“I don’t remember that, either,” Stone said, sipping more bourbon.
“Tommy and I were talking for a couple of minutes, not paying attention to you, then Janet came over and said you were lying on the sidewalk outside, and that’s where we found you.”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Stone said. “Are you saying that Evan Keating knocked me unconscious, and that I didn’t see it coming?”
“Seems like you caught one on the back of the neck,” Tommy said. “Dino, did you see anybody follow them out?”
“I wasn’t looking that way,” Dino replied.
“Neither was I,” Tommy said.
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“And I don’t remember any of it,” Stone said. A waiter brought menus, and they ordered, and someone brought a plate of hummus and some bread.
“I’m hungry,” Stone said.
“That’s probably a good sign,” Tommy replied. “If you were badly hurt, you wouldn’t be thinking about food and booze.”
“He hardly ever thinks about anything else,” Dino said, “except women.”
“Speaking of women,” Stone said, “who was that doctor? She looked pretty good.”
Dino handed Stone her card. “I think he’s going to be okay,” he said to Tommy.
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STON E W O K E U P the following morning with his headache nearly gone. He took a couple of aspirin, ordered breakfast and found Dino on the front porch waiting for him.
“How you feeling?” Dino asked.
“A lot better. I still have a little headache, but I took some aspirin.”
“You remember anything else that happened last night?”
Stone thought about that. “Yeah, I think I talked to Evan Keating at the bar, but just for a minute.”
“Do you know how you got outside?”
Stone thought some more. “He suggested we talk outside, I think.”
“You remember anybody following you outside?”
“No, Keating was ahead of me.”
“Was he with anybody?”
“There was a girl, I think, but I thought he left her at the bar.”
“Was she beefy, muscular?”
“No, she was slim and attractive.”
“Then she either packs a hell of a punch or she hit you with something solid.”