item?" one of the men asked.

Lance set the catalogue case on the table and opened it. He handed over the device, wrapped in tissue paper.

Nervously, the man on the other side of the table tore away the paper, then held the device in his hands and weighed it. "It's very light," he said.

"Very advanced metallurgy," Lance said. "Are you ready to make the transfer?"

"How do we know this is the device you promised?"

"I would have thought that your people would have been smart enough to send someone with the skills to authenticate it."

He handed the device to his companion, who inspected it for, perhaps, two minutes, then nodded.

"All right," the first man said, "we are ready to make the transfer."

"I think, perhaps, you should put that away," Lance said, nodding at the device and pus.h.i.+ng the catalogue case across the table. When the device was safely in the case, Lance pressed the b.u.t.ton.

The bank officer returned with a file folder and sat down at the table. "Have you successfully completed your transaction?" he asked.

"We will have when the funds have been transferred," Lance said.

"I have made out the paperwork as per your instructions," the banker said. "Five million dollars to be transferred to your numbered account."

"That's correct," Lance said.

The banker laid the doc.u.ments before the two Middle Easterners. They examined them, and one of them signed.

"I'll just be a moment," the banker said. He took the doc.u.ments and left the room.

Lance sat and looked at the two men, who impa.s.sively returned his gaze. No one said anything.

Presently, the banker returned. "Gentlemen, your transaction is complete."

The two men rose and left the room without a word.

"Will there be anything else, sir?" the banker asked Lance.

Lance thought for a moment. "Yes," he replied.

Ted Cricket stood in a light rain outside the Guinea pub and restaurant, in a mews off Berkeley Square. It was nearly eleven o'clock. The door to the restaurant opened, and Cricket stepped back into the shadows and looked around. The mews was empty.

Hedger left the restaurant alone, weaving a little, and started up the mews toward Berkeley Square. He walked right past Cricket, no more than six feet away.

Cricket stepped from the shadows, reached out, cupped a hand over Hedger's mouth, and ran the slim blade into his back, thrusting upward. Hedger's knees gave way, and when Cricket released him, he collapsed onto the wet cobblestones.

Cricket looked up and down the mews again; empty. He rolled Hedger over, switched on a tiny flashlight, and shone it into Hedger's face. He was still alive. "This is for Bobby Jones," Cricket said. He placed the knife point on Hedger's chest, over the heart, shoved it through the flesh, twisted it ninety degrees, and pulled it out, wiping the blade on Hedger's fine Savile Row jacket. Hedger coughed up some blood, then was still.

Cricket walked up the mews into Berkeley Square, then around the square and into the warren of streets that was Mayfair. He waited until he reached Park Lane before hailing a taxi.

The telephone was ringing as Stone let himself into the house.

"h.e.l.lo?"

"It's Sarah," she said. "I'm at Monica's gallery; Erica is here, and she's very upset."

"Bring her here for the night," Stone replied. "Don't take her back to the Farm Street house for any reason."

"What's going on?" Sarah asked.

"I don't want to tell you on the phone," Stone said. "Get here as soon as you can; I'll wait up for you."

The two women arrived in a rush, carrying Erica's luggage.

"I moved out of the house," Erica said. "It seemed very strange with Lance not there, and I was hearing clicking noises on the phone."

"You did the right thing," Stone replied. "I think you should fly back to New York tomorrow."

"It seems the only thing to do," Erica said.

"Stone, what is going on?" Sarah demanded.

"Lance has been involved in some sort of smuggling, I think, and they're looking for him."

"Who's looking for him?"

"Just about everybody."

"Good G.o.d."

"I'm going home tomorrow, too," he said. "Dino, will you call British Airways and book the three of us on the Concorde?" He still had some of Stan Hedger's money.

Dino went into the kitchen to use the phone.

"Why don't you get Erica to bed?" Stone asked Sarah. "I'm pretty bushed myself."

By the time Sarah crawled into bed with him, he was out.

59.

STONE AND DINO WERE HAVING BREAKFAST when the doorbell rang. Stone answered it, to find Detective Inspector Evelyn Throckmorton standing there with another officer, looking grim.

"Good morning," Stone said.

"No, it isn't," Throckmorton replied, brus.h.i.+ng past him and walking into the drawing room. "Come in here and sit down."

"I was about to call you; how on earth did you find me here?" Stone asked.

"I had Miss Burroughs followed," Throckmorton replied, "and my people weren't the only ones doing so. Where is she?"

"Upstairs, asleep," Stone replied.

"No, I'm not," Erica said from the doorway.

Stone introduced her to the two men.

"I have only a few questions for you, Miss Burroughs," Throckmorton said, and he proceeded to ask them. Ten minutes of grilling her produced nothing, and he told her she could go.

"Get some breakfast," Stone said to her. "I'll be a few minutes."

"Well, Barrington," Throckmorton said, "you've certainly managed to mix in a number of things, haven't you?"

"I suppose I have," Stone replied.

"How about Stanford Hedger's death; did you mix in that?"

Stone had no trouble looking surprised. "He's dead?"

"Knifed outside a Mayfair restaurant late last evening."

"I saw him at Heathrow earlier in the evening," Stone said, "and he was perfectly fine."