Cold Paradise (27 page)

58

N
O SOONER HAD THE FBI MEN LEFT THAN LIZ CAME out of the house and walked to the yacht. She came aboard and gave both Stone and Dino a big kiss. She was carrying an envelope and two gift-wrapped boxes.

“I just want to thank you both so much,” she said, sitting down.

“You’re welcome,” Stone said. “Glad to be of service.”

“Same here,” Dino echoed. “Only I haven’t been of all that much service.”

“Of course you have,” Liz said. “And I want to thank you. First of all,” she said, handing Stone the envelope, “here’s a check for your legal services.”

Stone slipped the envelope into a pocket without looking inside. “Thank you, Liz.”

“Second,” she said, handing Stone the larger of the two packages, “this is to express my personal thanks for your friendship and your concern for me. Even though your job as my lawyer is done, I think of you as my friend.”

“Thank you again,” Stone said, accepting the box.

“And, Dino,” she said, handing him the smaller of the two boxes, “this is for you, for taking the time and trouble to come down here and help out Stone. And for stopping that horrible man from hurting anyone else in that restaurant shoot-out.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Dino said.

“Don’t open them yet,” she said, holding up a hand. “I’d be embarrassed.” She stood up. “I have to run, now. Callie and I are going to town to look for dresses for the wedding.” With a little wave, she departed the yacht and headed back toward the house.

“You first,” Dino said.

“No, you.”

Dino opened his gift. Inside was a handsome gold pen from Cartier. “Very nice,” he said. “I’ll be the envy of the precinct. What’d she get you?”

Stone opened the package to find a large, red Cartier box inside. He opened it and held the contents up for Dino to see.

Dino took the box from Stone and gave a low whistle. “Hey, now, that’s
really
nice.”

Stone took back the box and removed the wristwatch from it. “Certainly is,” he said. He took off his steel Rolex, put it into his pocket and slipped on the new watch.

Dino picked up the red booklet that came with the watch. “Cartier Tank Francaise,” he read. “You pick the best clients.”

“I guess I do.”

Juanito approached with the telephone. “For you, Mr. Barrington.”

“Hello?”

“Stone, it’s Dan Griggs. Did some FBI agents come see you?”

“Yes, they just left.”

“Now I’ve got a guy from the Houston PD wants to talk to you.”

“Houston, Texas?”

“One and the same. What the hell is going on down there?”

“I don’t have the foggiest, Dan.”

“I’m sending the guy to you right now. His name is Fritz Parker.”

“Okay. I’ll be here.” Stone hung up.

“What?” Dino asked.

“A Houston cop wants to talk to me.”

“You committed any crimes in Houston?”

“I’ve never even been to Houston.”

Twenty minutes later a middle-aged man in a seersucker suit walked up the gangplank. “Lieutenant Bacchetti?” he asked.

“That’s me,” Dino said.

“I’m Fritz Parker, Houston PD. Can I have a word with you?”

“Sure, pull up a chair. This is Stone Barrington.”

“How do you do?” Parker said, shaking hands. “Lieutenant, do you mind if we talk alone?”

“You can talk in front of Stone,” Dino said. “He used to be my partner, before he became a rich lawyer.”

“All right.” Parker sat down.

“In fact, Dan Griggs said you wanted to see Stone.”

“No, I wanted to see you. Chief Griggs told me you were Mr. Barrington’s guest.”

“Okay, what can I do for you?”

“A couple of days ago, your precinct ran some fingerprints that matched an unknown perpetrator from a bank robbery in Virginia, four years ago.”

“Jesus,” Dino said. “The FBI was just here about that.”

“They were? I asked for their help, but I didn’t know they were coming.”

“Typical,” Dino said. “They liked what you told them, so they’re poaching on your territory.”

“It’s what they do,” Stone said.

“What’s this about?” Dino asked. “Can’t be the bank robbery.”

“No. At least my department has no interest in that; the FBI might. I’m here about a possible homicide.”

Dino and Stone looked at each other.

“Manning has been a busy guy,” Stone said.

“Manning?” Parker asked.

“The fingerprint belongs to a man named Paul Manning. Or, at least, that used to be his name.”

“Tell us about the homicide,” Dino said.

“It was last year,” Parker said. “A Houston business-man died of an apparent heart attack, but our medical examiner wasn’t entirely satisfied with that as a cause of death.”

“What did he suspect?” Stone asked.

“Poisoning, of a very special kind. Apparently, there are two common household products which, when mixed, create a poison that can’t be analyzed.”

“I’ve heard about that poison,” Stone said, “but I don’t know what the household products are.”

“Neither do I,” Parker said, “and the ME wouldn’t tell me. Said it’s not the sort of knowledge that should be spread around, and I think I agree. He did look around the house and said both products were present.”

“But why do you think Manning had anything to do with this?”

“Because this guy Manning, if that’s who he is, left a thumbprint on a bedside glass, right next to the body.”

