Wild Card

41

Elise ran to the phone and dialed her mother’s cell phone. “Mom, call me immediately, please.” She hung up. “No answer. I left her a voice mail. I’ll text her, too.” She sent the text, then sat down to wait.

“Let’s not get too excited,” Stone said. “There may be a good reason she didn’t answer.”

“I have this awful feeling,” Elise said. “This is all my fault; if I hadn’t left my answering machine on...”

Dino’s phone rang. “Bacchetti.” He listened. “Your instructions are the same.” He hung up.

Before he could speak, Elise’s phone rang. “Mom?” She lapsed into Sicilian, then finally hung up. “She went back inside to use the ladies’ room, and there was no signal in there. They’re on the way here now.”

Stone asked Fred to meet her in the garage and bring her up to the study. “All right,” he said to the room, “everybody’s safe now. We’ll have some dinner when she gets here. Elise, what’s your mother’s name?”

“Elena Grant.”

Shortly, Fred entered the study with Elena, and Elise introduced everybody. Elena recognized Dino and let loose with a stream of Sicilian, while Dino tried gamely to keep up.

“Mom,” Elise said. “Let’s speak English.”

“Sure,” Elena said. “His Sicilian is pretty spotty, anyway.”

“It’s been a long time,” Dino said defensively.

Elise took her mother into the living room and spent several minutes explaining what was going on, then dinner was served, and they all sat down.

Dino put the phone down and picked up his after-dinner cognac. “Okay, I’ve nailed down a hotel suite for them over on Lex, not so far away. They can move in tomorrow morning.”

“That’s good news,” Stone said.

“I had a call from the D.A.,” Dino said, “but I didn’t return it. I’ll let the son of a bitch wait until tomorrow morning. There’s nothing he can do tonight, anyway.”

“Tell him we have a growing crowd of fugitives from Thomas justice,” Stone said.

“I don’t think that would move him.”

“What would move him?”

“Maybe if the Thomases canceled their campaign contribution.”

Stone laughed. “That sounds like our D.A.”

Stone was in bed when Jamie called. “I was just wondering about you,” he said.

“Wondering if I was dead or alive? Well, I’m alive, by the grace of God. No exploding flowers today. Maybe they’ve lost track of me.”

“Don’t count on that. Listen to your security people, they’ve done a great job so far.”

“Well, I’m not in a coffin — not even in traction. I guess that’s something.”

“How are you handling the road?”

“It’s wearing,” she said. “I don’t care how good the food is. You may find a little more of me to grab hold of when I get back.”

“I won’t complain.”

“How about some phone sex?” she asked.

“I’ll wait for the real thing.”

“You just want me super-horny when I get home,” she replied.

“That’s a nice thought.” He brought her up to date on the day’s events.

“How many people is that staying at your house?”

“I’ve lost count. Two of them are moving into a police safe house tomorrow, that’s a start.”

“When I get home, can we go somewhere?”

“I thought you were homesick.”

“I’ll get over it. Didn’t you say you have a house in L.A.?”

“I do.”

“That might be fun.”

“It would be. Let’s see where this whole business goes before we make travel plans.”

“Oh, okay. Well, if there’s no phone sex in the offing, I’m going to sleep.”

“Do it well.” They hung up.

The following morning Stone woke later than usual. When he got to his office, Joan announced that Elise and her mother had just left, under the care of Fred.

“I’m moving Mrs. Doubtfire to Elise’s room,” she said.

“Don’t call her that, or I’ll start doing it.”

“I’ve already called her that, and she loved it. First time I’ve seen her smile. She was going to sleep on a cot in Sherry’s room, but Sherry drew the line there.”

“I haven’t been up to see her yet. How’s she doing?”

“Sitting up in a chair and talking a blue streak. She’s happiest when Bob is there.”

“I expect he’s happier, too.”

Rance Damien went into Henry’s office and found Hank already there. “I’ve got some bad news,” he said in Sicilian.

“Now what?” Henry asked.

“I became suspicious of Elise, so I had her apartment wired yesterday. She came home from work, but apparently went out after that.”

“So what’s the bad news?” Hank asked.

“Her mother called and left a message — in Sicilian.”

The Thomases let that sink in for a moment. “Can we talk here?” Henry asked.

Rance took Bob Cantor’s bugs from his pocket and placed them on the desk. “We can now,” he said. “My people found these in our offices last night.”

Henry looked at the hardware as if it were a nest of poisonous spiders. “How long have they been here?”

“There’s no way to tell,” Rance replied. “The point is, Elise understands Sicilian. How many times have we used it when she was in the room?”

Everybody thought about it. “Only once, I think,” Henry said. “She was waiting to take a letter.”

“What did we talk about on that occasion?” Hank asked.

“Far too much,” Rance said.

“Who was listening to these bugs?”

“My best guess is Cantor,” Rance said, “but that’s only a guess. Could be the police or the D.A.”

“Maybe Barrington?”

“Maybe. If Barrington was listening, then Dino Bacchetti heard it, too.”

“I had a call this morning,” Hank said. “Bacchetti had a meeting with the D.A. yesterday.”

“That may not have been about us,” Rance pointed out.

“Let’s assume that it was about us,” Henry replied. “What’s our next move?”

Hank looked at his grandfather. “Is that buyout offer we had still on the table?”

“Could be,” Henry said.

“Then we should explore that possibility.”

“I’ll make a call,” Henry said. “What if it isn’t still on the table?”

“Then we’d better start thinking about our exit strategies,” Rance said.