'Come on, Dino.'
'You'll notice that, although there's a band and lots of food, there's no photographer?'
Stone looked around and couldn't see a camera in anybody's hands.
'My guess is, the wedding pictures will be taken Monday, at the church, and that none of these people will be there, which is okay with me. I certainly don't want to be photographed with any of them.'.
It was late afternoon before they returned to the palazzo. Stone was told to be downstairs at eight for cocktails, then he was allowed to stagger to his room, strip, and fall facedown on the bed, until he was shaken awake by a servant and told to dress. He'd had the bad dream again, but he still couldn't remember it.
Aunt Rosaria had prepared what Stone assumed was their wedding dinner. They ate sumptuously, then adjourned early, everyone being tired from the day's festivities.
'Sleep as late as you like,' Eduardo said to the group. 'Mass is at eleven tomorrow morning.'
Each retired to his own room. Stone, having had a three-hour nap, was not yet sleepy; he changed into a sweater and decided to go for a walk.
He was almost immediately lost. There was a dearth of signs pointing to anywhere, except St. Mark's Square, and he didn't want to go there. Instead, he just wandered.
An hour later, he found himself approaching what he recognized from photographs as the Rialto Bridge. As he climbed its arc, a woman's head appeared from the opposite direction, rising as she walked backward toward him, apparently talking to someone following her. Immediately, Stone knew her.
The shining hair, the slim figure, the elegant clothes, the shape of her calves. It was Arrington. His heart did strange things in his chest, and he was suddenly overcome with the unexpected thrill of seeing her. Then he remembered that she was now Mrs. Vance Calder, of Los Angeles, Malibu, and Palm Springs, that she had borne Vance's child, and that he had sworn off her for life.
Stone was struck heavily by the fact that his reaction to seeing her was not appropriate for a man who would be married on the morrow, and he was suddenly flooded with what had been pent-up doubts about marrying Dolce. In a second, every reservation he had ever had about marriage, in general, and Dolce, in particular, swept over him, filling him with a sickening panic.
On Arrington came, still walking backward, talking and laughing with someone who was still climbing the other side of the bridge, probably Vance Calder. Stone recovered quickly enough to place himself in her path, so that she would bump into him. She would be surprised, they would laugh, Vance would greet him warmly, and they would congratulate him, on hearing of his plans.
She ran into him harder than he had anticipated, jarring them both. Then she turned, and she wasn't Arrington. She was American, younger, not as beautiful; the man following her up the bridge was young, too, and beefy.
'I'm awfully sorry,' Stone said to her.
Her young man arrived. 'You did that on purpose.'
'I apologize,' Stone said. 'I thought the lady was someone I knew.'
'Yeah, sure,' the young man said, advancing toward Stone.
'Don't,' the girl said, grabbing at his arm. 'He apologized; let it go.'
The man hesitated, then turned and followed the woman down the bridge.
Stone was embarrassed, but more important, he found himself depressed that the woman had not been Arrington. He stood at the top of the bridge, leaning against the stone railing, looking down the canal, wondering if the universe had just sent him a message.
Chapter 5
Stone was having the unpleasant dream again, and in it, someone was knocking loudly on a door. Then someone was shaking him, and he woke up this time, remembering that Arrington had been in the dream.
A servant was bending over him. 'Signore Bianchi asks that you come to the library at once,' the man said. 'Is not nessary to dress.'
'All right,' Stone replied sleepily. He looked at his bedside clock and saw that it was shortly before eight a.m. He found a large, terry robe in the wardrobe, put it on over his bedclothes, found his slippers, and, smoothing down his hair, hurried to the central hall, where the servant directed him to the library, a room he had not yet seen.
It was a large room, the walls of which were lined from top to bottom with leather-bound volumes, leaving room for only a few pictures. Stone thought he recognized a Turner oil of the Grand Canal. Eduardo, the cardinal, and Dino, all in dressing gowns or robes, stood before the fireplace.
'Good morning,' Stone said. 'Is something wrong?'
None of the men seemed to want to speak first. Finally, Eduardo spoke. 'We have had some bad news from the States.' He turned to his son-in-law. 'Dino?'
Dino flinched as if he had been struck, then he began. 'My office called a few minutes ago: Rick Grant from the LAPD called and left a message.'
Stone knew Rick Grant; he was a detective assigned to the office of the chief of police of Los Angeles, who had been helpful to him on an earlier visit to California. 'What is it?'
Dino took a deep breath. 'Vance Calder is dead.'
'I am very upset about this,' Eduardo said. 'Vance was my friend, too.'
Stone knew that Eduardo was a stockholder, with Vance, in Centurion Studios and had been an investor in some of Vance's films. 'How?' he asked Dino.
'He was shot. Last night, in his home.'
'Murdered?'
'Yes; shot once in the head.'
'Is Arrington all right?' He steeled himself for the answer.
'Yes; she's in a local hospital.'
'Was she hurt?'
'No.'
'Who shot Vance?'
'That's undetermined,' Dino said. 'But when I got back to Rick, he told me he thinks Arrington might be a suspect.'
Stone found a sofa and sat down. 'Jesus Christ,' he said, then remembered in whose company he was. 'Forgive me, Your Eminence.'
The cardinal nodded soberly.
'I wouldn't put too much stock in that theory,' Dino said. 'You and I both know that, in cases like this, the spouse is always a suspect until cleared.'
Stone nodded. He was trying to think what to do next but not getting anywhere.
The cardinal came and sat down beside him. 'Stone,' he said, putting a fatherly hand on his shoulder, 'I am aware of your previous relationship with Arrington. Eduardo and I have discussed this at some length, and we agree that it would be extremely unwise to go forward with the wedding, until… this situation has been, in some way, resolved.'
Stone looked at the man but said nothing.
Eduardo came and stood next to Stone. 'This is very complicated,' he said. 'Both Dolce and I are friends of Vance's, and you, of course, were very close to Arrington. There will be many emotions at work for a while, so many and so confused that to proceed with the marriage at this time would be folly.'
'Does Dolce know about this?'
Eduardo shook his head. 'I am going to go and wake her now and tell her; this is my duty, not yours.'
'I will come, too,' the cardinal said. 'She may need me.'
Stone nodded. 'All right. Tell her we'll talk the minute she's ready.'
Eduardo and the cardinal left the room.
'What haven't you told me?' Stone asked Dino.
'Rick says Arrington hasn't made any kind of statement yet. She apparently can't remember what happened.
