'Maybe.'
'For your sake, I hope so.'
'Thanks.'
'You want me to take some time off, come out there?'
'I don't know what you could do, Dino, except keep me company. That, I wouldn't mind.'
'You let me know if something comes up and you need me, okay?'
'Okay.'
'I got a meeting; talk to you later.'
Stone hung up. Why did everybody think Arrington was guilty, except him? Was he completely nuts? Blinded by how he felt about her? He made himself a sandwich in the bungalow's kitchen, then went into Betty's office. 'How's the mail coming?'
Betty consulted a steno pad. 'Nearly done,' she said, 'and opinion is running about two to one against Arrington.'
'Swell,' Stone said. He looked at his watch. 'I've got to run; I'm meeting Marc Blumberg at the house.'
Stone took the rear entrance, then watched through a front window as Marc Blumberg drove very slowly through the mob of press, through the gates, and up to the house. The lawyer certainly knew how to make an entrance.
Arrington appeared from the bedroom just as Blumberg entered the house. She gave Stone a peck on the cheek, then shook hands with Blumberg.
'How are you, Marc? It's been a long time.'
'I'm teriffic, Arrington, and I hope you are, too.'
'I'm all right, I guess. How is Arlene?'
'Very well.'
'Tell her I miss my yoga class with her.'
'I know she misses you, too.'
Manolo stepped up. 'May I get you anything, Mr. Blumberg?'
'No thanks,' Blumberg replied. 'Let's get down to work. Arrington, I want to talk with you alone at some length; where can we do that?'
'Vance's study would be a good place,' she replied. 'Can Stone be there?'
'Sorry, this is just you and me.' He took a folder from his briefcase and handed it to Stone. 'You might take a look at this while we're talking. We'll be a while.'
Stone accepted the folder and watched as Arrington led Marc Blumberg into Vance's study and closed the door. He asked Manolo for some iced tea, then went out onto the rear terrace, took a seat, and opened the folder. Inside was the medical examiner's report on Vance Calder's autopsy.
Manolo brought the tea and left him alone. He began to read. Death as the result of a single gunshot to the right occipital region of the head. No news there. Subject a well-developed male of fifty-two years, seven months, six feet two, a hundred and ninety pounds. Stone's own height and weight. Drugs present in bloodstream: Zyrtec, an antihistamine; alcohol content:.03, a drink or two.
He was surprised at the number of scars found on Vance's body: two-inch scar over left collarbone-sutured; one-and-one-half-inch scar, inside of left wrist, unsutured, secondary tissue present; two-and-one-half-inch surgical scar, right shoulder; one-inch abdominal surgical scar; three-inch surgical scar, left knee, two-inch scar, sutured, right thigh; several small scars on both hands. X rays revealed some old broken bones-right femur, left tibia, and a broken nose. That, he reflected, had given Vance's face additional character, kept him from looking pretty. All in all, though, it sounded as though Vance had lead a rougher life than that of a pampered movie star. He noted the absence of any cosmetic surgical scars. Vance Calder had been the real thing.
More than an hour passed before Arrington and Marc Blumberg emerged from the study. Arrington looked decidedly pale and shaken, while Blumberg was his usual, cool, well-pressed self.
'I'm going to go lie down for a few minutes,' Arrington said, and went into the bedroom.
'Well,' Stone said, 'do you think she's innocent?'
'She's my client,' Blumberg replied, 'so she's innocent.'
'Come on, Marc, I want an opinion. So far, everybody I know except me thinks she did it.'
'It doesn't matter,' Blumberg said.
'It doesn't matter?'
'Not to me, Stone; but then I'm not in love with her.'
Stone was surprised at this, but he said nothing.
'She's innocent until proven guilty, and I'm going to keep her that way.'
'How are you going to handle the D.A. on Saturday?'
'I'm not going to handle him,' Blumberg replied. 'I'm going to stay out of his way, and let him at her.'
'You really think that's a good idea?'
'Listen, the D.A.'s questioning is going to be nothing, compared with what I just put her through. I dragged her back and forth across the stones of her story for an hour, and she never budged from it. The woman is a rock, and the D.A. is not going to make a dent in her. She's a good actress, too.'
'Actress?'
'She'll have a jury on her side from the moment she opens her mouth, and I don't have the slightest qualm about having her testify. O.J.'s team was smart to keep him off the stand-the prosecution would have gutted him, just as happened in the civil trial, but they won't lay a glove on Arrington, trust me.'
'You think it'll go to trial?'
'Not unless they've got a lot more than I think they've got. We'll find out about that on Saturday morning. What did you think of the autopsy report?'
'Pretty straightforward. He sure had a lot of scars.'
'I asked Arrington about that; he did most of his own stunt work. Over the years, it took its toll.'
'That would explain it,' Stone said. 'God, I hope this doesn't go to trial.'
'I wouldn't mind, if it did,' Blumberg said with a small smile. 'A trial would be a lot of fun.'
Chapter 23
Stone got out of the Bentley and went around to the other side, where Manolo was holding the rear door open for Arrington and her son, Peter, and his grandmother, who had brought him back for the service, at the insistence of Marc Blumberg.
Stone took her left hand, tucked it under his arm while she held Peter's hand with her right, and led the little group through the open rear door of the sound stage, past a large truck with satellite dishes on top. The soft strains of a pipe organ wafted through the huge space. Schubert, he thought.
As he led them to a front pew, he took in the atmosphere, which was fragmented, and a little unreal. The cathedral set was not complete, being composed of only those parts necessary for the shooting of a scene. Everything at the rear-the choir loft, the organ and its pipes, the pulpit (or whatever it was called in a Catholic or Anglican church)-looked like the real thing, while other parts of the ceiling and stained glass windows were incomplete. A coffin of highly polished walnut rested in front of the pulpit. Stone wondered if Vance Calder's body was really inside, or if it was just a prop.
He deposited Arrington and Peter next to her mother on the front pew, then walked to the side of the seating area and stood. From there, he had an excellent view of the crowd. Perhaps twenty pews had been placed on the concrete floor, and they were packed with Hollywood aristocracy. Stone recognized several movie stars, and he was sure that the others were the creme de la creme of producers, writers, and directors. Two pews behind Arrington he was surprised to spot Charlene Joiner, the costar ofVance's last film, with whom he had, apparendy, been
