situation.'
'But if I just forget about Libby and the agreement and the check, and if I tell you, my lawyer, to forget about it, then…'
'Then you can keep your four hundred thousand dollars, and the ethical requirements of the attorney-client relationship would prevent me from disclosing any of this to Libby's heirs.'
'Did you tell anyone else in the world about that agreement?'
'No. Thomas witnessed it, though.'
'Did he read it?'
'No. If someone subpoenaed him and questioned him in court, he could testify that he witnessed a document, but he could not say what it contained.'
'Then from a legal point of view, my position is airtight, isn't it?'
'I'll put it this way: if someone, a relative, an heir, a lawyer, turned up here or in Greenwich and tried to press a claim against you or the estate, he would have no grounds on which to proceed. No grounds that I'm aware of, anyway.'
'So I have no legal obligation to Libby's heirs?'
'Yes, you do have such an obligation, but it is unknown to anyone outside the attorney-client relationship, and if it were known it would very probably be unenforceable, unless someone had a copy of the agreement. You also have a moral obligation, but whether or not you meet it would depend on the condition of your morals.'
'So you're advising me to pay the money to her heirs, if they exist.'
'As your attorney, I am required to make you aware of your obligations under the agreement that you signed.'
'But you can't make me meet those obligations.'
'No, I can't. Probably no one can.'
'The condition of my morals,' she said, thinking about that. 'What about the condition of your morals?'
Stone blinked. 'What?'
'You've got a woman back in New York, or in L.A., or wherever the hell she is, and you're supposed to be in love with her, but you come down to the islands and jump the first widow you lay eyes on, right?' She didn't wait for him to answer. 'And you're a lawyer who's fucking his client, not that I'm complaining. Is there some canon of legal ethics that covers that?'
Stone felt his ears getting hot. 'Not the first part of your contention,' he said, aware that he was sounding legalistic and officious, but unable to help himself, 'but as to the second part, as far as I'm concerned, there is no ethical requirement for me not to fuck you, unless my fucking you would somehow react to the detriment of your legal position.'
She burst out laughing.
'I don't think that's particularly funny,' he said, knowing how ridiculous he must have sounded.
'Oh, yes, it is!' she shrieked. 'It's the funniest thing I ever heard in my life.' She began to get herself under control again. 'It's also very sweet,' she said, wiping the tears from her cheeks, 'and I love you for it.' She moved closer to him and placed a hand on his face. 'I know now, if I didn't before, that I have the most legally and ethically proper attorney in the world.' She kissed him. 'And you just cannot imagine how that turns me on.'
She continued to kiss him, then she showed him how turned on she was.
Later, when Allison was asleep, Stone walked back to the Shipwright's Arms and called Bob Cantor.
'Hello.'
'It's Stone. Thanks for the divorce decree.'
'No problem.'
'I'd like to dig up some more information on Elizabeth Allison Manning. It's probably going to be best to find a reliable PI in Palm Beach and let him spend a day on it.'
'Okay; what, specifically, do you want to know?'
'Next of kin, other relatives.'
'Has Ms.Manning clutched her chest and turned blue?'
'Worse. Plane crash, this morning.'
'I see.'
'Don't break the news to anybody you find; we'll let the official channels do that.' 'Gotcha.'
Stone hung up, walked back to the marina, undressed, and crawled into bed with Allison, who was glad to see him.
CHAPTER 32
Stone sat in his rented room over the Shipwright's Arms, staring at the screen of his computer, trying to write an opening statement for Allison's trial, even though he knew that Leslie Hewitt intended to open himself. He felt that he had to be ready with something if Leslie should suddenly veer off into one of his lapses. He had nearly finished a draft when there was a knock on the door.
'Stone,' Thomas's voice called from the hallway.
'Come in, Thomas.'
Thomas opened the door. 'There're two policemen downstairs wanting you; they wouldn't tell me what it was about, but they took my guest registration forms for the past week.'
Stone saved his document and shut down the computer. 'Let's see what they want,' he said. He followed Thomas downstairs to the open-air bar where two starched and pressed black officers waited. 'I'm Stone Barrington, gentlemen,' he said. 'What can I do for you?'
The taller of the two nodded at an elderly Jaguar in the parking lot. 'You must come with us, Mr.Barrington,' he said.
'Where are we going?' Stone asked.
'In the car, please.'
'Am I under arrest?'
'Get in the car,' the man repeated.
Thomas spoke quietly. 'Do it; I'll find out where they take you.'
Stone walked toward the car without another word. The shorter officer held the rear door open for him, closed it after him, and got into the driver's seat; his tall companion sat up front, too. The car pulled out of the lot and headed inland, toward the capital.
'Where are we going?' Stone asked.
'Government House,' the tall officer said. 'You in a lot of trouble, man.'
Stone remembered that the jail was in the basement of Government House. 'What kind of trouble?'
'You see pretty quick,' the man said.
The remainder of the journey passed in silence. Stone wracked his brain for some notion of what they could be arresting him for, but the only motivation he could come up with was that he was representing Allison Manning. Perhaps in St.Marks that was enough.
Eventually, the car entered the little city and drove to its center, passing the front door of Government House and going to the side, to the jail door. Stone got out of the car and, with an officer on each side of him, to the door. The booking desk was dead ahead. wondered what, if anything, Thomas could do about this.
'This way,' the tall officer said.
Stone turned to his left and found the officer holding led to a flight of stairs. He followed the up two stories, with the short officer bringing up the emerged into a long, broad hallway, cooled by row of ceiling fans and open to the air at each end, a to the British desire to remain cool in hot places. The building seemed deserted. They marched to the end of the hall, through a set of double doors, and into a waiting room.
'Wait here,' the tall officer said, then went through another door.
Stone looked around him. It was a large room, furnished with well-worn leather furniture, and on the wall was a large portrait of the prime minister, a benevolent-looking man who, Stone guessed, had been in his mid-seventies when he had sat for the portrait. He wondered how long ago that was.
