“Who will be attending the dinner tomorrow night, besides the president and first lady?”

“Whoever they would like to include, plus my guests. They are Chief of Detectives, NYPD, Dino Bacchetti and his wife, Vivian, who is an executive at Strategic Services, Michael Freeman, chairman and CEO of Strategic Services, and he may be bringing someone, you can ask him. Also my son, Peter Barrington, his girlfriend, Hattie Patrick, Ben Bacchetti, the chief’s son, and his girlfriend, Tessa Tweed. I’ll let you know if any other guests are added to the list.”

“Thank you, Mr. Barrington.” Beam stood up. “I’ll keep you posted if there are further developments.”

“I would appreciate that.” Stone shook the man’s hand, received his business card, and watched him leave. Stone was not unduly alarmed about the threat, but its presence would add an edge to their evening that he didn’t like. He would tell Dino and Mike to come armed.

The phone rang; Manolo answered and buzzed Stone. “Mr. Peter is on the phone,” he said.

Stone picked up. “Good afternoon, kiddo!”

“Glad to hear your voice, Dad. I got your message about dinner tomorrow, and we’d all like to come.”

“Great!”

“I’d also like to bring Billy and Betsy Burnett.”

“Of course, I’d love to see them.”

“What time?”

“Six-thirty, seven?”

“And, Dad, the night after that, we’d like to have you all over here for dinner. You haven’t seen our place yet.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Stone said. “How’s the flying going?” He had given Peter his old Citation Mustang.

“Very well. Billy has got Ben, Hattie, and me type-rated in it. Tessa hasn’t shown any interest.”

“Good news. You’ll get lots of use out of it.”

“When does your new Citation M2 arrive?”

“In a few weeks. There was a delay in certifying the avionics.”

“I can’t wait to see it.”

“I can’t wait to see you,” Stone said. They said goodbye and hung up. Stone called Mervin Beam and got his voice mail; he added the Burnetts to the guest list.

As they were having a drink before dinner, Ann turned up. “I finally got free,” she said.

“Your things are in your dressing room,” Stone said. “Top of the stairs, first door on your left.”

“I’ll go up after dinner,” she said. “Right now I’d like a martini.”

Stone buzzed Manolo and ordered the drink, and it appeared quickly.

“Now that I’ve got you all together,” Stone said, “I want to tell you about my conversation with the Secret Service.” And he did so.

Chapter 4

Stone woke the following morning to find Ann in her dressing room, putting her things away. He liked it that she did these things naked.

“Good morning,” he said from the doorway.

She smiled. “And good morning to you.”

“If you’d like anything pressed, just leave it out and tell Manolo.”