Two-Dollar Bill

'Murder isn't a federal crime, unless the victim is a federal official.'

'If it helps, I have no way of knowing if Billy Bob was actually in Hawaii; he just said he was. The time zone works, though; it's what, six hours earlier there?'

'Seven, I think.'

'So it would have been midevening in Maui-oops, forget I said that.'

'You're sweet,' she said, tickling his balls. 'And you're becoming more responsive, too.' She was right.

STONE WAS SITTING in his office at midafternoon, trying to stay awake, when Dino called.

'Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner; it's been busy here. What's up?'

'Billy Bob called in the middle of the night; said he was in Maui.'

'You believe him?'

'Who knows what to believe? He could be anywhere. Oh, he said he was going on a cruise on a yacht for a few days.'

'Where do you cruise to in Hawaii?'

'Hawaii, I think. Anything else is a long way away.'

'I could ask the Hawaii state police for an APB, I guess.'

'Must be lots of yachts in Hawaii, so that's a lot of work, and if Billy Bob was lying about his whereabouts, the cops out there won't appreciate the wild-goose chase. Oh, something else: Billy Bob owned up to killing Tiffany, but your theory was right, or he says it was. He said she asked him to choke her, because it gave her a better orgasm. She was supposed to ask him to stop, but she didn't.'

'Did you tell him we were looking for him?'

'I declined to address the subject.'

'So he knows?'

'Probably. Another reason why he might not be aboard a yacht in Hawaii. He wouldn't be doing what he said he'd be doing, if he knew there was a warrant out for him.'

'Okay, so I won't ask for a Hawaii APB.'

'The phone call was kind of scratchy, like it was from a long way away.'

'A cell phone, maybe?'

'Maybe.'

'He could still be in the city, then?'

'Could be. He checked out of the Four Seasons, though; I called yesterday.'

'Could have changed hotels.'

'And names. Did you add Peeples to the warrant?'

'Yeah; that's on the record, now. Does he know we know about the Peeples identity?'

'I didn't tell him, but the feds are looking for him under that name, and they've got a head start. If they find him first, lots of luck on ever getting him back for a murder trial.'

'Yeah, I'd like to get my hands on him first.'

Joan came into the room, and she didn't look happy.

'Dino, hang on for a minute. What's up, Joan?'

'The bank called; the cashier's check cleared.'

'Boy, that was fast.'

'They wired the funds to a bank in the Cayman Islands.'

'You hear that, Dino?' he said into the phone.

'Yeah, we'll never track him that way.'

'There's something else,' Joan said.

'What?'

'The check Billy Bob gave us bounced.'

'What?'

Joan shrugged.

'I heard that,' Dino said. 'Stone, you are a complete, absolute, gold-plated, fucking schmuck!'

Stone could not find a reason to disagree.

17

JOAN KNOCKED on Stone's office door.

Stone looked up. 'Yes?'

'Don't look so depressed.'

'I have good reason to feel depressed,' he said. 'Somebody just stole fifty thousand dollars from me.'

'Not to make it worse, but that leaves us overdrawn at the bank, and if I don't get some money in there pronto, our checks are going to start bouncing.'

Stone sighed. 'All right, tell my broker to sell another fifty thousand and wire it.'

'Ah, that would only replace Billy Bob's fifty thousand, and we've already sent him that much, so we're going to need to raise a hundred and fifty thousand, if we're going to pay this week's bills.'

'All right, a hundred and fifty thousand,' Stone said. That meant that, in a single week, he had cashed in 20 percent of his portfolio.

Joan disappeared.

Stone grabbed his coat and walked down the hall to her office. 'I've got to get out of the house, or I'll go crazy,' he said.

'Go shopping,' Joan suggested. 'That usually makes you feel better.'

'That makes women feel better,' Stone said. He left by the street door and started walking west. A cold wind whipped around him, blowing down his neck. He had forgotten to wear a muffler or a hat. By the time he got to Park Avenue he was freezing, and he was certain he was being followed. Crosstown traffic was heavy, of course, not moving much faster than he was, but the same black Suburban with darkened windows kept pulling even with him, then dropping back, allowing other traffic to pass. New York drivers did not allow other traffic to pass; in fact, most of them would rather block traffic completely than let anyone else pass. It was unnatural.

He turned right on Park, walked to Fifty-seventh Street and turned west again. A few steps from Park, he went into Turnbull amp; Asser, his shirtmakers. He went up to the second floor and looked idly at ties, choosing a couple, then he found a cashmere scarf he liked. He looked at hats and chose a soft, foldable one, then he walked to the window and looked down: the black Suburban was parked across the street, next to a fire hydrant.

Stone went to the rear of the shop, to the custom department, and started flipping through the book of Sea Island Cotton fabrics. He grabbed a pad and jotted down numbers of swatches, then a salesman approached.

'Good afternoon, Mr. Barrington,' the man said. 'May I help you?'

Stone tore the sheet off the pad and handed it to him. 'I'd like to order these numbers, please.'

The man got an order pad and made note of the numbers.

'How long?'

'Eight to ten weeks.'

That wasn't exactly the instant gratification Stone was looking for. He charged the things he had selected and put on the scarf and the hat, then he walked back downstairs. The black Suburban was still there, its engine running.

Stone looked down the street and saw a meter maid, or whatever they called them these days, coming. He cracked the front door. 'Excuse me, miss,' he said.

She walked over to the door. 'Can I help you?'

'Yes, that enormous black car over there has been parked next to that fireplug for at least an hour. I hate to see the law flouted like that.'

'I'll take care of it,' she said. She jaywalked across the street, to the rear of the car, took out her pad and began writing a ticket.