“Did he seem all right to you at the time?”
“No, I told you, he was crushed.”
“I mean mentally all right.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess.”
“Evan says his grandfather has Alzheimer’s and that he’s in a home.”
Eggers was silent.
“Are the pieces falling into place, Bill?”
“What are you suggesting?”
“How did Harry Keating die?”
“I don’t know, exactly. He fell ill and died a couple of days later. What are you getting at, Stone?”
“Me? Nothing. But Evan says his father killed Harry.”
Eggers was silent again.
“Bill, are you weighing what our ethical obligations are in this matter?”
“I’m weighing everything,” Eggers replied.
“I can’t force Evan Keating to sign the documents. You’d better tell Warren that.”
“He’s going to be livid,” Eggers said.
“Then he’ll just have to be livid. By the way, Evan says the police are looking into Harry’s death. You did say that Warren is a chemist, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, Stone. But you and I don’t have any grounds for calling the police in. Warren and his son have been estranged for years; we can’t just accept the boy’s theory of Harry’s death. If Evan has suspicions, then he should share them with the local police.”
“I’ll mention that to him, if I see him again.”
“What do you mean, if you see him again?”
“Well, I don’t have any further plans to contact him. He may be contacting me, because a friend of his here got himself murdered, and the local cops want to have a chat with Evan. I don’t think he had anything to do with it.”
“God, what a nest of snakes this is turning into.”
“Bill, why don’t you make a few phone calls and check into Warren Keating’s background. It may be that if he’s trying to screw his son on this deal, you’ll want to resign the account.”
“I’m not in the habit of resigning accounts,” Eggers said.
“If Evan should decide to sue his father over this, the law fi rm could get dragged into it as a defendant. And frankly, I don’t think Evan is going to be bought off easily. Maybe you’d better broach the subject with Warren and get him to divide the sales proceeds equally.”
“This is all very distasteful,” Eggers said.
“You want me to talk to Warren? If he goes nuts, you can always blame it all on me.”
“I’ll talk to the man,” Eggers said.
“And you’ll get back to me?”
“Give me a day or two.”
“You want me to hang here until then?”
“Yes. I want somebody near Evan Keating, if we need to negotiate with him. You won’t mind working on your tan for a little longer, will you?”
“I’ll tough it out,” Stone said, then hung up.
“I’ll tough it out, too,” Dino said.
18
THEY FINISHED BREAKFAST , and Stone called Tommy Sculley. “Hey, Tommy.”
“Hey, Stone.”
“What happened with Evan Keating?”
“We brought him in for a chat. He said he didn’t know Charley Boggs was dead until you told him. He seemed upset about it.”
“Yeah, he said he and Charley had known each other since they were in prep school.”
“It’s hard to think of Charley in prep school, but we’re checking with the school now to confirm all this.”
“What’s your take on Keating’s possible involvement?”
“I’m inclined to think he’s not involved, but I’ve been burned before, so I’m not going to form an opinion until I’ve checked everything out.”
“Did he tell you about Charley using his boat?”
“I didn’t ask him about his boat.”
“Evan denies having spent a night on his boat out at the reef, and he says he lost his cell phone the day he bought the boat. For what it’s worth, Charley helped him move the boat the day he bought it, so he could have filched Evan’s cell phone and taken the boat out to the reef without Evan’s knowledge.”
“Yeah, I guess. That would support the contention that Evan wasn’t involved in the drug trade with Charley.”
“Something else makes me think Evan is clean of all this,” Stone said.
“What’s that?”
“This is between you and me, Tommy; it involves client confi dentiality.”
“Okay, it goes no further.”
“Last night I offered Even Keating twenty-one million for his share of the family business, and he turned me down.”
“He turned down twenty-one mil? Holy shit! Why?”
“Because he thinks his father owes him a lot more and is trying to cheat him. Doesn’t sound like he’d be a candidate for a quick buck dealing drugs, does it? I mean, he’s already living on one trust fund that seems to be supporting him in comfort.”
“You got a point,” Tommy said.
“One other thing, and this doesn’t sound so good: when Evan bought Chuck Chandler’s boat, he paid for it with a hundred thirty thousand in hundred-dollar bills.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?”
“I mean, a guy who’s got that kind of money would run it through a bank, wouldn’t he?”
“Could be some sort of tax dodge.”
“Yeah, that could make sense.”
“Did you release him?”
“Yeah, we talked for about two hours, then I cut him loose.”
“Did you get an address?”
“Yeah, he’s staying at the Gardens, which is a block or two from the Marquesa. It’s just as nice, but more expensive.”
“Be interesting to know if he’s paying cash,” Stone said. “I’ll find out.”
“Will you let me hear from you about that and the check with the prep school?”
“Sure. See you later.”
Stone hung up. “Evan is staying at the Gardens, just up the street from here.”
“I saw the sign,” Dino said.
“Oh, it was Evan’s girlfriend, Gigi Jones, who slugged me outside the restaurant. He says she’s sometimes overprotective.”
“Well, at least that resulted in your meeting the Swede. Was the blow to the neck worth the roll in the hay?”
“I think it’s going to take me longer to recover from the roll in the hay,” Stone said. “I’m supposed to call her about dinner tonight, but I’m not sure I’m up to it.”
“Take a nap; you’ll be fi ne.”
Stone’s cell phone vibrated. “Hello?”
“Hi, it’s Evan Keating.”
“Good morning.”
“I didn’t call you last night, because I got the feeling I didn’t need a lawyer.”
“Evan, let me explain something to you: cops do everything they can to make you feel like you don’t need a lawyer, then they can nail you for something you said. If they call you in again, take along a lawyer.”
“Well, okay, but I didn’t kill Charley, and I don’t think I’m a suspect.”
“You’ll be a suspect until they can hang it on somebody else, or until they can prove to themselves that you didn’t do it.”
“How did my father react to my turning his offer down?”
“I haven’t spoken to him, just to my law firm’s managing partner. He’ll break the news to your father.”
“Expect an explosion,” Evan said. “Old Dad has always exploded easily.”
“Do you think he’ll want to renegotiate?”
“He won’t have a choice; he can’t sell the business without my agreement, and it’s my guess that he’s already figured out that he’s not equipped to run the place.”
“Is there anyone in your family who is qualifi ed?”
“No, so selling is the right thing to do. Do you know what he was offered for it?”