“I like the good stuff.”
“When are you going to retire, Dino?” Arrington asked.
“Retire from the NYPD? What would I do for fun?” he replied.
Manolo showed Mike Freeman out to the pool, arm in arm with Charlene Joiner. “Miss Joiner and I have just met,” he said. “I’m a big fan.”
“Isn’t he sweet?” Charlene said.
Stone introduced Arrington and Charlene. Each eyed the other up and down as they shook hands.
“Arrington,” Mike said, “everything is in hand for your airplane purchase. The insurance has been arranged, and we’ll have the pre-purchase inspection finished tomorrow. I’ve faxed the sales agreement to Woodman amp; Weld for their approval. Everything seems to be in perfect order.”
“Perfect order is what I like,” Arrington said.
Rick and Glenna Barron arrived and received champagne.
Rick raised his glass. “To a new day at Centurion, with a long life ahead.” They all drank.
They were about to sit down for dinner when Manolo came to Stone and whispered, “There’s a Mister Harvey Stein on the phone for you. He said it was urgent.”
“I’ll take it in the guesthouse,” Stone said. “Please excuse me for a moment, everybody.” He went into the guesthouse living room, picked up the phone, and pressed the lighted button. “Harvey?”
“Stone, I’m sorry to have to call you in the evening, but I’ve just had a call from Parker Center. Jim Long is on his way to the hospital.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“There was some sort of fight among several inmates in the dining hall during the supper hour, and Jim was knifed with a homemade shank.”
“How is he?”
“He’s lost a lot of blood, and he’s about to lose a kidney, but he’s hanging on.”
“Is he in the prison hospital?”
“The warden has agreed to move him to Cedars-Sinai for the surgery. He’s in the ambulance now. I’m meeting him at the hospital.”
“You’d better arrange some personal security for him,” Stone said.
“Why? Nobody’s going to knife him at Cedars-Sinai, and anyway, there’ll be a cop outside his door.”
“Harvey, does anybody besides you, me, and Long know that he’s agreed to sell us his shares in Centurion?”
“Why no… well, possibly.”
“Who?”
“Terry Prince’s attorney phoned this afternoon to try and buy the shares. I was out of the office and an associate took the call. It’s possible that he might have spoken out of turn. Surely, you don’t think that Prince is responsible for this.”
“Did you read the piece in the L.A. Times about the death of Eddie Harris’s daughter, Jennifer?”
“Yes, I saw it. Was she going to sell you her shares?”
“No, but she was going to vote with us.”
“Oh, shit. I had no idea.”
“Did you talk to Jim today?” Stone asked.
“Yes, he called my cell and gave me the combination to his safe at Centurion. I went over there and picked up the share certificate; that’s why I was out of the office.”
“Where is the certificate now?”
“At the office, in my safe.”
“I don’t suppose Jim had an opportunity to sign it.”
“No, I was going to see him tomorrow morning.”
“Well, Harvey, I think you’d better get a couple of armed guards over there. A cop napping outside the door isn’t going to make him safe.”
“I’ll do that right away.”
“And Harvey?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t want to sound callous, but the best thing you can do to keep Jim safe is to get him to sign that certificate at the earliest possible moment-tonight, if possible. And let Prince’s attorney know about it.”
“I see your point; I’ll do what I can.”
Stone gave him his cell number. “Please call me when you have his signature. The sales documents will be in your fax machine when you get to your office tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll do that,” Stein said.
Stone hung up, then stood and thought for a moment. There was no point in telling the others about this at the moment, he decided. Why ruin the dinner party? He turned to find Dino standing in the doorway.
“Everybody’s sitting down. Everything okay?”
“Not exactly,” Stone said. “Jim Long got himself shanked in some sort of fight at Metro Jail.”
“Dead?”
“Bleeding. He’s on his way to Cedars-Sinai to have a kidney removed.”
“Any chance he’s going to live to make the sale?”
“His lawyer is taking the stock certificate to the hospital for his signature. He realizes that Long won’t be safe until the stock comes to us.”
“Well, Charlene has already got security in place, but what about Arrington?”
“I think I’d better talk with Mike Freeman about that,” Stone said. “Strategic Services has a Los Angeles office.”
“Prince has a long reach, doesn’t he?”
“You could say that,” Stone replied. “We’re at three bodies, two of them dead, and counting.”
They rejoined the party, but everyone had already taken seats at the table, so Stone would have to wait until after dinner before speaking to Mike about Arrington’s security.
26
The party continued merrily until nearly midnight, very late for L.A., where movie people rose at dawn and headed to their shoots. As everyone began to drift out, Stone took Mike Freeman aside.
“Mike, that phone call I took before dinner was not good news. One of the Centurion shareholders whose stock we need to acquire to keep the studio from being sold was shanked in jail earlier this evening and is having a kidney removed at Cedars-Sinai.”
“Is he going to make it?” Mike asked.
“I don’t know; he’s lost a lot of blood. What I’m concerned about now is Arrington’s safety, since she’s the largest Centurion stockholder.”
“You think this fellow Prince is behind the stabbing?”
“Two other people, one a stockholder and the other her assassin, are already dead. Can your L.A. office arrange some security for Arrington, starting immediately?”
“I’ll take care of it right away,” Mike said, reaching for his cell phone. “Let’s see, we’ll need a man inside the front gate, one inside the house, near Arrington’s bedroom, and three patrolling the grounds. Is it fenced the whole way around?”
Stone beckoned Manolo, who was clearing the dining table.
“Yes, Mr. Stone?”
“Manolo, does the wrought-iron fence go all the way around the property?”
“Yes, sir, and, it’s all on the alarm system.”
“I’ll need to take a look at the system,” Mike said.
“Manolo,” Stone said, “Mr. Freeman is going to arrange for security guards to come to the house tonight.
