Stuart Woods - Swimming To Catalina

Dear Stone,

I left my makeup kit on Marty’s boat, so I’ve gone to pick it up. I might do some windowshopping, too, but I’ll be back later this afternoon.

Barbara

“Oh, Jesus,” Stone groaned. He ran down the stairs and ordered his car.

The parking valet looked baffled when he brought it. “Mr. Barrington, if you’re only going to be a couple of minutes, we can keep your car here up front,” the man said.

“Sorry about that,” Stone said, slamming the door and yanking the car into gear. He drove to Marina Del Rey as quickly as he could, worried that Martin Barone might have turned up and caught Barbara in the act of moving out. He wasn’t sure of what story she’d tell under pressure, and the last thing he wanted was to put this girl in any danger. When he arrived, Arrington’s car was parked outside the chandlery.

He parked and walked quickly down the pontoons toward wherePaloma was berthed. She seemed deserted. He looked around for unwelcome visitors, then jumped aboard. The cabin door was locked, and he couldn’t see Barbara inside. He got off the boat in a hurry and started back toward his car; then, a couple of pontoons away, he saw something that gave him pleasure. A large crane on a barge was being maneuvered between the pontoons. He walked down the main pontoon and found a spot where he could watch the salvage operation from a distance. It took the divers a few minutes to get lifting straps underMaria’s hull, and then the crane went to work. Slowly, the sports fisherman broke the water and was raised to pontoon level. The divers stripped off their wetsuits and got pumps going to empty her of water. It would take quite a while, Stone reflected with satisfaction. He hoped her interior was thoroughly ruined.

He walked back toward the parking lot, and as he came back up the ramp he stopped in his tracks. Arrington’s car was gone. He climbed back on his old perch on the ice machine and looked up and down the street, but he could not see the car. He hopped down in time to see a Porsche turn into the parking lot and take the space that Arrington’s Mercedes had vacated.

A slickly handsome man in a pinstriped suit got out, locked the car, and walked down the ramp to the pontoon. Stone watched as he made his way toward wherePaloma was berthed. This, he decided, was Martin Barone, and he was definitely not in Mexico. Barone disappeared among the boats, then, as Stone was about to leave, he suddenly reappeared, running.

Stone got into his car and pulled down the sun visor. Barone, in a great hurry, ran to the intersection and looked up and down the street, obviously looking for Barbara. He came back talking to himself, looking very unhappy indeed. He stood in the parking lot, deep in thought, for a minute, then got into the Porsche and drove out of the car park.

What the hell, Stone thought, let’s see where he goes. Staying at least a block back, he followed the sports car into the canyons of downtown Los Angeles. I know where he’s going, Stone thought, and he was right. Barone turned into the garage at the headquarters building for the Safe Harbor Bank. Stone wished he could follow him up to Ippolito’s offices and listen to him explain that his girlfriend had run off with Arrington Calder’s Mercedes. He would enjoy that conversation.

Stone sat in his car, waiting, for some forty minutes, then, suddenly, the Porsche emerged from the garage and turned east. Stone followed the car to Beverly Hills and watched as it turned into the gates of a house on Beverly Drive. He made a note of the address, then drove back to his hotel.

“Any sign of Miss Tierney?” he asked the parking valet as he surrendered his car.

“No, Sir, not yet.”

“Thanks,” Stone said, then went to his suite.

He had been there for two hours, idly changing channels on the television, when Barbara walked in.

“Hi,” she said brightly.

“Hi,” he replied. “I’m glad to see you’re still alive.”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” she asked, flopping down beside him on the sofa.

“Because the people Martin Barone deals with are bad people, and if they thought for a minute that you could be a bother to them, they would hurt you.”

She frowned. “Why would they do that?”

“Barbara, I’m going to tell you as much of it as I can,” Stone said. “The car you were driving belongs to Arrington Calder, Vance Calder’s wife. She’s a friend of mine.”

“How good a friend?” Barbara asked.

“We used to be close, but she married Vance.”

“You know Vance Calder?”

“Yes.”

“Then why didn’t you say hello to him in the restaurant the other night?”

“Because I didn’t want Vance to see me.”

“Why not?”

“Let me explain, and please don’t ask any questions until I’ve finished.”

“All right.”

“Vance’s wife disappeared a couple of weeks ago; nobody knows where she is.”

“Not even Vance?”

“Especially not Vance. You promised not to ask any questions until I’m finished.”

“Sorry, go ahead.”

“Something is terribly wrong. Vance called me in New York and asked me to come out here and find Arrington, but when I got here, he was no longer anxious for me to find her. I thought that was very suspicious, so I started looking into her disappearance on my own. Apparently this became a concern to Mr. Ippolito, Martin Barone’s boss.”

“You know Mr. Ippolito?”

“I met him at a dinner party at Vance’s.”

“You’ve been to Vance’shouse? What’s it like?”

“Barbara…”

“I’m sorry, I won’t ask any more questions until you’re finished.”

“Good. Now, where was I”

“You made Mr. Ippolito mad.”

“Yes, I did. He invited me to a dinner party on his boat, then he had two goons tie an anchor to me and throw me into the Pacific Ocean.”

She opened her mouth in horror, but Stone put a hand over it.

“I didn’t drown; I got loose, and some people on a boat picked me up. Now I’m trying again to learn what happened to Arrington Calder, and I don’t want Ippolito to know that I’m still alive. I asked you to take Arrington’s car and bring it here because I want to worry Ippolito and his people. Apparently, that worked because Martin showed up at Marina Del Ray this afternoon, found you and the car gone, and then he went directly to Ippolito’s office to report the missing car. That means that they will want to know what happened to the car, and they will want to know what happened to you, so I think you should be very careful and stick close to the hotel. If you really have to go somewhere, I’ll rent a car for you, but don’t drive the Mercedes again, because it could be dangerous. Understand?”

She nodded, opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“Now you can ask questions.”

She smiled brightly. “What’s Vance Calder’s house like?”

They ordered dinner sent to the suite and ate well. Barbara had only one glass of wine, but it seemed to have an amorous effect, since she was playing footsie under the table. Stone, though, was preoccupied. He felt that having Arrington’s car at the Beverly Hills Hotel was a liability, no matter where it was parked; in fact, he was beginning to wonder if he’d chosen the best possible hotel for his purposes. The traffic of movie people through the lobby and the Polo Lounge was phenomenal, he knew, and he didn’t want to run into Louis Regenstein or David Sturmack, or anybody he had met at Vance’s house. He’d deal with that in the morning, but in the meantime, he wanted to get rid of Arrington’s car. He thought it might be time, too, to explain some facts to Vance Calder.

“Let’s go for a drive,” he said.

“I thought maybe we’d…”