Stuart Woods 6 Stone Barrington Novels Read Free Page A

MAHOGANY MOTOR LAUNCH, THE Venetian equivalent of a limousine, glided up the Grand Canal in the bright, spring sunshine. Stone looked about him, trying to keep his mouth from dropping open. It was his first visit to the city. The four of them sat in a leather banquette at the stern of the boat, keeping quiet. Nothing they could say could burnish the glories of Venice.
    The boat slowed and turned into a smaller canal, and shortly, came to a stop before a flight of stone steps, worn from centuries of footsteps. Two men dressed as gondoliers held the craft still with long boat hooks and helped the women ashore. As they reached the stone jetty, a pair of double doors ahead of them swung open, as if by magic, and Eduardo Bianchi came toward them, his arms outstretched, a smile on his handsome face. He embraced his daughters, shook hands fairly warmly with his son-in-law, then turned to Stone and placed both hands on his shoulders. “And my new son,” he said, embracing him.
    â€œVery nearly,” Stone said. “It’s good to see you, Eduardo, and it’s very kind of you to arrange all this for us. Dolce and I are very grateful.”
    â€œCome into the house,” Eduardo said, walking them toward the open doors. “You must be exhausted after your flight.”
    â€œNot really; it’s hard to know how we could have been made more comfortable in the air,” Stone said. “Once again, our gratitude.”
    Eduardo shrugged. “A friend insisted,” he said. “Your luggage will be taken to your rooms. Would you like to freshen up, girls?”
    The girls, dismissed, followed a maid down a hallway.
    â€œCome into the garden,” Eduardo said. “We will have lunch in a little while, but in the meantime, would you like some refreshment?”
    â€œPerhaps some iced tea,” Stone said. Dino remained silent. Eduardo ushered them through French doors into a large, enclosed courtyard, which had been beautifully planted, and showed them to comfortable chairs. Unbidden, a servant appeared with pitchers of iced drinks, and they were served.
    â€œFirst of all, I must clear the air,” Eduardo said. “I quite understand that you may be very attached to your own house; I would not impose mine on you.”
    Stone was once again astonished at Eduardo’s apparently extrasensory intuition. “Thank you, Eduardo. It was a magnificent offer, but you are quite right—I am very attached to my own house. It is much caught up with my family’s history in New York. Fortunately, Dolce has consented to live there.”
    â€œShe is a smart girl,” Eduardo said, smiling slightly. “I would have been disappointed in her, if she had begun her marriage by attempting to move her husband from a home he loves.”
    â€œI expect she will find my taste in interior decoration inadequate, and I have steeled myself for the upheaval.”
    â€œYou are smart, too,” Eduardo said. He turned to his son-in-law. “Dino, how goes it among New York’s finest?”
    â€œStill the finest,” Dino replied.
    â€œAre you arresting many innocent Italian-American businessmen these days?” Eduardo asked impishly.
    â€œThere aren’t many left,” Dino said. “We’ve already rehoused most of them upstate.”
    Eduardo turned back to Stone. “Dino disapproves of my family’s former colleagues,” he said. “But he is an honest policeman, and there are not many of those. Many of his other colleagues have also been ‘rehoused upstate,’ as he so gracefully puts it. Dino has my respect, even if he will not accept my affection.”
    â€œEduardo,” Dino said, spreading his hands, “when I have retired, I will be yours to corrupt.”
    Eduardo laughed aloud, something Stone had never heard him do. “Dino will always be incorruptible,” Eduardo said. “But I still have hopes of his friendship.”