“Her, I know,” Dino said.
“You’ll like them.”
“I’m prepared to.”
They had a drink before dinner in the Bel-Air bar.
“I heard a rumor that Terry Prince is going to build a new hotel in Bel-Air on your client’s property,” Eagle said.
“In his dreams,” Stone replied. He told Ed about the hang-up on the Centurion deal.
“Would she really sell?”
“I haven’t had a firm answer from her, but it’s possible, I think.”
“You think such a hotel could compete with this one?”
“I’ve no idea,” Stone said, “but Terry Prince thinks so, and he’s willing to bet a ton of money on his judgment.”
“His own money?”
“That, I don’t know, but his assistant, Carolyn Blaine, thinks it is.”
“Is that the blonde I saw here at the Bel-Air reopening party?”
“Yes. I was going to introduce her to you, but she vanished.”
“I thought she looked familiar,” Eagle said. “Now I remember why.”
“Why?”
“She reminds me a little of a woman who lived in Santa Fe for a while. She worked for a client of mine named Hanks, a pro golfer.”
“Sure, I know who he is. He’s doing very well on the tour this year, isn’t he?”
“He is. But last year, this young woman embezzled something like seven hundred thousand dollars from his bank accounts, then vanished.”
Stone’s eyebrows went up. “And you think Carolyn is that woman?”
“I’m not sure,” Eagle said, “but there’s something about her. The one in Santa Fe wasn’t a blonde.”
“That’s very interesting, Ed, because I ran a background check on her, and Carolyn Blaine doesn’t exist. I even got her fingerprints and ran those, but nothing came up. She’s a blank sheet of paper.”
“That is very interesting,” Eagle said.
“What was her name?”
“I can’t for the life of me remember, but it wouldn’t matter, anyway, because that name was probably an alias, too.”
“Is anybody looking for her?”
“We made all the proper complaints to the authorities, but she seems to have covered her tracks completely. The stolen funds were wired to offshore accounts, but they were unable to trace her through those. I think she may even have been involved in some way with my ex-wife, Barbara.”
“Whatever happened to Barbara?” Stone asked.
Eagle and Susannah exchanged a meaningful glance. “Well,” he said, “she made another attempt on my life last year, and it nearly worked. I was hospitalized for a spell.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“Yes, I do; she’s in San Francisco, remarried, and a hot number on the social circuit there.”
“But shouldn’t she be in prison? Wasn’t she convicted of something?”
“She got off on a charge of trying to kill me in L.A., but she was wanted in Mexico for attempted murder, and I and a couple of P.I. s tricked her into crossing the border and got her arrested there. She was doing time in a Mexican prison when she escaped and made her way back to this country. You won’t believe what happened next.”
“Try me.”
“Her most recent husband, a very rich man, died in a car crash on a freeway north of Palo Alto, and he left a will limiting her to a monthly stipend and the use of an apartment in San Francisco. Some lawyer heard something in a country club locker room to the effect that her husband’s attorney had forged the part of the will cutting her out, and he managed to get it overturned, so she inherited everything, more than a billion dollars. She used some of her money to buy herself a pardon in Mexico, and now she’s as free as a bird.”
“I don’t believe it!” Stone said.
“I said you wouldn’t.”
“And there’s nothing you can do about the attempt on your life?”
“The only witness against her, the contract hit man she hired, was murdered-we think she did that, too.” Eagle looked at Susannah again. “I was so angry I flew to San Francisco to deal with her myself, but at the last minute, Susannah talked me out of it.”
“He just needed time to cool off,” Susannah said.
“If not for Susannah, I would probably be in prison myself by now,” Eagle said.
“You’re no good to me in prison,” Susannah said.
“That was her argument, and I couldn’t contest it.”
“You’re a wise woman, Susannah,” Stone said.
“I know,” she replied.
They went in to dinner.
Later, as they were waiting for the valets to bring around Stone’s car, Stone said, “Ed, I’m going to see what else, if anything, I can find out about Carolyn Blaine, or whoever she is.”
“I’d like it if you’d keep in touch about that,” Eagle replied. “She has a lot to answer for, and my client is out a lot of money.”
“I don’t want to blow her out of the water just yet, as she’s being very useful to me in dealing with Terry Prince.”
“I understand,” Eagle said. “Something else: she may be responsible for the murder of my client’s wife.”
Stone’s eyebrows went up. “A murderer, too?”
“My client was initially charged, but evidence was found that the last person his wife was in bed with was a woman, not a man. Your Ms. Blaine may be a lesbian, or at least bisexual.”
“Maybe that explains why I’m not attracted to her,” Stone said. “God knows, she’s beautiful.”
“Well, Stone,” Eagle said, “it’s nice to know there’s a woman somewhere you’re not attracted to.”
“It’s a first,” Dino said.
Stone’s car came, he and Eagle shook hands, and he and Dino drove home.
42
The following day, Saturday, Stone and Dino, with nothing else to do, drove out to Malibu for lunch. They found a nice little Italian restaurant in the shopping area and shared a bottle of wine.
After lunch they left the restaurant and began to wander among the neat rows of boutiques.
“Sighting at four o’clock,” Dino said.
Stone swiveled to four o’clock and his eyes came to rest upon Carolyn Blaine, window-shopping about thirty yards away. It was the first time he had seen her casually dressed, in shorts and a Polo shirt. He was about to approach her when another very attractive older woman got there first, and after a brief greeting they embraced in a way that got Stone’s attention.
“That,” Dino said, “was done the way it’s usually done with a man.”
“I noticed that, too,” Stone said.
The two women began walking among the shops, their hands occasionally touching in an affectionate way. At one moment, the older woman’s hand came in firm contact with Carolyn’s ass and remained there for a long moment, finishing with a squeeze.
“The plot thickens,” Dino said.
Hanging well back, the two continued to follow the women until they came to a parked Rolls-Royce, its engine idling. A driver in a suit leapt out and opened the rear door for them. Then, apparently having been
