Lance turned to Holly. “Are you the police chief in Orchid Beach, Florida?”
“That’s right,” Holly replied, looking stunned. “How could you know that?”
“Anybody who pays attention knows that,” Lance said.
Holly seemed to melt a little in her seat, annoying Stone. “So, Lance,” he said, “do you normally travel with bodyguards who have machine guns in briefcases?”
“No, not normally,” Lance replied smoothly, as if he had been asked if he wore pleated pants. “Just today.”
“What’s so dangerous about today?” Stone asked.
“Well, around lunchtime today I picked up a tail.”
Stone felt a penny drop. “Yes? Where?”
“I was in Little Italy doing some business, and I picked up on an evil-looking black Mercedes following me. We lost it in Brooklyn, but policy is, when you pick up a tail, you increase security.”
Holly hid behind her menu.
“A wise policy,” Stone agreed. “Holly, can we get you a drink?”
Holly lowered the menu to eye level. “Knob Creek on the rocks,” she said, then raised the menu again.
“Make it two,” Lance said.
“Three Knob Creeks on the rocks and whatever poison Lieutenant Bacchetti is having this evening,” Stone told the waiter.
“Dino,” Lance said, “your reputation precedes you.”
“Oh, yeah?” Dino asked.
“We have a list of reliable police officers in various cities who we sometimes deal with. You’re on it.”
“That’s news to me,” Dino said.
Lance turned to Holly. “I’ll see that your name is placed on it, too.”
Holly put down the menu. “How nice,” she said, noncommittally.
“He’s turning us all into spies,” Dino whispered loudly.
“Oh, nothing as sinister as that. Sometimes, during the course of our work, we stumble across criminal activity that, technically, is outside our purview. When that happens, it’s nice to know some people in local law enforcement.”
“Tell me,” Stone said, “in the course of your work have you run across somebody named Trini Rodriguez?”
Lance furrowed his brow. “I don’t believe so.”
“How about a Robert Marshall?”
Lance shook his head. “Nope.”
“I think I’d better come clean,” Holly said. “It was Stone’s car that was following you today.”
Lance turned to Stone and looked at him askance.
“Don’t point that thing at me,” Stone said. “Go on, Holly.”
“And I was driving it.”