Cut and Thrust

48

Everyone gathered in the early evening for a drink in Stone’s living room. Hal Henry, an old Hollywood hand in his sixties, regaled them with stories of the town’s golden years and held them rapt. Then Dino and Viv arrived with their guests, who turned out to be the police commissioner of New York and his wife, Dorothy. Stone knew them well, and was happy to see them. They were almost ready to go in for dinner, when Fred came into the room. “Telephone call for Ms. Keaton,” he said.

“You can take it in the study,” Stone said. She knew the way. Everyone chatted for a bit, then Ann returned. “Ed,” she said, “you’ve gotten very lucky with 60 Minutes: a segment they had planned to show this Sunday had to be held up while they sort out some legal problems and they were going to air a rerun, but the Pamela Hale interview from San Francisco came in and blew them away.”

“That’s wonderful news,” Hal said. “You don’t get on that show on short notice unless you have something special.”

“They’re doing a rough cut of the footage as we speak, and they want to come here tomorrow morning, show you the rough cut, then interview you on camera.”

“Fine with me,” Ed said.

“They’re going to make two segments of the two interviews,” Ann said. “The first segment will be softball questions from Pamela, allowing Barbara to get everything out of her system. That will be the interview her publicist wanted for her. The second segment will be taken from the last half of the interview, followed by the interview with you, Ed.”

Hal Henry was nearly beside himself. “This is going to drive Hugh Gordon crazy. We’ve been rivals for years, and now all I have to do is find a way to take credit for the whole thing.”

Everybody laughed. “I’ll see if I can get you a credit,” Ann said.

They went in to dinner, and the evening passed in good food, wine, and conversation. Stone reflected that he didn’t give enough dinner parties, and he resolved to have more guests in his home.

When the dessert dishes were being taken away, the commissioner cleared his throat loudly. “Stone,” he said, “may I have the floor for a moment?”

“Of course, Commissioner.”

“I have a couple of announcements to make: we’ve been a long time coming to this final decision, but tomorrow morning, on the steps outside City Hall, I’m going to announce my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for mayor of New York City.”

Applause from all.

“I had considered running as an independent, to avoid a crowded primary, but after consideration, and considering the quality of the field, we decided to enter. It will give us more airtime before the general election and, thus, an edge over the Republican candidate.”

“That’s great news, Commissioner,” Stone said.

“There’s a bit more,” the commissioner said. “At the press conference, I’ll also be announcing my resignation as commissioner, so that I can run full-time. Naturally, I have a great interest in who succeeds me, so today I had a meeting with the present mayor, also a good Democrat, and he has agreed to appoint Chief of Detectives Dino Bacchetti to the office of commissioner.”

More applause.

“Dino has always been an outstanding cop, dating back to the days when he had Stone for a partner to keep him out of trouble, then as a sergeant and a lieutenant, when he led the detective squad at the Nineteenth Precinct. Although he has been chief of detectives for only a fairly short time, he has proved adept not only at leading the city’s detectives, but in handling the more public side of the office. In short, he has been a big success as chief and my best appointment. And if I’m elected and he keeps his nose clean, I’ll reappoint him upon taking office.”

Fred, without being asked, suddenly reappeared with a magnum of Dom Pérignon from Stone’s cellar, and everyone drank to the old and new commissioners.

Later, when the guests had gone or retired, Stone and Ann made love until exhausted.

“I’m sorry I can’t be here tomorrow to keep an eye on Ed’s interview with Morley Safer,” she said, “but that’s the sort of thing Hal Henry does every day, and he’ll see that Ed gets fair treatment.”

“Don’t worry about Ed,” Stone said. “He’s an old hand at this sort of thing, and the camera loves him.”

“I’m not surprised,” she replied. “Tomorrow, as I’ve said before, all hell breaks loose. I’ve got a meeting at eight A.M. where Kate’s campaign schedule will be finalized, barring last-minute changes, then we look at our first television ads, which were shot in New York yesterday and today. I’m very nervous about those.”

“The camera loves Kate, too,” Stone said.

“The TV campaign will break the day after the Republican convention ends. If Henry Carson gets the nomination, as seems fairly certain, he won’t have had time to get his TV campaign together, so we’ll have several days for our ads to run unopposed, as it were. Also, Kate is doing two of the network morning shows tomorrow and two the day after, then she goes quiet with the beginning of the Republican convention until the ad campaign breaks.”

“Sounds like you have everything under control,” Stone said.

“It may sound that way, but things can change in an hour, sometimes in a minute, so I will always be reorganizing.”

“No one does it better,” Stone said.

She turned and reached for him again. “That’s what I was just thinking about you.”