“Not since his graduation, and we—his mother and I—sort of missed him then. We made our way over to where his class was sitting, and there was just his cap and gown on a chair with his name on it. He had only recently come into a nice little trust fund from his mother’s side of the family, which gave him a certain amount of freedom.”
“I see,” Stone said, seeing for the first time. “The postmark on the card was smudged; when did you receive it?”
“Five days ago,” Keating replied. “I had heard he was in Miami, and when we started negotiating the sale of the business I sent a private investigator looking for him. He was contacted but rebuffed the investigator and disappeared from his hotel there. I took the, ah, tenor of his message on the card to mean that he did not wish to be contacted by me.”
Stone nodded. “I should think this is a job for a skip tracer, Bill,”
he said to Eggers.
“No,” Eggers said, pulling a thick envelope from an inside pocket and handing it to Stone. “It’s a job for an attorney. This is the form of consent to the sale; I wrote it myself. His great-great-grandfather’s will requires that it be explained to him by an attorney and that he be given an opportunity to engage a lawyer of his own to review it. If he chooses not to have it reviewed, there’s a second document to be signed, waiving that right.”
“If you can get this done for me, Stone,” Keating said, “I’m prepared to be generous.”
“What sort of time frame are we talking about?” Stone asked. 5
S t u a r t W o o d s
“A week, give or take,” Eggers said.
“And that postcard is the only reason to think he’s in Key West?”
Stone asked.
Keating shrugged. “He could be anywhere.”
“I’ll leave tomorrow morning,” Stone said, glancing through the restaurant’s front window. “Weather permitting.”
6
2
EG G ER S A N D KEA T I N G had just left when Dino Bacchetti, Stone’s former partner in his days on the NYPD, walked into Elaine’s, shucking off and shaking his overcoat. Dino was still on the force, a lieutenant now running the detective squad at the 19th, the Upper East Side precinct.
“It’s coming down out there,” Dino said, hanging up his coat and taking a seat, while making drinking motions at a waiter, who was already in gear. He stopped and looked at Stone. “You look like you’ve just been dumped again.”
“Again? What’s that supposed to mean?” Stone asked.
“Well, you’re always getting dumped,” Dino said.
“I have to go to Key West tomorrow; you want to come along?”
“What about this weather?” Dino asked.
“The snowstorm is supposed to pass off the coast early in the morning, followed by clear weather.”
“Yeah,” Dino said, “I’d like to take a trip to Key West in the dead of winter, and I’ve got some time off coming.”
“You’re on,” Stone said, sipping his drink and reaching for a menu.
7
S t u a r t W o o d s
Elaine got up from a nearby table, walked over and sat down.
“So,” she said, “Tati dumped you?”
“I knew it,” Dino chimed in.