“The big boat?”
“Let’s get a closer look.” He descended to five hundred feet and flew past the yacht on a parallel course.
“Her name isContessa, ” Dino said.
“That’s the one we’re looking for; she’s on her way back from Marina Del Rey to her mooring off Catalina.” The yacht was slowing now as she approached the anchorage, and Stone circled. “See all those little things floating in the water? Those are empty moorings. They’ll be full this weekend, so tonight is a better time for us to go.” The yacht slowed, and a man in a small boat drove up to her mooring and tossed a rope onto her decks, where it was received by another crew member.
“Two aboard,” Stone said. “One at the helm.” As they watched, the man in the small boat turned toward the harbor and went away. “The skipper told me he could run her with a mate when the owner isn’t aboard.”
“Well, it’s a very nice boat,” Dino said. “Can we go back to land now?”
“Look at the anchorage; I want you to have a good idea of where we’re going when we come back here.”
“Yeah, yeah, I see it, now let’s get back to land, okay?”
“There’s a life jacket in the back seat, in case we have to put down in the water.”
“Just shut up and get me back to land,” Dino said.
“All right, we’re done. Aren’t you enjoying the flight?” They hit a patch of bumpy air, and Dino clung to his seat.
“Not much,” he said. “Get me out of here.”
Stone turned back toward Santa Monica and tuned in the recorded weather information. When they were ten miles out, he called the tower. “I’m a 172 approaching from Catalina for landing; I have information bravo.”
The tower came back. “Enter a left downwind for Twenty-one; you’re number three for landing after a 182 and a Citation.”
Stone entered the traffic pattern as the other Cessna landed. “I have the Citation,” he said to the tower.
“Keep the Citation in sight, cleared for landing.”
“Jesus, will you look at this city,” Dino said, at last seeming to appreciate the view.
“Yeah. There’s LAX, where you landed, right over there; the tall buildings are downtown L.A., and over there on that hill you can see oil wells.”
“They have oil wells in a city?”
“I think the oil wells were there first,” Stone said, “and nobody’s going to shut them down until they’re dry.” He turned at right angles to the runway, then turned onto final approach.
Dino was finally taking an interest in the flight. “You found the airport,” he said.
“It’s easy, when you’ve got all these instruments.”
“And there’s the runway right in front of us.”
“Where it’s supposed to be.”
“Look at all the cars; they look like hamsters.”
They flew across the road at the edge of the airport, and Stone set the airplane down lightly and taxied off the runway. A moment later they were stopped in front of the hangar, and he shut down the engine.
“Hey, that was fun!” Dino said. “Let’s do it again sometime.”
Stone burst out laughing. “Come on, let’s call Rick and see about that boat.”
50
Late in the afternoon, Stone took Dino shopping. They went to the chandlery at Marina Del Rey and bought two sets of sailing waterproofs in dark blue, a large roll of duct tape, two heavy, rubber-encased flashlights, and a set of socket wrenches. Stone also bought a large-scale chart of the area, laminated in plastic.
“What’s all this stuff for?” Dino asked.
“It will be easier to show you than to tell you,” Stone said.
They arrived at Rick Grant’s house at eight. Rick got them a drink, then led them into the back yard, where Barbara Tierney was grilling steaks.
“She cancook?” Stone asked.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Rick said. “I’m gaining weight since she got here.”
Dino went over and introduced himself to the beautiful woman, then they all sat down at the table.
Rick handed Stone a set of keys and gave him a berth number at the Long Beach marina. “It belongs to my ex- brother-in-law,” he said. “It’s a big Boston Whaler with two one-hundred-horsepower outboard engines and a lot of gear.”
“Sounds ideal,” Stone said.
“He wants five hundred for the night.”
Fair enough. Stone peeled off the money.
“I don’t want to know the details, either before or after,” Rick said.
“We will preserve you in your ignorance,” Stone laughed. “Before and after.”
“What, exactly, have you got in mind, Stone?” Dino asked.
“Didn’t you just hear Rick say he doesn’t want to know?”
“Yeah, but…”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Barbara set plates of spinach salad on the table, and the three men began to eat.
“Let’s talk about general strategy,” Rick said. “What’s your plan?”
“Beyond tonight, I don’t have much of a plan,” Stone said. “I’m just trying to shake them up, to let them know that they’re notentirely in charge, cost them some money. If I can do that, then maybe they’ll start to make mistakes that we can capitalize on.”
“Won’t they think Calder is behind this?”
“He knows nothing, and he’s a very fine actor, remember? He’ll convince them of his ignorance.”
“What if they hurt the girl?”
“They don’t have any way to relate what I’m doing to Arrington. They’re just having a run of very bad luck, and the only thing they can assign to it is what Dino said to Sturmack on the phone.”
“What did you say, Dino?”
“I said that Stone was getting them from the grave,” Dino grinned.
Rick laughed a lot. “Well, you’re right, they’re certainly having a run of bad luck. They’ve had an expensive motorboat sunk, two of them have been arrested-what next? They must be wondering.”
“I’m not going to keep them in suspense,” Stone said.
Stone and Dino arrived at the Long Beach marina after midnight and found their rented boat. It was painted black, for which Stone was grateful, and it looked very fast indeed. They tossed their gear on board, then Stone handed Dino the duct tape. “Tape over the name of the boat wherever it’s painted on and also the Coast Guard numbers. We don’t want any trouble for Rick’s ex-brother-in-law later.”
Dino went to work while Stone got familiar with the boat and its equipment. He was delighted to find a Garmin GPS unit, which had a color screen that displayed all the land masses and buoys in the area. That would make navigating at night a lot easier. He switched on the VHF radio and tuned it to Channel 16; if the Coast Guard were patrolling the area, he wanted to hear them before they saw him.
He dug out a pair of life jackets from a locker and handed one to Dino. “Better put this on.”
“I spent a lot of time on Sheepshead Bay with my old man in his boat,” Dino said. “I’m a lot more comfortable in boats than in airplanes; I don’t need that.”
“Dino, we’re going to be traveling fast at night; if we hit something and capsize, we need the jackets. Put it on.”
Dino reluctantly got into the life jacket and adjusted it. “Happy now?”
“Not yet, but I’m planning to get a lot happier.” Stone double-checked everything, then started the engines. Dino let go their lines and, keeping the big engines at idle, Stone maneuvered out of the marina. A few minutes later they were on their way at thirty knots. “Keep a sharp lookout,” Stone said. “There are fishing boats out here this time of night towing nets and trawls. We want to give them a wide berth.”
