48
DINO FINISHED HIS COFFEE. “HOW ARE WE
DRESSING for this shindig on Sunday?” he asked.
“Black tie,” Callie replied.
“In the afternoon?”
“The wedding’s at six, with a small group of
invited guests. Everybody else arrives at seven.”
“Oh, good, for a minute I thought we were going to
be gauche and wear black tie in the afternoon.”
Callie laughed. “You gauche, Dino? Never!”
Dino gave her a sweet smile. “Stone, I gotta go
shopping. You come with me.”
Stone looked at Callie.
“We’ll be all right,” she said. “I’ve already got
two security men in the main house.”
“You anticipate me,” Stone said.
“I try.”
“Okay, Dino, let’s go shopping.” He led the way
toward where the cars were parked. A man who was obviously a
security guard paid a lot of attention to them.
“You’re one of the two men on duty?” Stone
asked.
“That’s right.”
“My name is Barrington. This is Lieutenant
Bacchetti, NYPD. You armed?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Try not to shoot anybody, if you can help
it.”
“I’ll try.”
They got into the car and drove away.
“What are you shopping for?” he asked Dino.
“A dinner jacket.”
“Why don’t you ask Mary Ann to ship yours down
here? There’s time.”
“That’s a question only a lifelong bachelor could
ask,” Dino said. “If you’re in Palm Beach, and she’s not, you don’t
call home and say, ‘Honey, send my dinner jacket, will you?’ It
would take too long to explain why to her, and in the end, she’d
never believe you. Besides, I need a new one, anyway. Somebody
threw up on the last one at a wedding last year, and the cleaners
could never get it all out.”
“Where you want to shop?”
“They got an Armani here?”
“They do.”
“Giorgio always does my dinner jackets.”
Stone found a parking spot on Worth Avenue. He put
the top up to keep the sun from overheating the black leather
upholstery, and they walked to the shop.
Dino conferred with a salesman, and shortly, a
fitter was marking up a white dinner jacket. “You like the white?”
he asked Stone.
“I like. Very elegant.”
“I thought you would. I’m getting this just for
you.”
“You’re sweet.”
The fitter looked at them oddly. “What about the
lump, sir?” he said, nodding toward the pistol on Dino’s
belt.
“Allow for that,” Dino said. “I’ll be wearing it to
the party.”
“Well, this is a first for Palm Beach,” the man
muttered, but he did his work.
When they returned to the car, the driver’s side
window was a web of pieces, held together by the lamination.
“Looks like a golf ball hit it,” Dino said.
Stone looked up and down the street. “That’s not
funny.”
“Sure it is,” Dino laughed.
“You see her anywhere?”
“No, but a silver Volvo sedan has been following
us.”
“Why didn’t you mention it sooner?”
“What good would it have done? It would have just
ruined your day.”
“You’re right about that,” Stone said, flicking
small shards of glass out of the driver’s seat.
They drove back to the house and walked to the
yacht.
“A message for you, Stone,” Callie said, handing
him Bob Berman’s number.
Dino glanced at the piece of paper. “What have you
got Berman on?”
Stone led him into the saloon and picked up a
phone. “One William Charles Danforth of Washington, D.C.”
“Who’s that?”
“It’s the passport Paul Manning is using these
days.”
“Oh.”
Stone called Berman. “It’s me. You got
something?”
“I got a lot,” Berman said. “You want me to FedEx
it to you, or you want to hear it now?”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Okay. Mr. Danforth is all over the Internet, just
like you’d expect a substantial person to be. He’s got a credit
history going back only four years. It’s little stuff, credit
cards, couple of department stores—Saks, Macy’s. There’s apparently
no Mrs. Danforth, and there are no mortgages on the reports. He
rents an apartment in the P Street house in Georgetown, has for
four years.”
“So Mr. Danforth is only four years old.”
“Right.”
“What does he do?”
“He lists his occupation as business
consultant.”
“Whatever that means.”
“Yeah. His credit card spending is consistent with
a man making less than a hundred thousand dollars a year. I got one
of the credit card statements for the past year, and he’s traveled
to Europe and Florida.”
“Where in Florida?”
“Miami, twice; last time ten days ago. He rented a
car there, too.”
“Okay, what else?”
“He seems pretty ordinary. His phone number is
listed. Nothing jumps out at you.”
“Did you find a photograph?”
“Nope, wasn’t available from any of my
sources.”
“What about a driver’s license photo?”
“I checked D.C., Virginia and Maryland. Nothing
there.”
“If he rented a car, he must have a license; if he
has a license, there should be a photograph on file
somewhere.”
“You want me to check all the states?”
“The contiguous forty-eight will do.”
“Okay, but it’s going to take a few days. There’s
no federal registry of driver’s licenses; it’s purely a state
thing.”
Stone had a thought. “How about a pilot’s license?
He knows something about airplanes.”
“There’s no photograph on pilots’ licenses; you
ought to know that.”
“Oh, right,” Stone said, thinking of the license in
his own pocket.
“You suspect this guy of being wonky in any way?”
Berman asked. “There’s no criminal record.”
“Yes.”
“Well, if he’s wonky, he wouldn’t have any trouble
picking up a driver’s license that would get him a rental
car.”
“Good point, but do the search anyway.”
“Whatever you say, Stone.”
“Does he own a car?”
“Yes, a six-year-old BMW 320i, registered at the P
Street address.”
“Strange that he has a car and a passport with that
address, but no driver’s license.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want his picture taken any more
than necessary. Does he know you’re looking at him?”
“Probably not, but he might guess.”
“Maybe, if he’s wonky, he figured that someday,
somebody would be looking for a photograph of him.”
“He has a passport, and you need a photograph for
that.”
“Yeah, but the State Department is a lot harder to
get a photograph out of than a state driver’s license
office.”
“Once again, you have a point.”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of at the moment. Let me know
about the license.”
“Will do,” Berman said.
“And, Bob?”
“Yeah?”
“Put your mind to other ways to find a
photograph.”
“I already did.” Berman hung up.