Swimming to Catalina

1

Elaine’s, late. Stone Barrington sat at a very good table with his friend and former partner Dino Bacchetti, who ran the detective division at the NYPD’s 19th Precinct, and with Elaine, who was Elaine.

The remnants of dinner were cleared away by Jack, the headwaiter, and brandy was brought for Stone and Dino. It was very special brandy; Dino had the bottle of his own stuff stashed behind the bar, and it annoyed Elaine no end, because she couldn’t charge him for it, not that she didn’t find other ways to charge him for it.

“Okay, I want to know about Arrington,” Elaine said.

“Elaine,” Dino interrupted, “don’t you know that Stone is still suffering a great deal of emotional pain over Arrington’s dumping him?”

“Who gives a fuck?” Elaine asked, quite reasonably. “I want to know how he let her get away. She was something, that girl.”

“There’s a large body of opinion,” Dino said, “that holds that she didn’t want to be known as Arrington Barrington.”

“And who could blame her?” Elaine asked. “Come on, Stone, spill it.”

Stone took a deep breath and sighed. “I have to take a lot of shit from you two, you know?”

“I think you better cough it up,” Dino said, “or we’re going to start getting tables in Siberia.”

“You bet your ass,” Elaine confirmed.

Stone sighed again. “It was like this,” he said, then stopped.

“Yeah?” Elaine encouraged.

“We were supposed to have ten days sailing in St. Marks in February.”

“I never heard of St. Marks,” Elaine said. “Where is that?”

“It’s a nice little island, tucked between Antigua and Guadeloupe. Anyway, we were supposed to meet at Kennedy for our flight down, but she got tied up, and she was supposed to be on the next plane, but then the blizzard hit.”

“I know about the blizzard,” Elaine said, exasperated. “Tell me about the girl.”

“While the blizzard was going on she got theNew Yorker assignment to do a profile of Vance Calder.”

“The new Cary Grant,” Dino explained, as if Elaine had no idea who a major movie star was.

“Yeah, yeah,” Elaine said.

“Apparently he hadn’t given an in-depth interview for twenty years,” Stone continued, “so it was quite a coup. Arrington had known Calder for a while-in fact, she was with him at the dinner party where we met.”

“So much for social history,” Elaine said.

“All right, I’m in St. Marks, sitting on the chartered boat, waiting for Arrington to show up, when this blonde sails in on a big beautiful boat, all by herself. But she had left the Canary Islands with a husband, who was no longer present. So she gets charged with his murder, and I end up defending her.”

“Like I don’t read a newspaper?” Elaine interjected. “Like the western hemisphere didn’t read about this trial?”

“All right, all right; I keep getting faxes from Arrington, saying she’s all tied up with Calder, then I get a fax saying that she’s going to L.A. with him for more research.”

“‘Research’; I like that.” Elaine smirked.

“So I write her a letter, pouring out my heart, practically asking her to marry me…”

“‘Practically’? What is that?” Elaine demanded.

“All right, not in so many words, but I think she would have gotten the idea.”

“She didn’t get the idea?”

“She didn’t get the letter. I gave it to a lady headed for Florida to FedEx for me, and her plane crashed on takeoff.”

“Wow,that’s the best excuse I ever heard for not writing,” Elaine said. “You sure your dog didn’t eat it?”

“I swear, I wrote her the letter. Then, before I could write it again, I get a fax from Arrington saying that she and Calder were married in Needles, Arizona, the day before. What am I supposed to do?”

“You were supposed to do it a long time ago,” Elaine said. “Why should this gorgeous girl wait around for you to get your ass in gear?”

“Maybe, but there was nothing I could do at this point, Elaine. I was going to trial in a couple of days; the woman’s life depended on me.”

“The woman might have been better off if you’d gone after Arrington,” Dino said, “considering how the trial went.”

“Thanks, Dino, I needed that.”

“Any time.”

“So now Arrington is married to the guyPeople says is the sexiest man in America, and I’m…” His voice trailed off.

“How long they been married?” Elaine asked.

“I don’t know-two and a half, three months.”

“It’s probably too late,” Elaine mused. “Unless it’s goingreally badly.”

“I’ve had a couple of letters from her telling me how gloriously it’s going,” Stone said glumly.

“Oh,” Elaine said.

There followed a long silence.

Jack came over to the table. “Phone call for you, Stone,” he said, pointing at one of the two pay phones n the wall nearby.

“Who is it?”

“I don’t know,” Jack replied, “but he’s got abeautiful speaking voice on the telephone.”

“Must be Vance Calder,” Dino deadpanned.

Elaine burst out laughing.

Stone got up and trudged over to the phone. “Hello?” he said, sticking a finger in the other ear to blot out some of the noise.

“Stone?”

“Yeah? Who’s this?”

“Stone, this is Vance Calder.”

“Yeah, sure; Dino put you up to this?”

“What?”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Vance, Stone.”

Stone hung up the phone and went back to the table. “Nice,” he said to Dino.

“Huh?”

“Guy on the phone says he’s Vance Calder. Thanks a lot.”

“Don’t thank me,” Dino said. “I never met the guy.”

“You put whoever that was up to it, didn’t you? It was a setup.” He looked at Elaine. “You were probably in on it, too.”

Elaine placed a hand on her ample bosom. “Stone, I swear.”

Jack came back. “Same guy on the phone again; says you hung up on him. You know who it sounds like?”

“Vance Calder?” Dino suggested.

“Yeah!” Jack said. “Sounds just like him!”

After a glare at Dino and Elaine, Stone went back to the phone. “Hello?”

“Stone, we’ve met; don’t you know my voice?”

“Vance?”

“Yes,” Calder replied, sounding relieved.

“I’m sorry, I thought someone…”

“It’s all right; it happens a lot.”

“Hello, Vance; how’d you find me here?”

“There was no answer at your house, and I remembered that Arrington said you were at Elaine’s a lot. I took a chance.”

“How is Arrington, Vance?”

“That’s what I’m calling about, Stone. Arrington has disappeared.”

“What do you mean, disappeared?”

“Just that; she’s vanished.”

“When?”

“The day before yesterday.”

“Have you been to the police?”

“I can’t do that; the tabloids would be all over me. I need your help, Stone.”

“Vance, you’d really be a lot better off going to the police; there’s nothingI can do.”

“Have you heard from her?”

“I had a letter about a month ago; she sounded very happy.”

“She has been very happy, but all of a sudden she’s gone, with no explanation.”

“Vance, I don’t know what I can do to help.”

“You can find her, Stone; if anybody can, you can. I want you to come out here.”

“Vance, really…”

“The Centurion Studios jet is at Teterboro Airport right now, at Atlantic Aviation, waiting for you. You can be here by morning.”

“Vance, I appreciate your confidence in me, but…”

“Stone, Arrington is pregnant.”

Stone felt as if he’d been struck in the chest. He could count.

“Stone?”

“I’ll be at Teterboro in an hour, Vance.” “There’ll be a car waiting for you at Santa Monica Airport.”

“Write down everything you can think of, Vance; we’ll have a lot to talk about.”

“I will. And thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Stone said, then hung up. He returned to the table. “You’re buying dinner, Dino,” he said. “I’m off to La-La Land.”

“About what?” Dino asked.

“I’ll tell you later.” Stone said.

“Say hello to Arrington for me,” Elaine said, looking at him over her glasses.

“You bet, Elaine.” He pecked her on the cheek, walked out of the restaurant, and started looking for a cab.