Hot Mahogany

40

Stone was about to go to lunch when Joan buzzed him. “Barton Cabot on line one for you.”

Stone punched the button. “Barton?”

“Yes. Carla and I are on the way to Manhattan.”

“What happened at Ab’s house?”

“The Van Hooten van arrived, and they unloaded two pieces, wrapped the way the ones last night were wrapped.”

“So, Ab bought the Charleston secretary from Charlie Crow.”

“It would appear so. Next time I see Ab, he’ll tell me about it, if he thinks he has the real thing.”

“I especially want to know if Ab thinks he has the real thing.”

“If he thinks so, he might ask me to authenticate it.”

“He might, if he had no part in Charlie’s stealing the original.”

“We don’t know if Charlie stole the original,” Barton pointed out. “He may just be selling Ab a copy, identified as such.”

“I guess I still have more work to do on the original theft, then.”

“I guess you do.” Barton hung up.

Joan buzzed again. “Dino on line one.”

“Good morning.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Charlie Crow is on the move today.”

“Where?”

“He’s in Bristol, Rhode Island, right now. Drove up this morning.”

“You have an address?”

“It’s Water Street, which is only a block long, but I don’t have eyes on him, so I don’t know which house or building.”

“I wish we had somebody up there,” Stone said.

“Wait a minute,” Dino said. “I know a retired police captain in Providence who will do anything for two hundred bucks. He’s not that far away. Let’s see if he’ll drive down there.”

“Call me back.”

Dino hung up, and Stone ordered in a sandwich; he didn’t want to miss this call.

Nearly two hours passed before Dino called back. “Hey. My guy knows somebody in Bristol, and he went down there. We’ll give them a hundred each, okay?”

“Okay. What do we know?”

“Crow’s Rolls was parked in front of number eleven Water Street, and he left half an hour ago. He answered to the description of Crow. Hang on, call on the other line.” Dino put Stone on hold.

Stone worked on the Times crossword for three minutes.

“I’m back. You there?”

“I’m here. What’s a four-letter word for a Siouxan tribe?”

“Otoe.”

“Right.” Stone wrote that in. “What did he find out?”

“Our guy made some calls. The owner of the house is a Mrs. Caleb Strong, first name, Mildred. She’s a widow in her nineties, a prominent member of Rhode Island society for many decades. Her late husband was the last of a New England shipping family that goes back more than two hundred and fifty years.”

“Listen, give this guy a hundred and fifty; he does good work.”

“Does all this mean anything to you?”

“Not a fucking thing.”

“So why do I have to give him an extra fifty?”

“Because he’s thorough.”

“As long as it’s your fifty.”

“I’m good for it. Don’t let Charlie fall off your computer screen,” Stone said. “I want to know where he goes next.”

“We’ll know until the batteries run out on the GPS unit,” Dino said. “He seems to be headed back to New York now.”

“Maybe you’d better send a man to change the batteries.”

“I’ll do that as soon as Charlie gets back to town.”

“By the way, what’s the name of the doctor that Eliza is marrying?”

“Edgar Kelman.”

“Thanks.”

“See you at the wedding?”

“Oh, shut up.” Stone buzzed Joan. “You’ve got a Tiffany catalogue, haven’t you?”

“Sure. A girl never knows when a friend will suddenly get remarried.”

“Can I borrow it for a minute?”

“I’ll bring it in.” Joan came in with the catalogue. “Anything else?”

“Hang on a minute.” Stone leafed through the catalogue. “Order this silver bowl, and have the initials EK engraved on it,” he said. “Then send it to Eliza at the hospital.”

“Eliza is getting married to a K?”

“She is.”

“I thought she was pretty much your girl.”

“She was, pretty much, until she decided to marry a doctor.”

“You might leave off the initials, in case she changes her mind.”

“That’s why I want the initials on it,” Stone said. “So she won’t be able to return it to Tiffany.”

“That’s mean,” Joan said.

“It is not. It just means that I fully accept her decision to marry a bloody doctor, something she said she’d never do.”

“And they talk about a woman scorned,” Joan said as she left Stone’s office.

Stone phoned Bill Eggers.

“Hello?”

“Bill, I might have something for you on that mahogany secretary you’re interested in.”

“Tell me.”

“Do you know a guy named Charlie Crow?”

“Yeah, I’m doing some work on a deal between Crow and Harlan Deal.”

“He may have what you’re looking for.”

“Okay, I’ll call him.”

“Bye-bye.” Stone hung up. He would be very interested to know the result of Eggers’s call to Crow.