Hot Mahogany

14

They were still drinking their coffee when two gunshots interrupted them.

“Are you armed?” Holly asked.

“No.”

“I am,” she said. “Come on.”

Stone followed her, wondering how she had concealed a weapon under her tight jeans and close-fitting sweater. She stopped before going out the kitchen door, lifted a leg and removed a tiny semiautomatic pistol from a holster strapped to her right ankle. She looked out the kitchen window for a moment, then stepped outside. “Follow me, and stay behind me,” she said.

They were halfway to the barn when Barton Cabot stepped out from behind it, the pistol still in his hand. “Raccoon,” he said. “Missed him.”

Holly tucked the little pistol back into its ankle holster. “How do the neighbors feel about the gunfire?”

“Oh, they’ll think it’s a bird hunter in a field nearby,” Barton replied.

“Barton,” Stone said, “will you show Holly the secretary? Anyway, I’d like to ask you some questions about it.”

“All right. Holly, where are you from?”

“Virginia.”

“Virginia?” Barton said. “Do you work with my brother?”

“I work for your brother,” Holly said.

“So you’re a spy?”

“Sometimes.”

“Did he send you here to spy on me?”

Stone spoke up. “No. Lance sent her here to help me find your lost secretary. And she’s working on her own time.”

“Oh.” Barton looked doubtful.

“Holly has already been very helpful. She knows everything I know about the situation, and I’d like both of us to know more.”

Barton nodded, seeming satisfied. He went to his safe, got out the key, opened the large cabinet and, with Stone’s help, slid out the rear wall to expose the secretary. Then he switched on the lights in the cabinet.

“Oooh, that’s beautiful,” Holly said.

“Do you know anything about American furniture?” Barton asked.

“I know how to get to the Ethan Allen store,” Holly said.

Barton chuckled. “Well, at least you’re honest.” He began a lecture on the piece.

Stone had heard it before, so he wandered around the shop, looking at the old hand tools on the walls. They reminded him of things he had seen on the walls of the woodworking shop at Williamsburg, Virginia, where period-style furniture was still made. He returned to Holly and Barton.

“There are only seven of these known to exist, apart from this one, and six of them are in museums or other institutions,” Barton was saying. “There are only two of them in private hands, and this is one of them. The other is said to rest in a private home near San Francisco that is built directly over the San Andreas Fault.”

“I wonder how the owner’s insurance company feels about that?” Holly observed.

“It’s probably self-insured.”

“How would someone authenticate a piece like this?”

“By being very familiar with other pieces from the same maker.” He pointed to the carved scallop shells at the top of the piece. “For instance, the cuts made in these figures can be matched to the work of a maker, by the tools he used and the strokes he made. There are no signatures, numbers or brass plates identifying the maker, and all the pieces are somewhat different from each other, often built to the specifications of those who commissioned them.”

Stone came over. “Barton, can we talk?”

Barton showed Stone and Holly to a little sitting area at one end of the shop, and they all took seats.

“Barton,” Stone said, “I want to ask you about a couple of people you were in the army with. Will you tell me what you can about them?”

“If my memory is working properly,” Barton said.

“The first is a Charles Crow.”

Barton looked thoughtful.

“You remember Bob Cantor?”

“Oh, yes. My best squad lead, later my best platoon leader. I got him a field commission.”

“Crow was a member of Cantor’s original squad.”

“Oh, yes. I remember him,” Barton said, looking enlightened. “A real hustler; he was always buying or selling something, for less than it was worth when buying and considerably more when selling.”

“Sort of like an antiques dealer,” Holly interjected.

Barton laughed, showing a lot of teeth.

It was the first time Stone had seen him even smile, and he wondered if the joke would have gotten as big a laugh if it had come from him instead of Holly. “Did you ever see Crow after your outfit was back in the States?”

“I threw a party during our last week together, as people were beginning to be discharged or transferred.”

“Was Crow discharged or transferred?”

“Why do I think you already know the answer to that question?” Barton asked.

“Sorry, Barton; I have to check your memory from time to time to see how it’s working.”

“Of course. Crow didn’t re-up, as I recall. Neither did Cantor, though I thought he would have had a future if he’d stayed in the Corps.”

“Do you have any idea what became of Crow after his discharge?”

“I remember that he was a New Yorker. I think he might have returned there, but I’ve no idea what he did after that.”

“Another name: Abner Kramer.”

“Ah, Ab,” Barton said, smiling again. “A great success story. He was a big cheese at Goldman Sachs, then started his own investment bank, and he has a colonial estate up here. He’s up practically every weekend.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday,” Stone said. “Do you think you might introduce me to him?”

“I could give him a call, I suppose. Why do you want to see him?”

“I’ll be frank with you, Barton,” Stone said. “I know about the, ah, transaction that took place among you, Cantor, Crow, Kramer and one or two others in Cantor’s old squad.”

Barton’s eyebrows went up. “Do you, now? How much do you know?”

“Just the broad outlines,” Stone said. “Will you fill in the gaps for me, tell me the whole story?”

“I think the whole business is better forgotten,” Barton said.

“You understand, don’t you, that you have no legal worries about that now. After all, it was back in the seventies, so the statute of limitations has expired, the government of South Vietnam no longer exists, and I very much doubt if the present government of Vietnam knows about the incident or has any interest in it.”

“You doubt that, do you?”

“Do you have any reason to believe that they could be involved in what happened to you recently?”

Barton sighed. “All right, Stone; I’ll tell you the story – under the protection of attorney-client privilege. And you, Holly, since you work for Lance, are unlikely to reveal this to anyone.”

They both nodded.

“When you’ve heard it, you can tell me who you think might be involved.” Barton settled into his seat, rearranged his features into a reminiscent mien and began to speak.