45
STONE AND DINO were polishing off their usual dessert of key lime pie.
“I think we should go to Miami,” Dino said.
Stone blinked. “Why?”
“To talk to our erstwhile colleague Manny White.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t have anything else to do, and visiting Manny will keep us busy.”
“What do you hope to learn from Manny?” Stone asked.
“We already have our suspicions about Manny,” Dino said, “but even if they aren’t true, he probably knows more about all this than we do.”
“That wouldn’t be hard,” Stone said. “But first I need to call Evan.” He did so.
“Hello?”
“It’s Stone. Where are you?”
“Still in Connecticut. We’re taking a morning flight from LaGuardia tomorrow, and we’ll land in Key West at two o’clock.”
“Where are you staying?”
“At the Marquesa again. We can’t stay on the boat, can we?”
“Not yet. A DEA agent came to see me earlier today. Naturally, he’s anxious to talk with you about the drugs found on your boat.”
“Naturally,” Evan replied.
“I’ll set something up with him tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll go see him.”
“All right. Not before four o’clock; you know how flights are these days.”
“That will be good. See you then.” Stone hung up, called Rocco Corelli and made the appointment. “All right,” he said to Dino, “let’s go to Miami. Do we have an address?”
“He’ll be in the phone book,” Dino replied.
On the way to the airport, Stone got a weather forecast and filed a flight plan. Half an hour later they were winging their way north.
They landed at Tamiami Airport and got Manny White’s address from a phone book, then took a cab.
Manny White Investigations was housed in an elegant little Art Deco office building in South Beach, on the top floor. There was a nicely furnished reception room with a pretty receptionist, and they were shown into Manny’s office right away.
Manny didn’t rise to greet them. “Well,” he said, deadpan, “to what do I owe the thrill of this visit?”
“We were in town and thought we’d drop by to say hello,” Dino replied, offering himself a chair.
“Hello,” Manny said. He turned toward Stone. “You too.”
“Hi, Manny,” Stone replied.
“So how long you been in business here?” Dino asked.
“Since I retired, seven years ago.”
Dino looked around the office. “Business must be good.”
“Not bad,” Manny said. “It took a while to build it up.”
“What sort of investigations do you do?” Stone asked.
“Skip tracing, employee embezzlement, divorce and child custody, you name it.”
“How many operatives do you employ?” Dino asked.
“Half a dozen, all freelancers.”
“Who are they?”
“Ex-cops, mostly. Now and then I run across somebody who’s just smart, and I hire him.”
“Manny,” Dino said, “you were helpful to us when a client of Stone’s was in danger of getting shot. Suppose we wanted a little wet work done. Could you send me to somebody good?”
“What kind of wet work?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“How can I send you to the right guy if I don’t know what kind of work you want done? Everybody’s a specialist these days. You want somebody burgled, I recommend one guy; you want a debt collected, I recommend another guy.”
“Suppose we wanted somebody’s clock stopped,” Stone said. “Could you handle that?”
Manny regarded him evenly. “You guys wearing a wire? Maybe you should be in your underwear for this conversation.”
“I’ll be happy to strip for you, Manny, but neither of us is wired.”
“This is just an informal discussion,” Dino said. “Very hypothetical. Could you handle a clock-stopping?”
“I don’t handle nothing,” Manny said. “I just pass along instructions.”
“You sound like the Happy Hooker, Manny,” Dino said.
“That’s not an unfair comparison,” Manny replied. “I’ll need to know whose clock we’re talking about and where he is, something about his habits.”
“Maybe we should talk directly to your contractor,” Stone said.
Manny shook his head slowly. “You never meet him; he’s funny that way.”
“What’s the going rate for clock-stopping these days?” Dino asked.
Manny shrugged. “Depends on distance, difficulty and whether the guy has protection.”
“Ballpark number?”
“Could be twenty-five big ones, if it’s local and easy; two, three times that if travel is involved and if he has security. What part of the country we talking about?”
“Key West, maybe,” Stone said. “Maybe Connecticut.”
Manny became inert.
“Manny, you still there?” Dino asked.
“I’m still here,” Manny said, “but you guys aren’t.” He nodded toward the door. “Take a hike.”
“You’re a little sensitive, aren’t you, Manny?” Stone asked.
“What’s the matter?” Manny said. “Don’t you guys know when you’re getting your chain yanked? I don’t do that kind of business. Now get out of here—I got no more time for you.”
“I’ll bet you’d have time if I put twenty-five big ones on the desk right now,” Stone said.
“Then do it, or hoof it,” Manny said.
They hoofed it, thanking Manny for his time.
IN THE AIRPLANE on the way back, Stone tuned in a jazz station on the satellite radio, switched on the autopilot and sat back. “So Manny’s the arranger, you think?”
“Oh, yeah,” Dino replied. “Not that you could ever nail him. Not even if we’d been wearing a wire today.”
“Manny’s a shit, but he’s not stupid,” Stone said.
“Anyway,” Dino replied, “we know how he’s paying for that office space.”
“You betcha,” Stone said.