Family Jewels by Stuart Woods Read Free Book Online Page B

story.
    “He’s not quite over them, yet. There’s something else. I didn’t mention it before, but we found Darla’s cell phone in her purse. We’ve had time to get the records, and I was surprised to see that she called you three times.” He handed Stone the record sheet. “I thought you said you didn’t know her.”
    “I didn’t, and I don’t.” He ran a finger down the list and found the calls. “The calls are all to this office, and at a time when I was in England.” He buzzed Joan, and she came in. “Did we receive three calls from a Darla Henry on these dates?” He handed her the sheet.
    “Now that you mention it, you had two or three calls from a woman who wouldn’t give her name and hung up. You can seethat none of these three lasted more than half a minute.” She handed the sheet back, and Stone handed it back to D’Orio.
    “There you go,” he said. “I never spoke to her, and she didn’t leave her name.”
    D’Orio sighed. “Every time I think I have something in this case, it just melts away.”
    “Would it help if I confessed to her murder?”
    D’Orio’s eyebrows shot up. “Yes, sir!”
    “Sorry, I was just trying to make you feel better. I’m completely innocent, and so, I suspect, is Harvey Biggers.”
    “Why do you think so?”
    “Just a gut feeling. Also, his story makes perfect sense, and I’ll bet the bartender at Bobby Van’s will back him up.”
    “It was a long time ago,” the cop said.
    “Jim Carlton remembered her from the same night, and he’d never seen her before. She must have been a memorable lady.”
    “You have a point. I’ll stop by Bobby Van’s on the way home.”
    “If you hurry, you’ll miss the worst of the rush-hour traffic.”
    “Right.” D’Orio stood up.
    Stone walked him to the outside door. “Listen, I used to be a cop, and sometimes you get ahold of a bad situation that turns out not to be a crime. I think it’s highly probable that Harvey and Darla met at Bobby Van’s, he took her to the party, succumbed to her charms, then left, and Darla, who was probably drunk, died of a mixture of sleeping pills and alcohol. And I’ll bet, when your tox screen comes back, that’s what it’ll say.”
    “I have a feeling you’re right,” D’Orio said. “Thanks for your time.”
    They shook hands, and he went on his way.
    Joan had gotten into her coat and had Bob on his leash. “Turns out Bob’s annual physical is due. I’m taking him uptown to see his personal physician and get his rabies inoculation updated, et cetera, et cetera. Fred will man the phones while I’m gone.”
    “Okay, see you later.” He looked into her office and found Fred at her desk.
    “Nice dog, Bob,” Fred said. “I had one like him as a boy.”
    “I never had a dog as a boy. My mother was allergic.”
    “Good thing you’re not, then.”
    “I guess it is a good thing.”
    “Want to make a small wager?”
    “On what?”
    “I’ll bet you twenty quid—ah, bucks—that when the lady comes home, she won’t get her dog back.”
    “You’re on,” Stone said, “and I’ll enjoy taking your money.”

14
    S tone was back at his desk when Dino called. “I hear you were caught in bed with a dead woman in the Hamptons.”
    “You have big ears, but faulty hearing. I
reported
a dead woman, and she was in no condition to go to bed with. Who have you been talking to?”
    “Their chief out there, Don Ferris. Known him for years.”
    “Did he tell you what his latest theory is? He has lots of them.”
    “His latest theory is you.”
    “Well, his sergeant just left here, after being straightened out on that point. I’m no longer a suspect, if I ever was.”
    “What’s
your
theory?”
    “A guy named Harvey Biggers—”
    “That’s a name? Sounds like somebody out of
Country Gentleman
magazine, circa 1950.”
    “It does, doesn’t it? You want to hear this, or you want to talk?”
    “Go.”
    “Harvey Biggers meets her at the bar at Bobby Van’s and