* * *
—
Breakfast arrived in the dumbwaiter; Stone set the tray on the bed and poked at Vanessa’s ass with a finger.
“Huh?”
“French toast,” Stone replied. “Better eat it now, while it’s hot. And you can pass up that punch line.”
8
Stone had packed Vanessa off home and was at his desk, when Lance phoned and scrambled.
“Good morning,” Stone said.
“And to you. Dino got the two ballistics reports to us overnight, and both victims were killed with the same weapon.”
“That’s to be expected,” Stone said. “Question is: What is the origin of the weapon?”
“I know what you’re thinking, and I considered it myself for a while, but it is not from our armory, nor is it a personal weapon registered with us by an employee, which is a firm requirement.”
“Any other thoughts?” Stone asked.
“Somebody else’s armory,” Lance said.
“What about somebody’s workshop?” Stone queried.
“That’s a possibility, if he had good tools. He wouldn’t have to make the guns; he could buy those. But the silencers? That would make sense.”
“So, anybody with a basement, a standing drill, threading tools, and a selection of hard bits could have made the silencers?”
“A wide net, isn’t it.”
“Something to look for if he’s captured by other means,” Stone said.
“Search warrants are Dino’s métier, not mine. So, for that matter, is murder. Why am I involved? I forget.”
“Because one of your ex-people came to my house with a tool kit and did some damage.”
“Ex-people. I like that, like ex-wives and ex-dogs. A divorced colleague of mine used to refer to his kids as his ex-children.”
“He sounds heartless enough to be one of yours,” Stone commented.
“The most softhearted man you could imagine,” Lance replied.
“Who, in your shop, could have had access to the plans of my house?” Stone asked.
“Interesting question. The answer is: anybody with a computer and a password, or the ability to figure one out. Did you know that the most popular password among computer users is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8? The second most popular is password. Or maybe it’s the other way around.”
“I’m not going to tell you what mine is,” Stone said.
“You’d be easy. Something to do with your airplane, I’ll bet.”
“Stop guessing,” Stone said, making a mental note to himself to change all of his passwords.
“You know,” Lance said, “you should come out of retirement as a homicide detective and work full time on this problem. After all, you’re on the hit list yourself.”
“I seem to be doing that without even trying,” Stone said. His desk phone buzzed; he picked it up and Joan said, “Dino on one.”
“Gotta run,” Stone said to Lance. Then he hung up his cell phone and pressed line one on his desk phone. “I’m here,” he said.
“Have you talked to Lance yet this morning?”
“Yes, just. He told me both people were killed with the same weapon, and it wasn’t one of the Agency’s.”
“You want to come down here and work on this? I’ll find you a desk.”
“Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had enough bad coffee and stale donuts to last me a lifetime. I’ll lend you my brain, such as it is, from time to time.”
“Great, I’ll send somebody over to remove it. See ya.” Dino hung up.
Stone pressed another button on the desk phone.
“Yes, sir?” Joan said.
“Change all our computer passwords,” he said.
“Change them to what?”
“My father’s middle name, plus two exclamation points.”
“And what would that be?”
“Check my birth certificate. If you enter it incorrectly, we’ll have to buy all new computers.”
“Certainly.”
His cell phone rang. Vanessa. “Good morning again.”
“I enjoyed the first one more,” she said.
“Any time.”
“I really needed you last night. You lifted the gloom.”
“What are you doing today?”
“I’m down at the shop, cleaning out my mother’s office.”
“I don’t think you should do that. Have you already started?”
“Only a moment ago. Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because of what Betty had been doing for many years. Lance is going to want to see every scrap of paper and, especially, the contents of the safe. I’ll get him to send some people over.”
“Well, I don’t know the combination to her safe, so tell him to send me a safecracker, too.”
“I’ll do that.”
“What are you doing for lunch?” she asked, and there was a leer in her voice.
“Oh, no you don’t.”
“Why not?”
“You’re overestimating my physical properties.”
“I’ve inspected your physical properties carefully, and I find them sufficient to my needs.”
“But they are insufficient to your desires,” he declared. “Wait until this evening, anyway.”
“Six-thirty?”
“Fine. I’ll try to get in a restorative nap before then.” They hung up.
Stone called Lance and scrambled.
“Yes?”
“Vanessa was about to clean out her mother’s office, but I stopped her, thinking your people might like to examine the contents thereof.”
“Funny you should think of that,” Lance said, “there’s a team on its way to her offices as we speak.”
“Oh, and she doesn’t know the combination to her mother’s safe; says you should send a yegg.”
“Most people write down the combination and tape it to the bottom of a desk drawer, or some similar place. They’ll look for it there, before we send a safecracker.”
“As you wish. Goodbye.” He hung up, knowing that Lance was looking for somebody to send.