Stuart Woods - Family Jewels

“I’m hanging.”

Dino came back. “They were registered as David and Alexandra Bannister and had a credit card that contained a number, but not a name. This sounds very much like the card is connected to a numbered account at an offshore bank that protects its clients with anonymity. The hotel looked at it askance, but it worked, so they didn’t make a fuss.”

“So we know their new names.”

“For as long as they use them.”

“I notice that the first initials of each name are the same as before. Why don’t you canvass the high-end hotels for the new name, and if it isn’t there, check for names beginning with D, A, and B?”

“You know something? You should have been a detective.” Dino hung up.

Joan came on the phone. “Bob Cantor is on his way back here with a photograph,” she said.

“Good news.”

Bob arrived fifteen minutes later. “I’ve got something,” he said, holding up an envelope. He fished out a photo. “It appears to have been taken with the camera on the floor, looking up. You can see beams across the ceiling.” He held up a photograph of a man in left profile.

“Aha!” Stone said. “Progress. I found the camera on the floor of the cottage, and I speculated at the time that it may have been knocked over in a struggle.”

“Looks like the camera went off when it hit the floor. Do you recognize the guy?”

“I do. It’s somebody who called himself Derek Bedford, who has since changed his name to David Bannister.”

“I’ve got more,” Bob said. “I flopped the neg and printed it, so I’ve got a right profile.” He held up the print. “Then through a little photographic legerdemain, I put the two profiles together and got a full face, sort of, but not exactly, since it’s made up of two left profiles, and most people, if you draw a line down the middle of their faces and put two lefts or two rights together, look different.”

“This one looks different,” Stone said, “but it’s a hell of a lot better than nothing, which is what we had five minutes ago.” He buzzed Joan and asked her to fax the three photos to Dino, who called back in a flash.

“Where’d you get a photo of the guy?” he demanded.

Stone explained about the fallen camera and Bob’s work on the negative.

“Okay, I’m going to get this distributed right now, and we can fax it to our list of hotels.”

“You do that, pal, and maybe we’ll get somewhere.”

“Thanks for the photo. Now, have you got a motive for me?”

“I think they were after the Bloch-Bauer necklace, but it could just as well have been all of Carrie’s jewelry. The guy must have tried to beat or choke the safe combination out of her. What he didn’t know was that, in her purse, was a key to the apartment with a tab on the key ring that held the combination to the safe. He had it all and didn’t know it.”

“Where’s her jewelry now?”

“At Sotheby’s, where it will be auctioned. My appraiser says it’s worth millions, something like a hundred pieces.”

“Now we know what billionaires do with their money,” Dino said.

“She’s not even a billionaire. It just shows you that a girl can squeak by on a few hundred million bucks, until a billionaire comes along to take her away from all that.”

“I could squeak by on a few hundred million,” Dino said, “and you, my friend, are already doing just that.”

“Then I confirm my own judgment.”

“Okay, then tell me where to look for these two murderers.”

“Well, we know they were in the city until this morning, but they could have left. Probably not to Palm Beach, since they seem to be already known to the police there. I’d say they’re big-city people — L.A., Chicago, San Francisco, or maybe resort people — Aspen, Santa Barbara, like that. They seem to tend toward elegance and have expensive tastes. Maybe the FBI has something on them.”

“I’ve already queried them, but I haven’t had an answer yet. I’ll bug them again. Talk to you later.” Dino hung up.

“These people sound like they need the services of a good forger of identity documents,” Bob said. “Would you like me to make some inquiries in the netherworld?”

“If you can do it without putting yourself at risk, Bob.”

“I try to avoid that.”

“Something just occurred to me,” Stone said. “Don’t you have some software that allows you to look at hotel registrations all over the place?”

“I do. They all seem to use one of about three software packages, and I’ve got an in with all three.”

“Could you check current registrations for Derek and Alicia Bedford and for David and Alexandra Bannister?”

“As long as you don’t tell the cops where you got the info.”

“Of course not.”

“I’ll have to do this in my truck. Be back in a few.”

Stone twiddled his thumbs for a few minutes, until Bob returned. “Mr. and Mrs. Bannister checked into the Lowell, on East Sixty-third, an hour ago.” He gave Stone the suite number.

“Thank you, my friend,” he said.

“Wait a little while before you call Dino,” Bob said.

“If you think that will help.”

“It might.” Bob left.

Stone waited fifteen minutes, then called Dino.

Dino was on the phone in a flash. “Whataya got?”

“Don’t ask me how I know this, but David and Alexandra Bannister are registered at the Lowell, on East Sixty-third.”

“How do you know that?”

“You’ll just have to trust me.”

“That’s on the same block as my apartment.”

“I managed to figure that out.” He gave Dino the suite number. “I’d like to go along for the bust. I can identify them.”

“All right. Meet me there in an hour. It’ll take me a while to get uptown, and I want the pleasure, myself.”

“All right.”

“We’re going to do this softly, softly,” Dino said. “No flashing lights or sirens, no uniforms, no gangs busting in all at once, got it?”

“I have not a light, a siren, or a uniform, and I would make a poor gang member.”

“When you see my car out front, get in and I’ll tell you my plan.”

“I can’t wait to hear it.”

Stone returned some calls, then started for the door.

“Don’t forget,” Joan said, stopping him in his tracks, “you have an appointment at four o’clock with Senator Marisa Bond.”

“Damn it, I forgot about that.”

“It’s in your calendar, so that’s no longer an excuse.”

Stone got out of a cab at Sixty-third and Madison and spotted Dino’s car parked across the street from the hotel. He rapped on the window, and Dino opened the door and invited him in.

“Okay, what’s your plan?” Stone asked.

“You and I are going to go to the front desk and inquire as to whether Mr. and Mrs. Bannister are in, then I’m going to radio my team, and they’ll filter in in twos.”

“And what if they’re not in?”

“Hang on, I’m still making this up. Okay, got it — we’ll go up to their suite with a pass key and wait for them there.”

“Have you got a warrant for this?”

“Have you forgotten that you’re talking to the police commissioner of the City of New York?”

“Nope. Have you got a warrant?”

“It’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Half an hour later the warrant arrived in the hands of a breathless young patrolman in uniform.

“Get in the front seat,” Dino said to the young man. “Didn’t anybody tell you this is a plainclothes operation?”

“No, sir,” the young cop said.

“Sheesh!” Dino picked up his radio. “Okay, Barrington and I are going in. Give us a five-minute head start.” He got out of the car, and Stone followed. They walked into the hotel, and at the front desk Dino addressed the young woman on duty. “Good afternoon,” he said. “Do you know who I am?”