Стюарт Вудс - Class Act

“Yes?”

“It’s Hilda.”

“Now what?”

“Sal just called. He wants me to go to Florida with him tomorrow morning.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I thought you might have a suggestion,” she said.

“I do,” Stone replied. “Handle it.” He hung up and went back inside.

Stone asked Faith, on takeoff, to make a low, 360-degree turn over the estate, so they could have a last look at Windward Hall. Stone wanted that stamped on his frontal lobe until his next visit.

They set down at Teterboro in the early afternoon and were towed into the hangar before deplaning and transferring their luggage.

“Stone,” Tara said, “as fond as I’ve become of your living arrangements, I would like to stop by Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and spend a couple of days confirming that my employees have not fled with the equipment and stock and that they are still printing money in the basement.”

“Take all the time you need,” Stone said. “I need a little time to recover my health before I see you again.”

“You’re sweet,” she said, kissing him.

Stone arrived at home and, since he didn’t have any luggage, except his briefcase, went straight upstairs. As he got off the elevator and started down the hallway to the master suite, he stopped in his tracks. Someone had left a light on in there. He knew it had not been he, nor did he believe the maids would have done that.

He unholstered his pistol and started down the hall. As he approached, he heard a noise, unidentified but of human origin, he was sure. He entered the bedroom slowly, his gun at the ready, and he was shaken to see Hilda Ross coming out of the dressing room. She jumped when she saw him with a gun.

“Where is he?” Stone said.

“Sal? Not here,” she said, bending to set down a train case, which involved revealing a lot of cleavage. “Nobody here but us chickens. Want to do something about that?”

Stone reckoned there were two choices: the first, to shoot her. He elected for the second option. She was out of her dress before he reached her. And before he could ask himself what the hell he was doing, they were doing it. No words were exchanged, just noises.

They explored much of the erotic repertoire. When they were done, lying there weak and panting, she said, “I hadn’t expected that.”

“Neither had I,” Stone said. “I had expected to be shooting Sal.”

“Don’t worry, he’s on his way to Florida.”

“Where were you on the way to, when you broke into my house?”

“You gave me a key, remember?”

“I do not.”

“And the alarm code.” She repeated it.

“Okay, I gave them both to you. What are your plans?”

“After I’ve fucked you at least once more, I’m going to the Carlyle and surrender to the makeup artist.” She smiled. “The tooth’s already done, see? Then I’m packing up and getting an early-morning flight to Key West. Care to come with me?”

“We just did that.”

She took hold of his wrist and checked his pulse. “And after this returns to normal, we’ll do it again, with variations.”

“You think I can still do that?”

“I know you can, from experience. It’s one of the things I like best about you.” She fondled him lightly. “See?”

Stone was too tired to argue with her.

A couple of hours later, she tucked him in. “I’ll call you from Key West,” she said. “Maybe I can persuade you to come there.”

“I may never come again,” he said. Then, to his overwhelming relief, she was gone.

Stone slept until mid-evening, when Dino called.

“Hello.”

“You sound exhausted,” Dino said.

“I am as I sound.”

“But you dropped off Tara.”

“I did.”

“Then... Oh, no, not Hilda.”

“She was here when I arrived, and she waylaid me.”

“By arrangement?”

“Not by my arrangement.”

“Where’s Sal?”

“On his way to Florida, she said. She’s leaving for Key West tomorrow morning.”

“Is the state big enough for both of them?”

“Apparently so.”

“You’re not going down there, are you?”

“If I did, I might not get out alive.”

“I told you she could be fatal.”

“I think you’re right, but she’s using a different arsenal of weapons than you predicted.”

“I’ll let you get back to sleep. You need it.” Dino hung up, and Stone went back to sleep.

Jack Coulter walked out onto his terrace overlooking Central Park, wet a finger, and held it up to judge the breeze. Almost none. The sun shone brightly; it was an inviting day.

He left the building and set out at a brisk walk for the Brook, his favorite club. Fifteen minutes later he was being seated alone at a table in the rapidly filling dining room. Five minutes after that, the head of the Mafia on the East Coast of the United States and his consigliere were seated not five feet from him. It took only a glance to recognize Don Antonio Datilla and Sal Trafficante, before they noticed him, and by then he was deeply into the menu.

They discussed the food in English, ordered. Then, after checking out Jack thoroughly and finding him to be an upper-class white man of no interest to him, nor they to him, slipped into their Sicilian dialect.

“So Hilda’s back?” the Don said.

“Yeah,” Sal replied. “I gave her a good going over to keep her honest, but not enough to make her look bad on stage tonight. I couldn’t stretch her booking; last night was her last performance at the Carlyle.”

“What will you do with her next? She’s a very useful person, I have found. She kills without batting an eye.”

“We’ll see,” Sal replied.

“Barrington?”

“I can’t let myself be seen by that gentleman.”

Coulter, who had been getting bored, sat up a little straighter.

“Why not?” the Don asked.

“We had an encounter in London.”

“What was Barrington doing in London when Hilda was here?”

“I think he was looking for me. He came into my hotel suite with a gun.”

“Why didn’t you kill him?”

“Two reasons: It’s messy to kill abroad; our friends are fewer there. The other is that I was in my pajamas, with no weapon handy.”

“I cannot imagine you without a weapon handy,” the Don said.

“In a suite at the Savoy?”

“Let that be a lesson.”

“Oh, yes, but it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to approach Barrington. He knows me now.”

“Where is Hilda now?”

“On her way to Key West, Florida.”

“Why there?”

“Because Barrington has offered her his house there, to keep her safe from me.”

The Don digested this for a moment. “Will Barrington visit her there?”

“Her allure is such that I think he might find that an irresistible idea,” Sal said.

“Ideal,” the Don said. “She can kill him there and walk away. No one there knows her, right?”

“Right.”

“She finds him attractive. Will she have the guts to do it?”

“Her guts can be purchased.”

“For how much?”

“First, she has to lure him there,” Sal said “Once she’s inside his head, he’ll do whatever she desires.”

“She’s that good in bed, eh?”

“Better than anyone could imagine.”

“If I were younger, I’d try her on for size.”

“You would not be disappointed,” Sal said. “Would you like me to arrange a trip to Key West for you?”

The Don held up both hands. “No, no. I’d never be able to explain it to my wife. Besides, I’m not sure my heart could stand it.”

“Yes, but what a way to go!”

The two men laughed heartily.