Sex, Lies & Serious Money

59

Stone was nearly finished with his preflight inspection, with Holly looking over his shoulder, when Dino and Viv arrived.

“Good morning,” Stone said.

“Good morning,” Dino replied.

“You can put your luggage up front.”

Dino did so. “Sorry we’re a little late. As I was leaving the house, I got a call about a double homicide.”

“Anybody we know?”

“As it happens, yes. The victims were the guys who attempted the burglary at your house, Marvin Jones and his buddy Irving Schwartz, late of the ER at Lenox Hill, where he presented with a gunshot wound to the ass.”

“Who did us the favor?”

“It appears that Jones put a round into Schwartz at a pawnshop in the East Nineties, after Schwartz had cracked the safe. Jones then turned up at the band shell in Central Park, an apparent suicide.”

“I get the motive for shooting Schwartz. What was his motive for offing himself?”

“I don’t think he had one. His so-called suicide was effected with a small-caliber shot to the right temple, while Schwartz got it with a .38, ballistics pending. There was a motive — the cash was missing from both scenes.”

Stone thought about that. “So Jones was murdered by a third party?”

“It would appear so, and he took the small-caliber with him, along with all the money.”

“How much money?”

“The pawnbroker claims over a hundred grand, but that’s just what he told his insurance company. I suspect it was a lot less.”

“Any leads on the identity of the third party?”

“None.”

“I’d check on his prison associates. These guys don’t have a wide acquaintance among civilians when they get out.”

“Already being done.”

“Nothing to keep us here?”

“Zip.”

“Then let’s go to Santa Fe.” Stone locked the forward luggage compartment, opened the cabin door, and ushered Dino and Viv aboard.

“You’re flying right seat in the cockpit,” he said to Holly.

“Gotcha,” she said, climbing aboard and taking her seat.

Stone climbed in, secured the stairs, and entered the cockpit. He ran through his checklist, got a clearance from the tower, and taxied to the runway.

Ten minutes later, they left the ground and were given a vector to the west. Stone set his assigned altitude of 40,000 feet into the autopilot, switched it on, and allowed it to take over the flying.

“Could you hand me the Times crossword?” he asked Holly. “It’s in my flight bag.”

“Sure.”

Stone switched on the satellite radio and tuned it to the classical channel. They climbed to altitude with Mozart in their headsets.

“We’ll have the sun behind us all the way,” Stone said.