“It’s okay with me. Gigi’s with him, so watch your back.”
“That’ll be Dino’s job.” Stone knocked on the door, got a response and walked in, with Dino following. Evan was sitting with the bed cranked up, and Gigi was holding his hand.
“Good evening,” Evan said.
“Morning,” Stone replied. “How are you feeling?”
“Just swell,” Evan replied wanly. “Never better.”
“I hope you’ve reconsidered your position on relocating,” Stone said.
“Yes, but not just yet. I have some business to conclude. When do you plan to return to New York?”
“Soon. There’s nothing to keep me here now.”
“I’d like to keep you here for a few days,” Evan said. “I want to retain you as my attorney.”
“I’m not licensed in Florida,” Stone said.
“It won’t require any courtroom appearances,” Evan said. “Or if it does, I’ll hire somebody else. I want you here for a negotiation. I’ll pay you thirty thousand dollars for three, four days of your time. If it runs beyond that, I’ll pay you another thirty.”
Stone looked at Dino. “Can you hang around? I’ll pick up the hotel bill.”
“Why not?” Dino said.
“All right.”
“Gigi,” Evan said.
Gigi picked up a shoulder bag that had been lying on the fl oor beside the bed, rummaged in it and came up with a stack of notes and handed it to Stone. It was three bundles of hundreds, in South Beach Security wrappers.
“Is this money clean?” Stone asked.
“It is.”
“I’ll have to fill out the relevant federal form when I deposit it in my bank.”
“I understand.”
“What do you want me to do now?” Stone asked.
“I’ve got your cell number. I’ll call you when we need to talk.”
“Have you spoken to your grandfather?”
“Not yet.”
“If you like, I’ll have someone notify him about this.”
“No, it would just worry him. He’s better off not knowing. I’ll tell him about it when this is over.”
“And when will that be?”
“Soon, I hope.”
“All right,” Stone said, stuffing bundles of cash into his pock-ets. “I’m your lawyer. If the police ask you any more questions of any kind, refer them to me. Talk to you later.” He and Dino left the room.
Tommy was standing outside talking to a uniformed offi cer. Stone took him aside. “Tommy, Evan has just retained me as his lawyer. I’m not entirely sure why, but in the meantime, please don’t ask him any more questions unless I’m present.”
“What’s the problem?” Tommy asked. “He hasn’t done anything.”
“I know, but in his condition I can’t go into all this with him. I assume you have both Evan’s and Gigi’s statements about the shooting?”
“Yeah.”
“That’ll have to do you for the moment. I’ll know more when I’ve had a chance to sit down with him when his head is clear.”
“Okay, Stone.”
“Thanks for having a cop out here.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Stone and Dino left the hospital and went back to their car.
“There’s an IHOP on our way back; you want to get some breakfast?”
“Sure.”
“You’re buying,” Dino said.
32
STONE SAT THINKING , picking at his enormous breakfast. Dino, untroubled, was stuffing his down.
“All right,” Dino said, pausing for a sip of coffee, “what’s on your mind?”
“Doesn’t it bother you that it was real hard for us to find Evan in Key West, but an assassin found him from a standing start in less than twenty-four hours?”
“It’s certainly interesting.”
“I mean, you and I were pretty good cops, weren’t we?”
“I still am. I’m not so sure about you.”
“Tommy bothers me, too.”
“Tommy?”
“A cop like Tommy in a town this size ought to know everybody moving, but he had a hard time with Evan.”
“Have you forgotten that Tommy put a finger on Evan fi ve seconds after you mentioned his name? At the Marquesa restaurant?”
“Oh, yeah. I take it back.”
“And he’s been nothing but helpful ever since.”
“You’re right; Tommy’s a great guy, and he’s been nothing but helpful. My mind’s a little fuzzy, that’s all. Lack of sleep.”
“Too much sex,” Dino said. “It always wears you down.”
“It does not,” Stone protested. “I thrive on it.”
“You’ve been eating like a pig ever since we got here. Gained any weight?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’d say you’ve lost a couple of pounds,” Dino said. “It’s the Swede; she’s sapping your life force.”
“Nonsense.”
“Otherwise, why would you let Evan Keating hire you in about a second?”
“An excuse to stay here for a few days. The money’s good, too.”
“It smells funny,” Dino said, and he took a big bite of an English muffin.
“Why do you think that?”
“What could he possibly have for you to negotiate?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s buying a house or something.”
“He’d hire Jack Spottswood if he were buying a house, or somebody else local who knows the market. You’d be useless.”
“I can read a contract.”
“But what’s to negotiate? And why the hell isn’t Evan getting his ass out of Key West? He didn’t go when you warned him, and now he’s been shot, nearly killed, and he’s still hanging around. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I guess he has some unfi nished business.”
“The guy is in line for whatever a third of eight hundred million bucks is, and he’s got business in Key West? What does he need with business here?”
“All right, it’s screwy. I’ll give you that.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“It’s also intriguing, and I want to see how it plays out.”
“Well, while it’s playing out, I hope you don’t end up between Evan and whoever took that shot. From what Tommy says, it was a damn fine shot, and if the guy left the rifle there, it only means that he’s got something else to shoot with.”
“I like the private airplane thing,” Stone said.
“It’s one way to travel.”
“It’s an ideal way to travel, if you don’t want your luggage X-rayed or searched,” Stone pointed out. “After all, it’s how you and I got here armed.”
Dino stuffed the last piece of sausage in his mouth. “Okay, you want to go to the airport, right?”
“Right.”
“Then let’s do it; we’ll sleep later.”
STONE AND DINO walked into Island City Flying Service, the fixed base operator for private aircraft at Key West International. Stone could see his own airplane through the window. They found Paul DePoo, who ran the place, and introduced themselves.
“What can I do for you?” DePoo asked.
“Can I see a list of all the private airplanes that’ve landed here in the past twenty-four hours?” Stone asked.
DePoo handed him a clipboard that held two sheets of paper.
“That’s yesterday’s landings,” he said. “We haven’t had anything today yet; it’s still early.”
Stone looked through the list slowly, eliminating the jets and big twins.
“What are you looking for?”
“One guy in a light aircraft, probably a single, some luggage, maybe something like a shotgun case.”
“Nobody comes to Key West to hunt,” DePoo said.
“Then a shotgun or rifle case would make him stand out, wouldn’t it?”
DePoo picked up a phone and punched in an extension. “You see anybody come in here from an airplane yesterday carrying something like a rifle or shotgun case?” He laughed. “You’re kidding!