Stuart Woods - Hot Mahogany

Eggers stared at him, annoyed. “Okay, what do you suggest?”

“If she has his kids, five million for an apartment, half a million a year per kid in child support, a twenty-million-dollar trust fund per kid and the same as a bequest in an irrevocable codicil to his will.”

“That’s upping the ante quite a lot,” Eggers said, frowning.

“It’s a small fraction of what he’d pay without the prenup. Anyway, he can always get a vasectomy and cut his costs.”

“You’re sounding a lot like the lady’s lawyer.”

“Believe me, she’s going to get one before she signs this thing, so we’d better anticipate.”

“All right, I’ll talk to Harlan. Anything else, before I call him?”

“She’s almost certain to want other things; we have to consider them, if he wants to marry the lady.”

Eggers looked at his watch and picked up the phone.

“Has he had time to get back to his office?” Stone asked.

“His office is two floors up,” Eggers replied, dialing a number. “Harlan? Bill Eggers. Stone and I have talked this over, and he has made some very important suggestions to be included in the prenup, ones that might make her more amenable and, at the same time, make you look more generous.” Eggers went through the list, then listened. “Harlan, a twenty-million dollar bequest to each kid isn’t all that much, and since you’ll be dead, you won’t miss it. And you can always get a vasectomy.” Eggers listened some more. “All right, but remember, she’s bound to talk to her own attorney about this; in fact, we want her to do that, because we may have to make this agreement stand up in court. There may be other things she wants, so let’s make our objective to just keep her reasonable and, of course, happy. After all, you’ll have to live with the lady.”

Stone spoke up. “Tell him, if she signs it, to send her two dozen roses and a bigger ring.”

Eggers ignored him. “We’ll get back to you, Harlan. Give us a few days.” Eggers hung up. “I’ll tell him that later. Now you’d better get going.”

“Do I get to know who the lady is?” Stone asked.

“Oh, yeah. Her name is Carla.”

“Come on, Bill, what’s her last name?”

“She doesn’t use one, and Harlan doesn’t know it.”

“Wait a minute, there’s a woman who plays piano and sings at Bemelmens Bar in the Carlyle Hotel.”

“That’s the one. She lives in a suite in the hotel.”

“I’ve heard her a couple of times; she’s very good.”

“Well, it’s nice that you’re a fan; it will give you two something to talk about.”

“All right,” Stone said, getting to his feet, “I’ll give it a shot.”

Eggers rose with him and walked him to the door. “You’d damn well better give this a lot more than a shot, Stone. Harlan Deal spends one hell of a lot of money with this firm, and losing him would impact us in all sorts of ways, including having to trim our expenses, like what we spend on of-counsel attorneys.”

“I get the picture, Bill. No threats, please.”

“Oh, that wasn’t a threat, Stone; that was just a clear picture of what the landscape around here would look like if we should lose Harlan Deal’s account. These offices would look like a nuclear test site.”

“I get it, I get it,” Stone said. He didn’t let the doorknob hit him in the ass on the way out.

Stone went back to his office, ordered in a sandwich and had lunch at his desk. He had nearly dozed off on his sofa when Joan buzzed him. “Bob Cantor on line one.”

Stone staggered back to his desk, slapped himself a couple of times to wake up and picked up the phone. “Hi, Bob.”

“Hi, yourself. I thought you might like to know that I had an unexpected call from Charlie Crow.”

“That’s very interesting. What was it about?”

“He wants to have lunch.”

“I thought you had all agreed not ever to contact each other.”

“We did, and I’ve stuck to that. I don’t know about the others.”

“How do you feel about having lunch with Crow, Bob?”

“Nervous.”

“What exactly did he say when he called?”

“He said he thought that enough time had passed that it wouldn’t matter, that he’d always liked me and that he’d like to renew our friendship.”

“Was he lying about liking you?”

“We got along in ’Nam, but that’s about all. Renewing our ‘friend-ship, ’ as he put it, is not all that appealing.”

“Was there anything sinister in his tone?”

“No, he was affable, I guess you’d say. Charlie could always be affable if he felt like it. Some thought he had a lot of charm. It was pretty much lost on me, though.”

“Are you going to see him?”

“I faked another call coming in and said I’d get back to him.”

“I think it might be a good idea to see him, Bob.”

“Why?”

“It might help us help the Colonel.”

“Yeah, I guess it might.”

“You’ve got to play dumb, though. You can’t give him the slightest idea that you know about the Colonel’s problem. Remember, it wasn’t in the papers, so you can’t possibly know about it. If he brings up the Colonel, and I suspect he will, then you can talk about him.”

“All right. I’ll call Charlie back.”

“Bob, before we had lunch and had our first conversation about Colonel Cabot, did you know anything about his life after Vietnam up to now?”

“I never heard a word about the guy. I guess we travel in different circles.”

“Another thing: You have an unlisted number, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Then how did Crow get hold of it?”

“It’s not all that hard to get an unlisted number; I’ve done it for you from time to time, remember?”

“I remember. Okay, call Crow back and make the date. And I think having a recording of the conversation would be nice. Can you wire yourself in a way he can’t detect?”

“Yeah, I can wear a transmitter that looks like a pen and a tiny mike.”

“Where would it transmit to?”

“It has a range of about a mile. I can put the recorder in my van and park near the restaurant. Otherwise, I’d have to wear a recorder, and that would be easy to find in a pat-down.”

“Is he likely to pat you down?”

“How the hell should I know? Depends on how paranoid he is, I guess.”

“Better pick a quiet restaurant; don’t do it at P. J. Clarke’s.”

“A good point.”

“Don’t tell him anything about your expertise with electronics. There’s no reason why he would know about that, is there?”

“None. I didn’t get my first computer until ’79.”

“I’d love to know if he’ll admit having had any contact with Abner Kramer.”

“I guess I can ask him if he’s seen any of the other guys, give him an opportunity to say so. I’ll call you after.”

“Thanks, Bob.” Stone hung up. This, he thought, was a move in the right direction, especially since he had little or nothing to go on. He needed a break badly.

Stone met Dino for dinner at Elaine’s. “Anything to report?” he asked.

Dino gave him a smart salute. “Nothing to report, sir!”

“I’d hoped one of your people could give us something to go on.”

“What, you think somebody is just going to stumble across this piece of furniture?”

“I’d like that,” Stone said, “as unlikely as it is. Maybe there’s something else your guys can do.”

“I can’t wait to hear this,” Dino said.

“I need to know a lot more about Charlie Crow, not your Google sort of stuff – I need to know where he goes, who he hangs out with. Especially who he hangs out with.”

“You’re actually asking me to put New York City police officers on a tail unconnected to any crime?”