“Lance,” Dino said, “you should be working as a magician.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Because, in addition to standing here, you’re sitting back there.” Dino pointed.
“Oh, that’s my older brother, Barton Cabot.”
“Ahhhhh,” Dino and Stone said, simultaneously.
“He came in ahead of me while I finished a phone call in the car. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to join him, but Stone, I’d like to speak with you alone, after we’ve ordered dinner.”
“Sure,” Stone said. In his experience, when Lance spoke to him alone, trouble invariably followed.
Lance went to join his brother.
“Eerie resemblance,” Genevieve said.
“Yeah,” Dino agreed. “It’s like Lance can know exactly how he’ll look in a few years.”
Genevieve spoke to Dino for the first time. “That’s how you’re going to look when I’m finished with you,” she said.
Stone made a point of inspecting a row of photographs of Elaine’s regulars on the opposite wall.
Elaine came over and sat down, exchanging kisses with Genevieve. Dino looked relieved to have her there. “So?” she said.
“I just got in,” Stone replied.
“From where?”
“From Vero Beach, Florida.”
“What for?”
“Dino will explain it to you,” Stone said.
Lance came and tapped Stone on the shoulder. “Let’s go into the next room for a minute,” he said.
Dino looked anxious. “You’ll be all right,” Stone said. “Elaine is here.”
“She’ll help Genevieve,” Dino said.
Stone got up and followed Lance into the dining room next door, where people occasionally threw parties and which Elaine used for overflow when the main room was full. They sat down at a table.
“I didn’t know you had a brother,” Stone said.
“I haven’t had a brother for many years. Until tonight.”
“Does he live in New York?”
“I don’t know,” Lance said.
“What?”
“I have no idea where he lives. Neither does he. That’s the difficult thing.”
Stone settled in for a story.
2