“And these two chemicals were in the glass?”

“No, the glass was clean, except for the thumbprint. The ME theorizes that the murderer removed the glass containing the poisons and substituted a clean one.”

“And what was the outcome of the case?”

“It’s still open,” Parker said, “until we can find the owner of the fingerprint and question him. Do you have any idea where I can find Paul Manning?”

“He may be in Palm Beach,” Stone said. “Two of Chief Griggs’s men have seen a man in town answering his description. Lately, he has also gone by the name of William Charles Danforth.” Stone gave Parker the Washington address. “I gave that to the FBI agents, too.” He gave him Manning’s description.

Parker made a note of everything.

“I’d suggest you tell Chief Griggs that you have a good reason for him to pick up the guy,” Stone said. “We didn’t have a reason before now.”

“I’ll do that right away,” Parker said. Stone handed him the phone, and he made the call. Parker spoke to Dan Griggs, then handed the phone to Stone. “He wants to talk to you.”

“Hello?”

“Stone, I hear you’ve finally got something on this guy.”

“Well, Parker has, anyway.”

“It will give me the greatest pleasure to put out an APB on him.”

“He may be carrying ID saying that he’s William Charles Danforth, of Washington, D.C.”

“Got it. I’ll let you know if we pick him up.”

“Thanks, Dan.” He hung up the phone. “Fritz, you’re doing me a very great favor.”

“Glad to be of service. Lieutenant, running those prints was a very great favor to us. I’d love to clear this case.”

“I hope you clear it before the weekend,” Stone said.

“Why the weekend?”

“Because there’s going to be a big wedding here, and Mr. Manning might just try to crash the party.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Parker said. He stood up and shook Stone’s and Dino’s hands. “Thanks for your help. I’ll let you know if we find the guy.” He turned to leave.

“Fritz,” Stone said, “what was your victim’s name?”

“Winston Harding,” Parker replied.

59

S
TONE WATCHED THAD SHAMES LEAVE THE HOUSE AND walk through the gardens toward the yacht. “Maybe I should talk to him alone,” Stone said.

Dino got up. “I’ll be in my cabin if you need me.”

Dino got up. “I’ll be in my cabin if you need me.” and

As Dino departed, Thad came up the gangplank and walked to the afterdeck, where Stone waited for him. “Hello,” he said.

“Hello, Thad. Have a seat.” Stone wasn’t going to enjoy this.

“What’s up? Why did you want to see me alone?”

“Because what I have to tell you is for your ears only. You must not share this with Liz, or even Callie.”

“You sound very serious,” Thad said.

“This
is
very serious.”

“Tell me.”

“Today, Dino and I have had visits from two FBI agents and a detective from the Houston, Texas, police department.”

“About Liz?”

“No, about Paul Manning.”

“What about Manning?”

“One of the problems with finding Manning was that, for a long time, he had never been fingerprinted. Lots of people haven’t. If you have never been arrested, applied for a security clearance or served in the armed forces, then you’ve probably not been fingerprinted. The Bureau maintains a huge database of everyone who has ever been fingerprinted, and it can be accessed by authorized law enforcement agencies.”

“I understand. And Manning has never been fingerprinted?”

“He has, once. After the business on St. Marks, Manning paid me a visit in New York. He wanted money. Fortunately, I had been expecting him, and Dino showed up shortly after his arrival and arrested him on charges of insurance fraud. Since he was wanted in St. Marks on three murder charges, and since the insurance company had no hope of retrieving any funds from him, they waived their claim on Manning and allowed him to be extradited to St. Marks. But first, he was taken to Dino’s precinct, the Nineteenth, in Manhattan, and routinely fingerprinted.”

“And then his prints went into the FBI computer?”

“No. Whoever handled the fingerprinting at the Nineteenth considered Manning’s arrest as a foreign matter and didn’t forward his prints to the FBI. But they remained on file at the precinct, and earlier this week, I remembered that Manning had been printed.

“The FBI also maintains a database of fingerprints that are associated with unsolved crimes. If a perpetrator leaves a print at a crime scene, it’s run against all known prints, and if there’s no match, it goes into the unsolved crimes database under a file number that relates to the case. I asked Dino to run a match of Manning’s prints against that database, and it turned up a match with a bank robbery in Arlington, Virginia, four years ago. That crime was also matched by modus operandi and description of the perpetrator to three other bank robberies in Maryland. All the robberies took place near Washington, D.C., where Manning kept an apartment under the name of William Charles Danforth.”

“So Manning is a bank robber, as well as a murderer?”

“Yes. It appears that he had been supporting himself in that manner while he was writing a novel, which has now been published and has become a best-seller.”

“Busy guy.”

“Yes, he has been. Which brings us to today’s visit from the FBI and the Houston detective. The FBI told us they were interested in the Virginia bank robbery, which was patently nonsense because the Bureau would never spend its resources on such a small crime, especially when they know the banks won’t even prosecute small robberies unless violence was employed.”

