Stuart Woods - Cold Paradise

“That would certainly solve the problem, wouldn’t it?”

Stone took a deep breath. “Not necessarily.”

Thad looked at him for a long moment. “You mean Manning might have help? An accomplice?”

“It’s a very real possibility.” Thank God, Stone thought, he’s got it at last.

“Do you have any idea who it might be?”

No, he hadn’t gotten it. “Thad, I want you to understand that what I’m about to say is conjecture, but it’s a conjecture that has to be made.”

“So, make it.”

“There’s only one person that we’re aware of who knows both Manning and you.”

Thad’s brow wrinkled, then his face relaxed, and his mouth fell open. “You can’t mean…”

“As I say, it’s only conjecture at this point. We won’t know more until Manning is arrested, and it’s entirely possible that he won’t say anything then.”

“But that’s completely crazy,” Thad said.

“You may be right. But ask yourself this: Who profited from Winston Harding’s death?”

“Well, Manning, I guess. In some way. Revenge against Liz, maybe.”

“That’s a possibility. But there’s only one person who actually profited from Harding’s death.”

Thad didn’t seem to be able even to think it.

Stone finally said it aloud. “That person is Liz.”

“No, no, no, no…” Thad’s voice trailed off.

“And if the two of you are married and anything should happen to you, she would profit a great deal more than she did from Winston Harding’s death.”

Thad’s body sagged as if air had been let out of it. He seemed unable to speak.

“So, I think you should postpone the wedding until all this has been resolved.”

Thad seemed to collect himself. He sat up straight. “No,” he said. “I love her, and she loves me. If I know nothing else, I know that. The wedding goes on as scheduled. Do what you can to protect us from Manning, but you are not to say a word about this to Liz, is that understood?”

“Thad…”

“Stone, you have to either do as I wish in this matter, or leave. There’s no in between. What’s it going to be? Are you with me?”

Stone sighed. “All right,” he said.

Stone watched Callie leave the main house and, with a man in tow, come toward the yacht. She looked particularly beautiful today, he thought, and he had missed seeing her the past few days, when she had been so busy with the wedding.

She came up the gangplank. “Stone, this is Jeff Collender of Right-guard Security Services. He’ll be helping us with the wedding, and I thought you’d better brief him.”

“Yeah, I know,” Collender said, shaking hands. “The name sounds like a deodorant; it was my wife’s idea.”

“Glad to meet you, Jeff. Have a seat.”

“I hear you’re throwing quite a shindig, here,” Collender said.

“That describes it very well,” Stone said.

“So, what do we need, here? You want us to keep out the gate-crashers, and like that?”

“Jeff, we may have more of a problem than gate-crashers,” Stone said.

“Oh? You expecting a lot of big drinkers, then? We’ve had experience with that. We know how to quietly eject the drunks.”

“Let me explain as fully as I can,” Stone said. “We have to be ready to handle an armed intruder.”

Collender blinked. “ Armed ? You mean with a gun?”

“Well, yes. You do have the capability of supplying armed security people, don’t you?”

“Sure we do, but we’ve never had to actually shoot anybody.”

“And I hope you won’t on this occasion, but we have to be prepared for anything.”

“Okay, we’ll be prepared.”

“Earlier, I had estimated that we’d need only a few armed men, but now I think they’ll all have to be armed. I assume your men have had some standard training?”

“Well, most of them are ex-law enforcement, so they’ve been trained by whatever department they worked for.”

“Are there any that haven’t had training?”

“Maybe one or two.”

“Let’s drop them. We need men who know how to handle weapons in a crowd.”

“Mr. Barrington, why don’t you tell me exactly who you’re expecting?”

“His name is Paul Manning. He’s tall and slender-six-three or -four, two hundred pounds, dark hair going gray.”

“Would you recognize him on sight?”

“Only by his size and shape. I haven’t seen his current face.”

“His current face?”

“We believe he’s had some cosmetic surgery.”

“So you don’t have a photograph?”

“No.”

“Ooookay, no photograph.”

“There aren’t too many people that tall. He should stand out in a crowd.”

“How big a crowd are we expecting?”

“About two hundred,” Callie said.

“There’ll be a tight guest list?”

“Pretty tight. If a guest wants to bring someone along, we’re not going to make a big thing of it.”

“And how many of these guests are likely to be armed?”

“Just the one,” Stone said dryly.

Dino came out of his cabin, and Stone introduced him to Collender.

“Nice to meet a fellow officer,” Collender said. “I used to be the sheriff of Palm Beach County.”

“Mmmm,” Dino said. “Don’t let me interrupt, just keep going.”

“So,” Collender said, “how many people do you want here?”

“Twenty-four ought to do it,” Stone said.

“All armed?”

“Yes. Can you manage that?”

“Yeah, I can manage it. How do you want me to manage this Manning character, if we spot him?”

“Isolate him as quickly as possible, pat him down, check whatever name he gives you against the guest list and do it all very, very politely and apologetically. There are going to be some important people here, and we don’t want to annoy them any more than absolutely necessary.”

“Believe me,” Collender said, “we’re used to dealing with the rich and powerful in this town. We know how it’s done.”

“Good.”

“How do you want my people dressed?”

“Black tie. I don’t want them immediately identifiable as security. Do you have any women?”

“I’ve got four, all ex-officers and good.”

“Put them with men. Couples are less noticeable than single men.”

“Got it,” Collender said, taking notes. “If Manning starts shooting, what do you want done?”

Stone and Dino exchanged a glance. “Stop him in the most expedient way possible.”

Collender nodded sagely. “I get you.”

“I hope so,” Stone said. “I don’t want Manning to be able to hurt anybody. I think you can imagine how big a mess that would be.”

“Oh, yeah, I read you completely. Are we going to have any cops here?”

“I’m talking to Chief Griggs in a few minutes about that. I’ll let you know.”

Collender stood up. “Anything else?”

Stone shook his head.

“I’ll be going, then.” He gave Stone his card. “Call me if you think of anything else; there’s office, home and cell phone on the card.”

“Thanks, and it was good to meet you,” Stone said.

Callie escorted Collender off the yacht.

“You think this guy knows what he’s doing?” Dino asked.

“I hope to God he does. Callie says he’s the best around here.”

“Twenty-four guys with guns at a party? Let’s hope they don’t shoot each other.”

“Let’s hope,” Stone said.

Dan Griggs sounded amenable on the phone. “I’m glad we’ve got a charge against this guy, now,” he said. “I’d like it if we could snatch him off the street before the wedding.”

“I’d like that, too, Dan,” Stone said.

“I think we ought to have a meeting of all the security people and my people the afternoon of the wedding, and we’re going to need some kind of lapel pin to identify everybody. I’ll bring some.”