“Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing.”
They were just about to order their second drink when Tommy Sculley ambled up to their cottage and accepted a rocking chair and a drink.
“I thought you’d like to know that your client is clear with the feds,” Tommy said. “And the Coast Guard has released his boat. It’s being towed to the yacht club. They’ll put it in my berth, since my boat is out of the water for some work.”
“That’s good to hear,” Stone replied, “and I’ll pass the news about the boat on to Evan.”
“And the ballistics report the Connecticut cops sent me matches the bullet that was recovered from Evan’s boat, so the same assassin was after both Evan and his father.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Stone said. “The only person with any kind of motive to kill both of them is Evan’s grandfather, and his motive would be purely financial. Since he’s a wealthy man anyway, and since he’s in his eighties, he doesn’t seem a likely candidate. The Connecticut state cops have already looked at him and eliminated him as a suspect.”
“What can I tell you?” Tommy said, accepting a drink from the room service waitress. He raised his glass. “Here’s to unsolved murders; what would cops do without them?”
“Maybe you’re underestimating old Eli Keating,” Dino said to Stone. “Just because he’s old doesn’t mean he can’t hate, and God knows, he must have hated Warren for stashing him in that nursing home.”
“I’ll give you that,” Stone said, “but remember, Evan was shot at first, and even your Connecticut cop commented on how warm the relationship was between Evan and his grandfather.”
“Okay, but there’s one other solution to this, although it may seem improbable,” Dino said.
“I’ll take improbable, if it works,” Tommy replied.
“First, Warren hires the hit man to kill Evan. The guy takes his shot but doesn’t get the job done. Then either Evan or Eli, or both in collusion, hire the hit man to kill Warren, and that one takes. And both Eli and Evan had motive to kill Warren, you’ll admit.”
“And they hired the same hit man?” Tommy asked.
“That’s the improbable part,” Dino said.
“But how would two of them, or all three, know about the same hit man?”
“The answer has to be, they both, or all three, knew Manny White, in Miami, or knew about him.”
“How’s that?” Tommy asked.
Stone spoke up. “The law firm I work with, which was representing Warren, got in touch with Manny for a skip trace on Evan. Warren needed Evan’s signature on the contract to do the deal on selling the family business. Dino and I paid a visit to Manny, and we think he’s the middleman, the connection to the hit man.”
“Okay, so Warren, after he uses Manny for a skip trace, also uses him to find the hit man,” Tommy said. “I’ll buy that.”
“Manny was the one who warned us—well, sort of—that Evan was a candidate for a hit,” Dino said. “He said somebody had called him about some dirty work, but that he had hung up on him.”
“But he didn’t hang up,” Tommy said. “He arranged for the guy to come to Key West and plug Evan. I buy that. What I don’t quite buy is how Evan or his grandfather managed to hire the same hit man to go after Warren. Did either of them have a connection through the law firm, Stone?”
“No,” Stone replied. “Evan doesn’t know anybody at the law fi rm, and there’s no reason for him to know Manny White. His grandfather knows the managing partner at the law firm, Bill Eggers, but Bill would never help Eli find a hit man. He wouldn’t even put Eli in touch with Manny; if he needed Manny for something, Bill would deal with him himself.”
“Are you saying that this Eggers guy is involved?”
“Of course not. He’d have no motive to have Evan killed. He did the legal work on the sale of the family business, and he’d want it to go through.”
“All right,” Tommy said, “we’re agreed that both old Eli and young Evan would have motives for killing Warren— Eli because he got locked away in the nursing home, and Evan because his father tried to have him killed. Are we all agreed on that?”
“Agreed,” Stone said.
“Yeah,” Dino chimed in.
“But,” Stone pointed out, “how did one of them get in touch with Manny White? How did they know about him?”
“You got me,” Dino said.
“You got me, too,” Tommy agreed. “Why don’t we ask Manny?”
“We sort of already did,” Dino said. “Stone and I went to see him and talked like we wanted a hit man. He didn’t throw us out at fi rst, but eventually he did. I don’t think he’d look forward to another visit from us, since he never liked us much in the first place, when we were all NYPD.”
“Maybe he’d talk to me,” Tommy said.
“Does he know you from New York?” Dino asked.
“Yeah, I was around. He’d know my face, if not my name.”
“Does he know you know us?” Stone asked.
“That wouldn’t be hard to fi gure out,” Tommy replied.
“Then we’re fucked,” Dino said.
“Not if we can think of somebody else to approach Manny, somebody with a plausible story of who recommended him, and somebody with a bunch of cash to wave at him.”
“You got somebody in mind?” Dino asked.
“No, but I’m thinking,” Tommy replied.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Stone said. “Let us know when you’ve figured it out.”
49
STONE AND ANNIKA sat up in her bed, watching a DVD of An American in Paris.
“Isn’t Gene Kelly wonderful?” Annika said.
“Absolutely wonderful. He’s America’s best dancer ever, in any discipline.”
“You know about dancing?”
“No, but I still have an opinion.”
“You think Kelly is better than Fred Astaire?”
“Astaire was great, but he was a ballroom and tap dancer; he didn’t have Kelly’s balletic training and sense. Kelly could do everything, often at the same time.”
“Better than Baryshnikov?”
“Baryshnikov is a product of Russia, although I think he’s Latvian or maybe Estonian by birth.”
“Good point.”
“Would you like to go to a wedding tomorrow?” Stone asked.
“Oh, Stone, are you proposing?”
“I’m just proposing that you accompany me to the wedding of Evan Keating and Gigi Jones.”
“They’re getting married?”
“That’s why I’m inviting you to their wedding. It’s at noon, at the Marquesa, in their cottage, and there’s lunch afterward in the restaurant there.”
“I’d love to. Let me see if I can swap shifts with someone.”
“Would you like me to put the movie on hold?”
“Yes,” she said, reaching for him.
“I thought you were going to make phone calls.”
“Later.”
Stone thought later was a good idea.
LATER, SHE MADE the calls and swapped her shift, then she snuggled next to Stone. “When are you leaving?” she asked. Stone looked at his watch: past midnight. “Tomorrow morning,”
he said. “We’ll get an early start.”
“Is there room in your airplane for me?” she asked. He turned and looked at her. “Are you really thinking about moving to New York?”
“I have an interview for a job in three days,” she said. “It sounds good. Of course, I’ll have to let my house and find an apartment in New York.”
“You won’t have to find an apartment; you’ll be staying with me.”
“In your apartment?”
“In my house.”