Hot Mahogany

36

Stone got home late that night, having been somewhat overserved at Elaine’s. He reset the alarm system and took the elevator upstairs to his bedroom.

He took off his jacket and reached to hang it up with his other jackets, but something was wrong. His suits hung where he ordinarily hung his jackets. He shook his head, disoriented, then looked around: His jackets hung on the opposite wall, where he kept his suits. He felt slightly nauseated, as if he were on a rolling ship.

He opened the top drawer of the built-in chest of drawers, where he normally kept socks and found shirts. He opened the third drawer, where he kept shirts, and found sweaters. He had begun to sweat. Stone went into the bathroom and threw up.

He blew his nose, splashed cold water on his face and reached for a towel on the ring beside the sink. He found his cotton bathrobe there. The hand towels were lined up on the edge of the bathtub. He did not throw up this time; instead, he got angry.

He went back into his bedroom and looked around. Four oil paintings by his mother, Matilda Stone, that normally hung to his left were on the opposite wall. The nonmatching lamps on either side of his bed had exchanged places. He reached into a bedside table drawer for tissues to mop his brow and found condoms. The bedspread had been reversed. The small rug beside his bed was now at the foot.

He went back to his dressing room and undressed, hanging his clothes on hooks, to be dealt with the next day, then, after trying half a dozen different drawers, he found a nightshirt and put it on. He got into his bed and discovered it had been short-sheeted. He remade the bed, got into it and fell asleep.

He had nightmares.

Stone met Bob Cantor for lunch the next day at P. J. Clarke’s. “How was the Mayflower Inn?” he asked.

“Just lovely,” Cantor said. “Bonnie and I had a fine night there. Good dinner, too. You’re looking a little peaked, Stone. Drink too much last night?”

“Maybe,” Stone said glumly. “You know that circuit board you changed in the Connecticut alarm system?”

“Yes.”

“Change the one in my Turtle Bay house, too.”

“Uh-oh, somebody get into the house?”

“Yes, and more.”

“What?”

“Whoever got in rearranged my bedroom and dressing room. Helene is over there now, trying to straighten everything out. It’s a mess.”

“I’ve got a circuit board in the van,” Cantor said. “I’ll do it as soon as we leave here. You got any idea who’s behind these two break-ins?”

“My best guess is Harlan Deal.”

“The guy we met at the inn? Why would he do that?”

“It’s about a woman.”

“Carla?”

“Yes.”

“I know her.”

“I didn’t know you were a music buff.”

“It’s not that. I installed a security system in her grandfather’s house last year and met her there a couple of times.”

“Her grandfather’s house?”

“You remember, you sent me out there.”

Stone was feeling nauseated again and asked the waiter for a beer. “Bob, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You recommended me to her grandfather.”

Stone raised his beer. “Hair of the dog,” he said, then drank deeply. “Who is her grandfather?”

“Eduardo.”

“Eduardo who?”

“Your friend, Eduardo Bianchi.”

“What?”

“Yeah, you sent me to him.”

“Not that, the part about grandfather.”

“Well, she’s his granddaughter. You knew that, didn’t you?”

“That’s impossible; she’s Swedish.”

“Half,” Cantor said. “Her father was Eduardo’s son.”

“He has a son?”

“Had. He caught a number of bullets when Carla was about to start music school at Juilliard. She stopped using her last name after that.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“My old man knew the family, and so did I. Eduardo’s son, Alberto – Carla’s father – was a couple of years ahead of me in school. I knew him to speak to, that’s all. My old man didn’t want me making friends with mafiosi.”

“Who was her mother?”

“Her, I didn’t know. Somebody Alberto met in the city, I heard. Swedish immigrant, apparently.”

Stone spent a few sips of his beer trying to reorient himself. His world seemed to have been shaken and stirred.

“How do you know Carla?” Cantor asked.

Stone told him the story.

“So now this Harlan Deal is on your case?”

“Apparently.”

“How much on your case?”

“Enough to be annoying.”

“Enough to hurt you?”

“I don’t think so. He may have his suspicions, but he can’t put me together with Carla. And I handed her off to the Colonel yesterday.”

“To the Colonel?”

“I was feeling crowded by Deal, and I feel even more so now. She’s spending a couple of nights with him, and he’s bringing her back to the city.”

“Well, that’s good, I guess. The Colonel always liked the ladies.”

“Yeah, I noticed that; it’s what gave me the idea.”

“You’re well rid of her, if it gets Deal off your back.”

“Who might he have sent to break into both my houses?”

“A pro, I can tell you that much.”

“Somebody like you?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Cantor smirked. “Somebody with a sense of humor.”

Stone ignored that. “Somebody you might know?”

“Well, there isn’t exactly an American Association of Semilegal Techs that meets every Tuesday for lunch, but I know a few guys. You want me to check around?”

Stone thought about that. “No, forget it; what good would it do? As soon as Harlan Deal finds out Carla is seeing the Colonel, he’ll get off my back.”

“And onto the Colonel’s back?”

Stone frowned. “I hadn’t thought about that, but no, I don’t think so. Deal is pissed off at me, because I did the prenup job for him, and he paid me well. He figures I’ve betrayed him in some way, which I haven’t. Carla’s a big girl, and she makes her own decisions. This will blow over.”

“I hope you’re right,” Cantor said.

“Listen, on another subject, Dino’s guys put a GPS tracker on Charlie Crow’s Rolls-Royce, and it was parked outside Ab Kramer’s house for three hours the other night.”

“Well, that’s interesting. You think they were sitting cross-legged on the floor, addressing invitations to our little upcoming reunion?”

“Not for three hours. You remember that time you tapped a phone for me through the phone company?”

“Yeah, I’ve still got my guy on the inside.”

“I want you to tap Charlie Crow’s phone. See what we can come up with.”

“Okay, but it’ll cost you a grand up front plus five hundred a day for as long as the tap runs. My guy puts his pension at risk.”

“All right, I’ll buy that for three or four days. How about his cell phone?”

“I’ve got a scanner that will pick that up, but I’d have to follow him around; the range is short.”

“Let’s keep that in reserve.”

“Okay. Can we order lunch, now?”

Stone ordered the soup; it was all he felt like eating.