“None in our files.”
“Chief, why don’t you and I take a walk through the house. Liz, Thad, will you excuse us for a couple of minutes?”
“Of course,” they said together.
Stone and the chief left the room, and Stone led him toward the stairs. “Let’s take a look up here.”
Griggs followed him, but at the top, stopped. “I’ve already walked through here with Mrs. Harding,” he said.
“I know,' Stone replied, ”but I wanted to make you aware of a situation.“
“Go right ahead,” Griggs said.
“Mrs. Harding was formerly married to a man named Paul Manning, a well-known writer. Her name was Allison Manning, at the time.”
“Why’d she change it to Elizabeth?”
“To get away from Manning.”
“And you think he did this?”
“Very possibly. The photographs on the mantel were of Mrs. Harding and her late husband. Looks like a jealous rage to me.”
Griggs nodded and wrote something in his notebook. “Mr. Barrington, your name is familiar. Were you ever on the police force in New York?”
Stone nodded. “For fourteen years.”
“I’ve got it,” the chief said. “The Sasha Nijinsky case.”
“That’s right. I retired about that time; disability.”
“You look pretty healthy to me.”
“Bullet in the knee.”
“Hope you got the son of a bitch.”
“My partner did.”
“Allison Manning,” the chief mused. “Something about an island?”
“That’s right. She was accused of murdering her husband, but, of course, he wasn’t dead.”
“Saw something about it on
“Yes. It got a lot of press at the time.”
“You’re a pretty high-profile lawyer up there, aren’t you?”
“Not when I can help it.”
“You got a card?”
Stone handed him one, and he pocketed it. “About this Paul Manning. You think we’re going to hear from him again?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“You think he might harm Mrs. Harding?”
“That’s a possibility.”
“I’ll look into it.”
“Chief, I hope you’ll keep all this background information in confidence. I’m sure Mrs. Harding wouldn’t want people to connect her with a past incident that was very traumatic for her.”
“We have a lot of well-known people in Palm Beach, and I run a very discreet department,” Griggs said.
“I’m sure you do, and I appreciate your discretion.”
“Can we go back downstairs, now?”
“Yes, I just wanted to discuss all this with you privately.”
They started down the stairs.
“Tell you what,” Griggs said. “I’ll put a man on the house for a while. Nobody’ll notice him, not even Mrs. Harding.”
“I’d be grateful for that,” Stone said.
“Of course, I can’t keep people on this forever, if nothing happens.”
“I understand completely. I’m going to suggest to Mr. Shames that he invite Mrs. Harding to stay at his house. He’s going out of town for a while, but I’m sure his staff could make her comfortable there.”
“Good idea,” Griggs said.
“Maybe your man could stay in the house?”
“With Mrs. Harding’s permission, sure.”
“I’ll have a word with her.”
They reached the study.
“Liz is going to come back to the house with me,” Shames said. “She’ll stay with us, at least until I get back from the Coast”
“Good idea,” Stone said. “Liz, the chief would like to have one of his men stay in the house. Is that all right?”
“Oh, yes,” Liz said. “That would be wonderful.” She went to a desk drawer, found a spare key and gave it to the chief, along with the alarm code.
“Well, if you folks don’t need me anymore, I’ll be going,” the chief said. “I’ll have a man here in half an hour.”
Hands were shaken all around, and the chief departed.
“I’d better pack some things,” Liz said, and left the room.
Shames turned to Stone. “It’s this Manning guy, isn’t it?”
“Very likely,” Stone said. “This has none of the markings of a random crime-nothing taken, only one room disturbed.”
“So, he’s tracked her down.”
“It looks that way.”
“I’m glad you’re staying on for a while, Stone. I feel better knowing you’re here to take care of her.”
“I’ll let Woodman and Weld know.”
“I’ll call Bill Eggers and arrange everything.”
“Thank you.”
Shames was quiet for a moment. “Stone,” he said finally, “you think he’s going to try to kill her?”
“I think if that’s what he had in mind, he’d already have tried. This was obviously to frighten her.”
“It worked,” Thad said. “She was a mess for a few minutes after we got here. There are some guns on the boat. I’ll have Juanito make them available to you.”
“I hope I won’t need a gun,” Stone said. “But you never know.”
Stone followed Thad and Liz back to the house, and when they were safely inside, he walked back to the yacht and his cabin. His adrenaline was still a little high, and he got out of his dinner jacket and the rest of his clothes and into a hot shower. He was drying himself when he heard a soft knock at the cabin door. He got into a robe and went to answer it.
He opened the door to find Callie Hodges standing there, in a silk dressing gown, holding a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.
15
Stone stared at the armed young woman. “My money or my life?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, handing him the gun. “Thad wanted you to have this. I can’t imagine why. What’s happened?”
“Nothing serious,” he replied. He checked that the safety was on, then tossed the gun onto the bed.
“May I come in for a minute?” she asked.
“Sure.” He stood back and allowed her to enter.
She went and sat on the sofa before the fireplace. “Would you like a fire?” she asked. “It’s cool tonight.”
