Severe Clear Read Free

cameras we have installed around the property.”
    “I’m certainly agreeable to that and anything else you feel we need,” Stone said. “And I think we’re fortunate to have you as a principal in the hotel.”
    “Thank you, Stone, I’ll see to it. When I told the others that our security at the hotel is nearly at White House levels, I wasn’t kidding, and now we’re ratcheting it up a couple of notches. We’ve already made the perimeter of the property highly secure, and there are only four access points, which will be beefed up with concrete barriers. The Secret Service is now going to increase their number of agents, many of them armed with automatic weaponry, and they’re bringing in shoulder-fired Stinger ground-to-air missiles and distributing them at high points around the property, in case of an attack from the air. Every airport in Southern California will be alerted to the possibility of airplane rentals by foreign nationals. And every flight plan filed in the area will be checked against the watchlists.”
    “It sounds as though you’ve got it covered,” Stone said.
    “Tim Coleman has told me that Kate Rule, at the CIA, is sending out orders to every station to question all informants.”
    “I can’t think of anything you haven’t done,” Stone said.
    “Neither can I,” Mike said, “but I’m going to worry about it every day until this event is behind us.”
    “So am I,” Stone said.

 3 
    S tone returned from his meeting at Strategic Services to find Kelli Keane waiting for him. He had completely forgotten the appointment.
    “Hello, Kelli,” he said, shaking her hand. “I’m sorry I’m late, a board meeting ran on a bit.” Kelli Keane was a former reporter with the Post who had quit to write magazine pieces. And a biography of Arrington. Stone was uneasy about talking to her, but she had made the point that he could help her be sure that what she had to say in the book was accurate.
    He seated her on the sofa and took a chair opposite, while Joan brought in a bottle of mineral water and two glasses. He certainly wasn’t going to drink while talking to her.
    “Lunch will be ready in a few minutes,” Joan said.
    Stone had also forgotten that their appointment was for lunch. “How can I help you?” he asked.
    “To begin with, I’d like to run through some chronology,” Kelli replied, “to get events in their proper order.”
    “All right.”
    “You met Arrington when?”
    “Oh, many years ago, at a cocktail party. Her first words on being introduced to me were ‘We must never marry.’”
    Kelli laughed. “Oh, yes, ‘Arrington Barrington.’ How did you ever resolve that point?”
    “We ran through the options, and it seemed to her that ‘Arrington Carter Barrington’ worked, separating the two names just enough. This was after she had accepted my proposal.”
    “Why did it take you so long to marry?”
    “Pretty simple—she married someone else.”
    “And how did that happen?”
    “It was winter. We had planned a vacation bareboating in the Caribbean, on the island of St. Marks. We were to meet at the airport. I arrived first, it had begun to snow, and I was concerned that she might have trouble getting there. Finally, she called and said that the New Yorker had asked her to write a profile of the movie star Vance Calder, and that she had to meet with him, since he was returning to L.A. the following day. She promised to get a flight to St. Marks the next day.
    “I went ahead to the island, but my flight was the last one out before they closed the airport. Turns out, Arrington was snowed in in New York for several days, and so was Vance Calder. We were communicating by fax, this being before e-mail was prevalent and before St. Marks got good cellular service, and after a few days, I got a fax saying that she was going back to L.A. with Vance, and that it was over between us.”
    “Pity.”
    “Yes, I had bought a ring and was going to pop the