“A Mr. Bernard Finger called and left a message before I got in. Do you know him?”

“He’s a lawyer. I met him once, at the courthouse; he was defending a drug dealer. It’s probably about the Dattila thing.”

“So, Mr. Dattila is responding?”

“I’m not going to count on it. I’ll call him back later; don’t want to look too anxious.”

“Right.”

“Will you send the lady up when she arrives? Her name is Marilyn.”

“Wilco.”

“I love it when you talk pilot.” He hung up, turned over and went back to sleep. The phone buzzed again; Stone picked it up. “What?”

“It’s ten forty-five, and she hasn’t shown.”

“Ah, okay. I’ll deal with it.” He rolled out of bed, went to his dressing room, rummaged through the contents of his pockets dumped on the dresser top the night before and found Marilyn’s card. He went back, sat on the bed and dialed her number. There came back a loud squawk and a mechanical voice: “The number you have dialed is not in service; please check the number and dial again.”

He must have dialed a wrong digit, he thought, and he dialed again; same result. Very peculiar. By the time he had showered, shaved and dressed it seemed very, very peculiar. He went down to his office and called Bernard Finger.

“Stone Barrington!” Finger shouted into the phone, as if they were long-lost friends. Finger was a large, voluble man.

“Good morning, Mr. Finger. You rang?”

“Call me Bernie!” Finger shouted. “Everybody does! And I’ll call you Stoney!”

“Over my dead body,” Stone replied.

“Ha! My client can arrange that!” He dissolved in loud guffaws.

“And your client is…?”

“You’ve met him, Stone. Is that better?”

“Yes, thank you. What can I do for you, Bernie?”

“I represent a certain party downtown who was baffled yesterday to have you walk into his place of business and hand him a summons! He wants to know what this is all about!”

“Didn’t you read the complaint, Bernie?”

“Well, not exactly; it didn’t really survive the day!”

“I’ll send you a copy.”

“Just give me a quick run-through, and I’ll read it later!”

“My client lost a considerable sum of money, betting with one of your client’s employees. When he failed to pay fast enough, two of your client’s other employees dragged him from a public eating establishment, causing him great humiliation and embarrassment, then proceeded to beat him on the sidewalk, until they were interrupted by a police officer.”

“Did the cop arrest them?”

“No.”

“Well, then it couldn’t have been too serious, could it?”

“I assure you, my client takes it very seriously, since he now faces plastic surgery to his face, and he is looking forward to meeting your client in court.”