“Mr. Jones, when you hear from Mr. James, it’s important that you don’t tell him I called.”
“But he’s my client. I represent him.”
“Believe me, Mr. Jones, you don’t want to get in the middle of this.”
“Has he done something wrong?”
“Not that I know of. We just want to talk to him.”
“Well, okay. Whatever you say.”
“Thank you, Mr. Jones, and if you do hear from him, please call me at this number.” Stone gave him the cell phone number and hung up.
“What?” Dino said.
“This looks real good,” Stone said. “This guy Jones was Manning’s agent before he ‘died.” Jones has no idea who he is, I think.“
“Did you get an address?”
“Yep. One Vanderbilt Avenue.”
Dino looked at Stone as if he were a retarded child. “Stone, One Vanderbilt Avenue is Grand Central Station.”
“I knew that,” Stone replied.
37
Dino looked thoughtful. “Haven’t we run across One Vanderbilt Avenue as an address before? It sounds familiar.”
Stone slapped his forehead. “Mail drop! I tracked it down once, roamed around Grand Central until I found this wall of mailboxes. They’re unattended, except when somebody shows up to sort the mail. Can you call the precinct and detail a man to watch it?”
“Stone, Frederick James has committed no crime that we know of, and he’s not a suspect in any case. You trying to get me fired? Why don’t you get Bob Berman to do it?”
“That’s a thought, but I just had another one. If I were James, and I didn’t want to be located, for whatever reason, I’d rent a box at One Vanderbilt, then I’d go to the post office and have the mail forwarded to another address, and then, if I really don’t want to be found, I’d have it forwarded from that address. I might get my mail a week late, but what the hell?”
“So it would be a waste of Berman’s time.”
“Yes, it would. Mr. James has built himself a fire wall, and I can’t think of a way around it.”
“He must get paid,” Dino said.
“Yes, but the checks go to the mailbox.”
“But they have to be deposited, or the guy gets no money, right?”
“Right!” Stone said. He called Tom Jones back.
“Tom Jones.”
“This is Lieutenant Bacchetti again.”
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this. My wife will catch on.” He roared with laughter.
Once again, Stone waited. “Mr. Jones,” he said when he could get past the laughter. “How do you pay Frederick James?”
“He takes checks,” Jones said. “If I were dealing with me, I’d demand cash!” This time it was a high-pitched giggle.
“Mr. Jones, when was the last time you paid Mr. James any money?”
“Last month, when Tumult came out. His contract calls for a payment on publication.”
“All right. Dig out your most recent bank statement.”
“It’s right here in my bottom drawer, with all my bank statements,” Jones said.
Stone heard the man struggling with a desk drawer.
“Got it,” Jones said.
“Now, go through the canceled checks until you find the one to James.”
“Okay, let’s see: laundry, phone bill, liquor store-hey, that’s a big one!” More laughter. “Here it is!”
“Turn the check over.”
“It’s over.”
“There is a bank’s name stamped on the back. That always happens when a check is deposited.”
“Right, there is. It’s kind of dim, though. Let me turn on a light and get my glasses.”
Stone had visions of the man sitting in a dark office strewn with empty liquor bottles.
“Okay, I can see it now. It says, 'First Cayman Bank.'”
“Swell,” Stone said.
“You like that, do you?”
“It’s no help at all, I’m afraid. Mr. Jones, imagine for a moment that you absolutely had to get in touch with Mr. James. How would you go about it?”
“I’d e-mail him,” Jones said. “I’m not much on computers, but my nephew set it up so that I can get to my e-mail without screwing it up. You want the e-mail address?”
“Thanks, but you already gave it to me.”
“I did? Well, okay. Good luck finding him.” Jones hung up.
“What?” Dino asked.
“His bank is in the Cayman Islands, well known for banking secrecy. We’re not going to find him that way.”
“What about his e-mail address? We could call his provider. Who is it? AOL or Hotmail? One of those?”
“Nope. He’s got a domain of his own: frederickjames dot com.”
“Then it’s got to be registered somehwere."
“Yeah, but even if we could track it down, we’d find that his address is One Vanderbilt, or some hotel where he stayed for a few days.”
“We could see if he has a phone number in New York.”
"If he does, it will be unlisted."
“If it’s unlisted, I can find out the number.”
“I just had a thought,” Stone said. He picked up a phone and called Dan Griggs.
“Griggs.”
“It’s Stone. How’s Lundquist doing?”
“He made it through the night, and he’s stable. The doctor says we can probably ship him home in a few days.”
“Good. Listen, Dan, we’ve got another line on Paul Manning. He may be using the name Frederick James. James is a novelist with a new, best-selling book out, and he’s something of a will-o‘-the-wisp. Can you check the local hotels and see if he’s registered?”
“Okay, Stone, but I have to tell you, I’m wearying of Mr. Manning, and I can’t keep putting resources into finding somebody who did nothing but trash somebody’s house.”
“I understand, Dan, and I appreciate your help.”
“I’ll get back to you.” Griggs hung up.
Stone called Bob Berman. “How you doing?”
“Okay. What’s up?”
“The hotel guest list turned up the name of one Frederick James, an author. Can you do the whole skip-trace thing-address, phone number, credit report?”
“I don’t suppose you’ve got a Social Security number?”
“No, but hang on.” Stone dialed Jones again.
“Tom Jones.”
“Mr. Jones, I need Frederick James’s Social Security number. I know you’ve got it. You can’t pay him without it.”
“Sorry, the checks are made out to a corporation.”
“Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
“You didn’t ask me.” Jones laughed loudly.
“What’s the name of the corporation?”
“Frederick James, Limited; it’s a Cayman Islands firm.”
“Thanks,” Stone said, and hung up. He punched the button for Berman. “Sorry for the delay. No SSN; he deals through a Cayman Islands corporation. I don’t suppose you can get anything on that.”
“Probably not. You have any idea where the guy lives?”
“Until recently, he lived in Easthampton, New York. That’s all I’ve got.”
“Okay, I’ll get back to you.”
Stone hung up to see Liz appear in the doorway, holding the copy of Tumult. “What do you think?” he asked.
“Well, I’ve read enough of it to say that it could be Paul’s work. But you have to understand, he was something of a chameleon as a writer. He changed styles from book to book, depending on the plot and characters.”
“Thanks for trying, Liz.”
She returned to the afterdeck, leaving Stone and Dino alone.
“What’d I tell you?” Dino said. “She’s going to be useless in finding this guy.”
“I’m feeling pretty useless myself,” Stone said.
“I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere with the Frederick James name,” Dino said. “My guess is, he’s just using it as a pen name, that he’s living his life under an entirely different name, maybe even more than one.”
“That’s a depressing thought,” Stone said.
As if on cue, Dan Griggs called back. “I’ve had a whole squad calling around to the hotels,” he said, “and there’s no Frederick James registered anywhere.”