“So what were they really interested in?”

“The Houston PD, in investigating a suspected homicide, also came up with a fingerprint, which they ran against the FBI’s databases. They turned up the Virginia bank robbery, too, and then, when Dino’s precinct turned up the same thing, it alerted both the FBI and the Houston department that somebody else had a match. What’s more, Dino could attach an identity to the prints, as well, and that’s why we had these visits today.”

“Did you or Dino tell them who the prints belonged to?”

“Yes, we did.”

“So they’re looking for Manning, now?”

“Yes. And we think he may be in Palm Beach.”

“Well, this is very good news, Stone.”

“It is. I hope they’ll have him in custody soon, which would prevent Manning’s trying to disrupt the wedding.”

“Why do you think he would try to do that?”

“Last night, while the yacht’s crew was off duty, and Dino and I were asleep on the yacht, somebody let go all her mooring lines and removed the gangplank. If Dino hadn’t woken up, the yacht would almost certainly have collided with a bridge south of here and done great damage; maybe even have sunk the yacht.”

“Jesus. And you think it was Manning?”

Stone avoided mention of Dolce. “He seems the likely candidate. It was hardly the prank of a roving band of juvenile delinquents.”

“And you think he might try to disrupt the wedding?”

“Yes. We’ve taken security precautions against that possibility.”

“So everything that can be done has been done?”

“Yes.”

Thad stood up. “Then I’m going to put it out of my mind.”

“Please sit down, Thad. I’m not finished.”

Thad sat down.

“The Houston PD is interested in Manning because one of his fingerprints was found on a bedside glass of a man they believe may have been poisoned.”

“So he killed somebody in Houston, too? Good God, the man’s a maniac.”

“That certainly appears to be so. But what’s important to us here, today, is that the man the police think may have been poisoned was Winston Harding, Liz’s late husband.”

Thad seemed to freeze in place. “Oh, my God,” he said, finally.

Stone felt he had finally made his point.

“The poor girl. This man has made her life hell, and now we learn he murdered her husband, too?”

Maybe he hadn’t made his point, after all, Stone thought. He was going to have to spell it out. “That is a very distinct possibility,” Stone said. “And it has implications for you.”

“You mean, you think Manning may try to kill me?”

Stone nodded. “It’s a possibility we can’t ignore.”

“But you’ve already taken security precautions.”

“Yes, but how long are you willing to live under those circumstances?”

“I see,” Thad said. “You mean that he might try to kill me at some time in the future?”

“Yes.” Stone was having trouble getting the rest of it out. “Thad, I think that, under the circumstances, you should postpone the wedding.”

Thad looked alarmed. “For how long?”

“Until Manning is caught and . . . interrogated.”

“Gosh, I don’t know if we could do that at this point without causing a major hullabaloo in town. We’ve already invited two hundred people from Palm Beach and all over the country. Some of them have already arrived.”

“Of course, Manning may be arrested today or tomorrow.”

“That would certainly solve the problem, wouldn’t it?”

Stone took a deep breath. “Not necessarily.”

Thad looked at him for a long moment. “You mean Manning might have help? An accomplice?”

“It’s a very real possibility.”
Thank God,
Stone thought.
He’s got it at last
.

“Do you have any idea who it might be?”

No, he hadn’t gotten it. “Thad, I want you to understand that what I’m about to say is conjecture, but it’s a conjecture that has to be made.”

“So, make it.”

“There’s only one person that we’re aware of who knows both Manning and you.”

Thad’s brow wrinkled, then his face relaxed, and his mouth fell open. “You can’t mean . . .”

“As I say, it’s only conjecture at this point. We won’t know more until Manning is arrested, and it’s entirely possible that he won’t say anything then.”

“But that’s completely crazy,” Thad said.

“You may be right. But ask yourself this: Who profited from Winston Harding’s death?”

“Well, Manning, I guess. In some way. Revenge against Liz, maybe.”

“That’s a possibility. But there’s only one person who actually profited from Harding’s death.”

Thad didn’t seem to be able even to think it.

Stone finally said it aloud. “That person is Liz.”

“No, no, no, no . . .” Thad’s voice trailed off.

“And if the two of you are married and anything should happen to you, she would profit a great deal more than she did from Winston Harding’s death.”

Thad’s body sagged as if air had been let out of it. He seemed unable to speak.

“So, I think you should postpone the wedding until all this has been resolved.”

Thad seemed to collect himself. He sat up straight. “No,” he said. “I love her, and she loves me. If I know nothing else, I know that. The wedding goes on as scheduled. Do what you can to protect us from Manning, but you are not to say a word about this to Liz, is that understood?”

“Thad . . .”

“Stone, you have to either do as I wish in this matter, or leave. There’s no in between. What’s it going to be? Are you with me?”

Stone sighed. “All right,” he said.