“Oh, I am sure that in your country there is extensive deliberation before the jury decides what it has already decided,” Hewitt said, chuckling, “but in St. Marks, it is considered rude to keep anyone waiting, especially on so important a matter as Mrs. Manning’s life.”

“That will be very nice of them,” Stone said dryly.

“Of course it will, and we will be spared the suspense.”

“I hope we are spared a great deal more,” Stone said.

“You may certainly hope,” Hewitt said. He looked at a gold pocket watch that he produced from his Bermuda shorts. “Well, I see that time is getting on. We will meet at the court at ten o’clock on Monday morning and all do our very best.” He rose and left the room without so much as a good-bye. Stone reflected that Hewitt had not offered them the promised tea, for which he had obtained the unnecessary milk.

Allison turned to Stone. “You know, sometimes I think he’s not entirely all there.”

Stone certainly could not disagree with her. “What did you two talk about while I was shopping for milk?”

“I told you,” she said. “Gardening.”

Chapter
23

Stone was having lunch alone at the Shipwright’s Arms when Thomas called him to the phone. “It’s Bob Cantor,” he said, moving the receiver down to the end of the bar, away from where Hilary Kramer was sitting.

“Hello, Bob,” Stone said into the instrument. “You back from the Canaries?”

“I’m home again,” Cantor replied, “and a little worse for the wear. The jet lag will kill you.”

“I sympathize. You got something new from the Canaries?”

“Nothing at all. I have got something new from here, though.”

“Shoot.”

“You remember I told you I checked out Paul Manning’s credit record?”

“I do, and he had a pretty good one, as I recall; paid everything on time.”

“That’s right, but I had that information only from a phone call from a friend at my bank. Now I have the printed report, and it shows a lot more.”

“Like what?”

“Seems Mr. Manning was living right on the edge. He was pulling in a magnificent income, of course, probably something between a million and two million a year, and closer to two. But he was spending one hell of a lot of money, too.”

“That’s very interesting,” Stone said.

“It gets more interesting. The credit report shows that he was pretty maxed out on all his credit cards and that he was borrowing heavily to make it from paycheck to paycheck.”

“Writers don’t get paychecks, do they? They get royalty checks.”

“Okay, okay, he got paid in widely separated lumps, but they were big lumps. My point is, his credit record shows that he was borrowing heavily from three banks, usually a hundred thousand bucks at a time, then repaying it when his royalty or advance check came.”

“Was he keeping up?”