“You should try it sometime, it’s good for you.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it.” He got up, took her hand, and pulled her to her feet. “Come on, let’s go down. I have to pick up my briefcase from Joan.”
They took the elevator down to his office, where his briefcase stood open on his desk, with Joan standing guard.
“I got you ten thousand euros,” she said. “If you need more, you can just use your ATM card. The bank says it works in Europe.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Stone said. “But I don’t see how I can spend ten thousand euros in two or three weeks.”
“You’ll find a way,” Joan said, with a confidence born of keeping him in cash.
“Is the car out front?”
“Yes, everything’s ready.”
“Come on, I’ll drop you at your office,” he said to Ann.
“No,” she said. “I want to walk, get some fresh air and get over feeling sorry for myself, and that will take a few minutes.”
She walked him out to the car, where Fred already had the rear door open. He kissed Ann goodbye, got in, and kissed Viv Bacchetti on the cheek. Fred closed the door and got behind the wheel.
“Where’s Dino?” he asked. Her husband, the newly minted commissioner of police for New York, was coming to Paris with them, where he was attending a conference of high-ranking police officials from Europe and the United States. They were taking the Gulfstream 650 jet belonging to Strategic Services, Viv’s employer and the world’s second-largest security company. She was to oversee the security staff at the new hotel, until things were running smoothly.
“He’s coming in his car,” she said, “or rather his motorcade. He had to pick up the L.A. chief of police and the Boston commissioner. The only way the mayor would let Dino ride in a corporate jet was if the other two guys came along, too, and Mike Freeman was okay with that. It’s a motorcade, because those guys are each traveling with two of their own detectives.” Freeman was the CEO of Strategic Services.
“Okay, let’s go, Fred.”
“You look funny,” Viv said.
“Funny queer or funny ha-ha?”
“Funny queer.”
“I just had to say goodbye to Ann.”
“Well, she’ll be here when you get back.”
“No, she’ll be in Washington, very likely for years to come. Kate wants her there to work more closely with Sam Meriwether.”
“I see.”
“Yeah, so do I, but I don’t like it much.”
“Maybe it’s not such a bad thing, Stone, maybe it’s time for you to be a free man again.”
Stone didn’t know how to reply to that.
—
AT TETERBORO they were let through the security gate at Jet Aviation and Fred drove them to the big airplane. There was a line of black SUVs already there, disgorging men in suits and their luggage. Mike Freeman was greeting them at the airplane’s door and turning them over to the two stewardesses, who would settle them in. Someone got their luggage out of the trunk, then Stone followed Viv up the stairs and to their seats. Dino made the introductions, then the three of them occupied seats together, along with Mike Freeman. The moment everyone was buckled into a seat, the airplane was taxiing. With no delay, they were on the runway, then down the runway and climbing.