Stuart Woods - Cold Paradise

“Tell you what,” Griggs said. “I’ll put a man on the house for a while. Nobody’ll notice him, not even Mrs. Harding.”

“I’d be grateful for that,” Stone said.

“Of course, I can’t keep people on this forever, if nothing happens.”

“I understand completely. I’m going to suggest to Mr. Shames that he invite Mrs. Harding to stay at his house. He’s going out of town for a while, but I’m sure his staff could make her comfortable there.”

“Good idea,” Griggs said.

“Maybe your man could stay in the house?”

“With Mrs. Harding’s permission, sure.”

“I’ll have a word with her.”

They reached the study.

“Liz is going to come back to the house with me,” Shames said. “She’ll stay with us, at least until I get back from the Coast”

“Good idea,” Stone said. “Liz, the chief would like to have one of his men stay in the house. Is that all right?”

“Oh, yes,” Liz said. “That would be wonderful.” She went to a desk drawer, found a spare key and gave it to the chief, along with the alarm code.

“Well, if you folks don’t need me anymore, I’ll be going,” the chief said. “I’ll have a man here in half an hour.”

Hands were shaken all around, and the chief departed.

“I’d better pack some things,” Liz said, and left the room.

Shames turned to Stone. “It’s this Manning guy, isn’t it?”

“Very likely,” Stone said. “This has none of the markings of a random crime-nothing taken, only one room disturbed.”

“So, he’s tracked her down.”

“It looks that way.”

“I’m glad you’re staying on for a while, Stone. I feel better knowing you’re here to take care of her.”

“I’ll let Woodman and Weld know.”

“I’ll call Bill Eggers and arrange everything.”

“Thank you.”

Shames was quiet for a moment. “Stone,” he said finally, “you think he’s going to try to kill her?”

“I think if that’s what he had in mind, he’d already have tried. This was obviously to frighten her.”

“It worked,” Thad said. “She was a mess for a few minutes after we got here. There are some guns on the boat. I’ll have Juanito make them available to you.”

“I hope I won’t need a gun,” Stone said. “But you never know.”

Stone followed Thad and Liz back to the house, and when they were safely inside, he walked back to the yacht and his cabin. His adrenaline was still a little high, and he got out of his dinner jacket and the rest of his clothes and into a hot shower. He was drying himself when he heard a soft knock at the cabin door. He got into a robe and went to answer it.

He opened the door to find Callie Hodges standing there, in a silk dressing gown, holding a 9mm semiautomatic pistol.

Stone stared at the armed young woman. “My money or my life?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said, handing him the gun. “Thad wanted you to have this. I can’t imagine why. What’s happened?”

“Nothing serious,” he replied. He checked that the safety was on, then tossed the gun onto the bed.

“May I come in for a minute?” she asked.

“Sure.” He stood back and allowed her to enter.

She went and sat on the sofa before the fireplace. “Would you like a fire?” she asked. “It’s cool tonight.”

“All right.” He went and sat on the sofa beside her, keeping some distance between them.

She found a box of long matches, checked to be sure the flue was open and lit the fire. The kindling caught, and the fire blazed cheerily. She switched off the ceiling light and sat down on the sofa again. “I want to apologize to you for my behavior today.”

Stone didn’t say anything. He was still annoyed with her.

“I was interfering in your life without any idea of the consequences. I hope having Arrington here didn’t make things worse between you.”

“They were already pretty bad,” he replied. “I suppose I had a chance to make it up with her, but I didn’t like the terms.”

“You accept my apology?”

“I do,” he said, his voice softening, “and I appreciate it.”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me. I don’t have the right to ask.”

“I’ll explain anyway,” Stone said. “I told you about my trip to the islands, where I met Allison Manning, now Liz Harding, but I didn’t tell you that, at the time, Arrington and I were living together in New York. We were supposed to fly down together, but she was delayed and missed the flight, and then there was a snowstorm, and she was stuck there for another day. She was a magazine writer, and the New Yorker asked her to do a profile of Vance Calder, whom she already knew. She accepted, and the next thing I knew, she had gone back to California with him, and they were married, almost overnight.”

“That must have come as a shock.”

“It did. A bigger shock came later, when she told me she was pregnant.”

“With your child or Vance’s?”

“She didn’t know. It could have been either of us. In due course, she had the child, I supplied a blood sample, and so did Vance. She called to say that the boy was Vance’s, and that was that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s more. When Vance died, I went out to help Arrington handle the situation, and in so doing, I learned that Vance may have been in control of the test results.”

“So, you’re the father?”

“It may be that the results showed that Vance really was, but if not, he could have had the report changed.”

“So you may be the father and you may not?”

“Right.”

“So why don’t you do the test again?”

“Arrington doesn’t want it done.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’d think she’d want to know for sure who the father of the child is.”

“You’d think.”

“Who does he look like?”

“He looks like both Vance and my father.”

She laughed. “I’m sorry, but it’s a little…”

“Yes, I know, funny.” He smiled himself.

“So that’s how you left it with Arrington?”

“That’s it.”

“Let me ask you something,” she said. “If the test were done, and the child turned out to be yours, what would you want to do about it?”

“I’m not sure, except I’d want him to know, eventually, and I’d like to have some part in his life.”

“What about Arrington? Wouldn’t you want her back?”

“Arrington and I seem to be… I think the expression is ‘star-crossed.” She’s a volatile person, and every time we have seemed to be getting close to each other again, something happens to blow it up.“

“And that’s what happened tonight?”

“I told her that if she didn’t want to know who the boy’s father is, then she didn’t want to know me.”

“Then how, may I ask, did your tie get mussed up?”

Stone laughed. “Arrington had just pulled it loose when I made my little speech, and she stalked out.”

“Out of where?”

“Out of her room.”

“And how did you get to her room?”

“On foot.”

Callie laughed again.

“I thought we were touring the house. I didn’t know where her room was.”

“So you were led down the garden path?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

Callie stroked his cheek with the backs of her fingers. “Poor Stone,” she said. “Between Arrington and me, you’ve had a rough time tonight, haven’t you?”

“Beset from all sides,” Stone said, kissing her fingertips.

“Can I make it up to you?” she asked, sliding across the sofa toward him.

“You can try," Stone said.

She put her hand on his leg under the robe and slid it up his thigh. “How’s this?” she asked.