Unintended Consequences - By Stuart Woods

36





Stone and Marcel arrived at Patroon shortly after eight. They pulled up behind a black Lincoln Town Car with city plates, and Stone knew that Dino’s promotion had won him a better car than his usual Crown Vic.

The owner of the restaurant, Ken Aretsky, greeted them in the dining room and showed them to a corner table, where Dino was waiting. He and Marcel shook hands warmly.

“Where’s Viv?” Stone asked. “Don’t tell me we have to put up with you alone.”

“You do,” Dino replied. “Viv is boning up on some Strategic Services operation manuals for her new job.”

“What will she be doing there, Dino?” Marcel asked.

“She won’t tell me,” Dino said. “You’d think she had joined the CIA.”

“Well, Mike comes out of the world of intelligence, and he insists on client confidentiality.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Marcel said, “since he will invariably learn much about my business.”

They ordered drinks, and to Stone’s surprise, Marcel asked for a Knob Creek.

“Do you have a principal business, Marcel?” Dino asked.

“My father was a hotelier, and I worked in that business in my extreme youth. When he died I took over the hotels he owned and grew from there. I was helped by the fact that my father had established a chain of hairdressers in the hotels, and the cash flow from them was very useful to me. After that, I learned to invest well, in all sorts of businesses. My latest venture is my new car, the Blaise, named for my son, who was killed some years ago in a motor racing accident.”

“What sort of car is it?” Dino asked.

“There’s one in Stone’s garage,” Marcel replied. “I won’t blunt the impact by telling you about it ahead of time.” He turned toward Stone. “By the way, would you allow me to display your car at the New York Auto Show next week? I would need it from Monday afternoon.”

“Of course. Have someone pick it up, and Joan will give them the keys.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be driven, it will be flat-bedded.”

“That’s fine. By the way, some rather noisy work is going to be done on my house over the weekend, and I thought you might enjoy seeing a little of New England. I have a house in a small village called Washington, and Helga will be here, as well. Would you like to drive up in the Blaise? I haven’t driven it yet.”

“That sounds delightful,” Marcel said.

“Dino, would you and Viv like to come?”

“Sorry, pal, we’ve got plans.”

“I saw your new car outside. How’s the job going?”

“Yes, please tell me about your job,” Marcel said.

“Oh, it’s nothing to write home about,” Dino replied.

“That’s an outright lie,” Stone said. “Perhaps I should tell you that Dino is the new chief of all detectives, in all five boroughs of New York City.”

“Does that mean you have to be a politician as well as a detective?” Marcel asked.

“It better not mean that, because I’d be lousy at it.”

“That’s a somewhat smaller lie,” Stone said, “but a lie, nevertheless. Dino has always worked the system very well, something I was never good at.”

Their drinks arrived, and they looked at the menu.

“What do you recommend?” Marcel asked.

“Start with the Caesar salad, then choose whatever entrée sounds good,” Stone replied. “The cooking is very good.”

“Have any interesting cases crossed your desk, Dino?” Stone asked.

“Well, we have a Russian gangster somewhere in the city,” Dino replied. “The feds had a stop order on him, but he got in before it hit the computers. Name of Majorov.”

Stone gulped, but Marcel didn’t know the name. “I’m sure you’ll bag him,” he said.

“I’ll let the feds worry about him,” Dino said.

“I have had my problems with Russian gangsters,” Marcel said. “Stone, do you think this man Majorov has anything to do with that?”

“I’m afraid he does,” Stone admitted. “I didn’t want to worry you with it, but I spoke to Lance Cabot today, and he told me about it. Mike Freeman is taking all necessary precautions.”

“Ah, good,” Marcel said. “But I would be grateful if you would not keep information from me. I would rather be worried, but aware.”

“I apologize,” Stone said. “In fact, Lance believes that Majorov was in the car that attacked us on the way to Le Bourget.”

Dino’s face showed interest. “You were attacked?”

Stone told him about the incident with the Mercedes. “One man died in the Seine, the other, Majorov, survived.”

“I’m extremely sorry to hear that,” Marcel said.

“By the way,” Stone said, “Lance asked me to pass along some information to you. He says that a German businessman of your acquaintance, one Horst Schnell, has had sixty million euros stolen from him in a computer scam perpetrated by the same people who have tried to do you harm.”

“Well, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer fellow,” Marcel replied, laughing. “The man is a snake in the weeds—is that how you say it?”

“In the grass,” Stone said. “Lance has recommended that you ask Mike Freeman to audit your computers and make security recommendations.”

“I will ask Mike to do that tomorrow,” Marcel replied. “And thank Lance for me when you speak to him again.”

They ordered steaks, then the headwaiter appeared with a cart and a large wooden salad bowl and began to create a Caesar salad from fresh ingredients.

• • •

During dinner Stone got a text from Helga, saying that she would take the airplane from Stockholm as he had scheduled. He went to bed that night with fond memories of her lush body in his arms.