“He is that.”
“Lance, how hard did you try to find him during your years apart?”
“Hard at first; after I was transferred to London, less hard. I didn’t use agency resources, if that’s what you mean.”
“Why would he want to stay out of touch with his younger brother?”
“I haven’t asked him that.”
Maybe you wouldn’t like the answer, Stone thought. He said good-bye and hung up.
28
Stone and Dino were still on their first drink when Bob Cantor walked into Elaine’s.
“Hey, Bob,” Dino said. “It’s after dark, and you’re out of your coffin!”
“Very funny. I usually work at night, you know.”
“My very point,” Dino said.
“It is unusual to see you in here,” Stone pointed out.
“I live downtown, okay? I hate the subway, cabs are expensive and there’s never any parking around here, except at twenty bucks an hour.”
“All good reasons,” Stone said.
Cantor took out a small tape player and handed Stone an earpiece. “I wanted you to hear this,” he said.
Stone listened to the lunchtime conversation, then handed the earpiece back to Cantor.
“Don’t I get to hear?” Dino asked. “I’m on the team, too, you know.”
“He is?” Cantor asked.
“He is,” Stone replied. “Why does Charlie want to have a reunion?”
“Dunno,” Cantor said. “Maybe he’s getting all sentimental in his old age, but I doubt it.”
“But what would he have to gain by getting you, Ab Kramer and Harry Collins together all in one place?”
“You’re forgetting the Colonel.”
“Him, too.”
“I can’t think of any reason, and I doubt Charlie plans to do it. It would be like him to suggest the opposite of what he intends to do.”
“Okay,” Stone said. “Suppose he beat up the Colonel and took his mahogany secretary. He’s already got it, so what does he want to do, gloat?”
“Ransom it,” Dino said. “He’ll say he knows somebody who can get it back for half what it’s worth. That way, he makes a quick twelve million, and the Colonel sells it and gets the rest.”
“That sounds like Charlie,” Cantor said. “It’s what he would do.”
“On the tape,” Stone said, “he says he bears no hard feelings about the gold coin thing that you and the Colonel profited from. Does that sound like him?”
“No, it doesn’t; Charlie would hold a grudge forever.”
“Wait a minute,” Dino said, “what’s this about a gold coin?”