“I had to go to the john, all right? And besides, he was sitting, chatting with Elaine.”
“You know Elaine spends her evening cruising tables.”
“But why would he just walk out? He knew he was supposed to stay at my house tonight.”
“You already told me the guy just barely knows who he is.”
“But he’s remembering more all the time.”
“Maybe he remembered he had a late date.”
“You’r
e not helping.”
“What do you want me to do? Put out an APB on him? He hasn’t committed a crime, and there hasn’t been a missing persons report filed, has there?”
“Not that I know of,” Stone admitted.
“He’s a grown man who’s a little shaken up. Eventually, he’ll remember more and go home.”
“Lance asked me to take care of him.”
“You’re his brother’s keeper? Isn’t that Lance’s job?”
“Lance has a flap on at Langley.” Stone told Dino about the meeting with the director.
“Well, I don’t envy him his problem,” Dino admitted.
“There is something you can do.”
“What?”
“Call the precinct and get somebody to do a search of driver’s licenses in New York State for a Barton Cabot, then New Jersey and Connecticut, if necessary.”
“I guess I can do that,” Dino said, producing his cell phone. He pressed a speed-dial button and spoke briefly to someone, then snapped the phone shut. “They’ll get back to me.”
“I just don’t understand where the guy could be going,” Stone said.
“You said he took a cab?”
“Elaine said she saw him getting into one.”
Dino got out his cell phone and made another call. “They’ll call the cab companies and have them put out a radio call to their cabs, asking who picked up a fare at Elaine’s and where they took him. It won’t reach every cab, but we might get lucky. Shouldn’t take long.”
A waiter came over and said that Elaine would like to buy them an after-dinner drink, the way she always did. They ordered.
Dino’s phone rang. “Bacchetti. Yeah. Yeah. You’re sure? Thanks.” He closed the phone. “A cab picked him up here and took him to Sotheby’s.”
“The auction house on Madison Avenue?”
“Nah, they moved to Rockefeller Center a few years ago; I’m surprised you didn’t know that.”
“I knew that; I just forgot. Why Sotheby’s? It’s the middle of the fucking night; they’re not open.”
“You’re looking for logic from a guy in his shape?”
“You’re right, Dino.”