Cut and Thrust

3

Security was already tighter than usual at the gate to The Arrington, and Stone, even though he was a major stockholder and board member, was not spared. The search of the cars was thorough.

The hotel was built on land that had been owned by Arrington’s first husband, the movie star Vance Calder, and his house had been incorporated into the guest-arrival center. As part of the lease of the land to the hotel corporation, Stone had negotiated the building of a new house for Arrington. Completed after her death, he had used it as his L.A. base since the hotel opened.

His car was met by the now elderly Manolo, who had been Vance Calder’s butler, and he oversaw the unloading and routing of luggage to the various rooms.

“Drinks in half an hour,” Stone said to everybody, and they went to freshen up.

When he had the opportunity, Manolo approached Stone. “A man from the Secret Service was here half an hour ago,” the Filipino said.

“Details?” Stone asked.

“He said he would return to brief you after the arrival of the president,” Manolo said.

Brief him? About what? Stone went upstairs to his bedroom and got into some casual clothes, then he went back downstairs. A man in a suit with a lapel button was waiting to see him.

“Mr. Barrington, I’m Special Agent Mervin Beam of the Secret Service. I’m in charge of the L.A. office.” They shook hands. “May I speak with you in private?”

Stone took the man into his study and they sat down. He didn’t bother offering the man a drink since he knew it would be declined. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It arrived as an e-mail sent to me personally.” Beam took a sheet of paper from an inside pocket and handed it to Stone. “This is a copy.”

Stone read the message: At some time before the end of the Democratic convention, Katharine Rule Lee will die. We are patriots who have sworn to return the United States to a strict, constitutional republic, and we regard Mrs. Lee as a clear and present danger to her country, since she will slavishly support the criminal policies put into effect by William Jefferson Lee.

We have supporters in both houses of Congress and in the government bureaucracy, and even in the Secret Service, and we have the means and expertise to carry out our promises. We are quite willing to die in pursuit of our ideals, if that should become necessary.

There will be nothing you can do to stop us. It was signed, The Patriots.

“WHAT DO YOU make of this?” Stone asked.

“I’m no psychologist,” Beam said, “but I’ve seen a lot of this stuff over the years. The writer is probably an individual and there is probably no group involved. He exaggerates or, more likely, simply lies about his support in the Congress and the government.”

“What about his claim of someone in your service?”

“I believe that is in the realm of preposterous.”

“And his claim of the means to kill Mrs. Lee?”

“Anybody with a gun has the means to kill anybody else.”

“Do you believe this man is a serious threat or just crazy?”

“Conceivably both, but in any case we will take his threat seriously, as we do all threats. The part about being willing to die is probably true — in fact, that may be what he intends.”

“How did he get your e-mail address?”

Beam looked at his shoes for a moment. “That is the single most disturbing thing about the threat. I’ve got a tech team working on where his e-mail came from, and I’ve got two agents working on how he could have discovered my secure address.”

“How many people have that address?”

“Knowledge of it is restricted to our director, two deputy directors in Washington, and in L.A. to three supervisory agents. It’s used for the most confidential communications.”

“How about secretaries, clerical workers, cleaning ladies?”

“None of the above, but an employee might root it out if he had access and enough time.”

“What are your chances of backtracking to find the sender?”

“Fair to good, unless he’s very, very smart and capable. We’ll assume he is.”

“Is there anything you’d like me to do?”

“Mrs. Lee tells me she and the president are having dinner in this house tomorrow night. I just want you to know that, from eight A.M. tomorrow, my agents will be all over the house and the property. We’ll be as unobtrusive as possible.”

“Actually, we’ll be having dinner outdoors, by the pool, weather permitting.”

“Then we’ll set up a perimeter.” Beam extended a hand. “May I have the e-mail back, please?”

Stone handed it to him.

“Who will be attending the dinner tomorrow night, besides the president and first lady?”

“Whoever they would like to include, plus my guests. They are Chief of Detectives, NYPD, Dino Bacchetti and his wife, Vivian, who is an executive at Strategic Services, Michael Freeman, chairman and CEO of Strategic Services, and he may be bringing someone, you can ask him. Also my son, Peter Barrington, his girlfriend, Hattie Patrick, Ben Bacchetti, the chief’s son, and his girlfriend, Tessa Tweed. I’ll let you know if any other guests are added to the list.”

“Thank you, Mr. Barrington.” Beam stood up. “I’ll keep you posted if there are further developments.”

“I would appreciate that.” Stone shook the man’s hand, received his business card, and watched him leave. Stone was not unduly alarmed about the threat, but its presence would add an edge to their evening that he didn’t like. He would tell Dino and Mike to come armed.

The phone rang; Manolo answered and buzzed Stone. “Mr. Peter is on the phone,” he said.

Stone picked up. “Good afternoon, kiddo!”

“Glad to hear your voice, Dad. I got your message about dinner tomorrow, and we’d all like to come.”

“Great!”

“I’d also like to bring Billy and Betsy Burnett.”

“Of course, I’d love to see them.”

“What time?”

“Six-thirty, seven?”

“And, Dad, the night after that, we’d like to have you all over here for dinner. You haven’t seen our place yet.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Stone said. “How’s the flying going?” He had given Peter his old Citation Mustang.

“Very well. Billy has got Ben, Hattie, and me type-rated in it. Tessa hasn’t shown any interest.”

“Good news. You’ll get lots of use out of it.”

“When does your new Citation M2 arrive?”

“In a few weeks. There was a delay in certifying the avionics.”

“I can’t wait to see it.”

“I can’t wait to see you,” Stone said. They said goodbye and hung up. Stone called Mervin Beam and got his voice mail; he added the Burnetts to the guest list.

As they were having a drink before dinner, Ann turned up. “I finally got free,” she said.

“Your things are in your dressing room,” Stone said. “Top of the stairs, first door on your left.”

“I’ll go up after dinner,” she said. “Right now I’d like a martini.”

Stone buzzed Manolo and ordered the drink, and it appeared quickly.

“Now that I’ve got you all together,” Stone said, “I want to tell you about my conversation with the Secret Service.” And he did so.