Swimming to Catalina

19

It was late now, and there wasn’t a lot of traffic on Sunset. Stone drove quickly along the winding road, up and down hills. When he reached the freeway he turned south toward the Pacific; the Lincoln stuck with him, a discreet distance back. Stone turned onto the Santa Monica Freeway, then onto Santa Monica Boulevard, driving right down to the beach. He turned left and, glancing at the rental agency’s map, saw he was headed for Venice. The Lincoln had closed to within half a dozen car lengths, which bothered him. Apparently his pursuers didn’t care if he knew they were following him.

He was on a broad street that was nearly empty of traffic, and he began to get annoyed, so he decided to do something he’d been taught years before in a police driving school. He checked his mirrors for traffic, then stomped on the emergency brake, locking the rear wheels, and spun the steering wheel to the left. The car traded ends, then he released the emergency brake and stood on the accelerator. The car behaved impeccably, its three-hundred-plus horses rocketing its small mass back down the street.

The Lincoln blew past in the opposite direction and, simultaneously, the two men in the front seat raised their left hands, blocking his view of their faces, as if they were accustomed to doing it. A moment later, Stone checked his rearview mirror; the Lincoln was behind him again. Still, the driver made no effort to overtake him or close the distance between them.

Using his map, Stone worked his way back toward Beverly Hills, taking care to keep to wide, brightly lit streets. He wasnot going to lead his tail down any dark alleys. He found himself on Wilshire Boulevard, now only a dozen blocks from Betty’s house, and he saw something ahead that looked very inviting. A block short of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, a cop car had pulled over a driver, his patrol car parked behind the car he had stopped, the lights flashing, and he was now leaning on the car, talking to the driver. Stone pulled up next to the cop. “Excuse me, officer, can you direct me to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel?” he asked. The Lincoln drove past him, not slowing down.

“Just up ahead, sir,” the cop said politely.

Stone reflected that a New York City cop would have responded differently to a stupid question. “Thanks very much,” he said, then drove on. He took his next right, figuring that the Lincoln was going around the block, and then he saw the Beverly Wilshire’s garage. He whipped into the entrance, took a ticket from the machine, made two quick rights and parked the car. He took the elevator to the lobby, walked to the front door, and looked outside. A single cab was waiting out front. He checked up and down Wilshire, then ran to the cab and hopped in, waking the driver.

“What?” the man said, sitting up.

“Sorry to disturb you.” He gave the man Betty’s address, then hunkered down in the seat.

“That’s only a few blocks from here,” the driver said wearily.

“Let’s call it an airport run,” Stone replied.

The cab pulled away from the curb and Stone watched as the Lincoln drove past in the opposite direction. This time he got a better look at the driver. He had last seen him standing at a neighboring urinal, he remembered.

The cab was on Betty’s street in two minutes. “Drive slowly down to the next corner,” Stone said.

“The address you gave me is in the middle of the block,” the driver said.

“Just do it, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” He muttered something under his breath.

“All right, stop here.” Stone looked up and down the street, gave the man twenty dollars, got out of the cab, and looked around again. He had the block to himself. He walked quickly to Betty’s house, half expecting the Lincoln to beat him there, let himself in, and went upstairs.

“Stone?” Betty called from the bedroom.

“Yeah, it’s me.” He walked down the hall, shucking his jacket, and into the bedroom. Betty was sitting up in bed, naked.

“Where have you been?”

“It took me longer than I thought to shake the other car.” He got out of his clothes and into bed.

“You sure you don’t have another girl stashed someplace?”

“Positive,” he said, kissing her.

“I’ve been waiting up for you,” she said, running a finger up the inside of his thigh.

“Why, whatever for?” he asked.

She showed him.

Betty was already dressed for work when Stone woke up. “Now,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “What was all that about last night?”

“Don’t you remember doing it?”

“Notthat. I mean, that thing with the car following us.”

“I don’t know, but I recognized the driver; he was with Ippolito at Grimaldi’s. I saw him up close, in the men’s room.”

“Are you and I in any kind of trouble?” she asked.

“What kind of trouble could we be in?”

“Do you think the car followed us from here to the restaurant?”

“No, it was still daylight then; I’d have noticed. They picked us up at the restaurant.”

“How’d they know we were there?”

“Did you see anybody you knew at dinner?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Somebody saw us there.”

“Somebody who knows Ippolito?”

“Yeah.”

“This is very creepy, Stone.”

“I know. Look, we have to assume that if Ippolito knows, then probably Regenstein and Sturmack know, too.”

“And that means that Vance knows.”

“Maybe. I think you have to be ready for that.”

“What can I say to him?”

“Say that you dropped me at the airport, and that you thought I left. Then I turned up at your door last night and took you to dinner. It’s the only time we’ve been out together since I was supposed to have left town. Grimaldi’s was before that. And we never discussed Arrington.”

“Then what, after dinner?”

“That I dropped you at the Beverly Hills Hotel and told you to get a cab home, and you haven’t seen me since. I think you can be pissed off at having been treated that way.”

“Okay.”

“In fact, why don’t you spill that to Vance at the first opportunity; don’t wait for him to hear about it from somebody else. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t have gone out with me, after all.”

“I guess not. So why didn’t you leave for New York when I thought you did? I’d better have a reason.”

“Say that I said I had some personal business to take care of, and I said I was leaving L.A. today.”

“Suppose he calls you in New York, and you’re not there?”

“That won’t be your fault. I think I’d better move into a hotel today; it can’t be good for you to have me staying here, now that we’ve been seen together. Can you recommend someplace quiet?”

“There’s a place in West Hollywood called Le Parc, a suite hotel. It’s the kind of place where the studio puts visiting writers. Neither Vance nor any of his friends would ever be seen there.” She looked up the address in the phone book and wrote it down for him.

“I’ll use the name Jack Smith, if you need to reach me.”

“Why Jack Smith?”

“My cop friend, Rick Grant, suggested it.”

“Okay. Can I reach you tonight?”

“Let’s skip a night. See if anybody follows you to or from work. If the coast seems clear, then we can get together tomorrow, for the weekend.”

“Okay, my sweet. Hang onto the key to my house, just in case you need a bolthole.”

“I’ll do that.”

She gave him a big kiss and left.

Stone got up, laid out his clothes for the day, and packed everything else, then shaved and got into a shower. He had just turned off the water and stepped out when he heard the front door of the house open and someone enter. More than one, he thought, and male. He could hear their voices. It was one thing, he thought, to be followed on well-lit city streets, but it was another to be caught alone in this house. He started grabbing at clothes.