Arrington took a deep breath and let it out. “That’s a relief,” she said.

“Also, having his driver in jail and maybe talking is going to make Prince more circumspect in his actions,” Stone said. “He won’t be able to pull that again. In fact, if the driver talks, that could solve all our problems. Prince wouldn’t be starting a big new development, if he were looking at a trial and possible conviction.”

“If that happens, can we go to the trial?” Arrington asked.

Stone laughed. “I’ll see if I can get tickets.”

22

Stone and Dino had breakfast with Arrington beside the pool the following morning. Then Mike Freeman collected Arrington and took her off to Burbank Airport to look at the available G-III.

Dino’s phone rang. “Bacchetti,” he said, then listened. “Have you got a line on him? Well, shit. Thanks for calling; keep me posted, if you will.” Dino hung up. “Prince’s driver ran; he’s nowhere to be found.”

“How would he have known he was going to be arrested?” Stone asked.

“Rivera thinks somebody in his office, maybe even his boss, tipped off Prince.”

“I heard you ask if he had a line on the driver.”

“Nothing. He apparently didn’t sleep at his apartment last night, and his car was still there.”

“This gets weirder and weirder,” Stone said.

Stone’s cell phone buzzed. “Hello?”

“Good morning, Stone. It’s Rick Barron.”

“Good morning, Rick.”

“I’ve got some news on the share-buying front.”

“Shoot.”

“One of the share owners, an elderly producer named Walt Baird, is willing to sell to us, because he needs money now and doesn’t want to wait until Prince does his deal. He’ll sell for twenty-five hundred a share. The bad news is, he only owns five thousand shares.”

“That’s a start. Tell him we’ll pay him this week.”

“All right, and there’s better news, too. Baird tells me a producer named Jim Long is willing to sell his shares, because he needs cash for a lawyer; he’s being held in jail without bail in L.A. on an attempted murder charge. He’s a close friend of Ed Eagle’s ex-wife, Barbara, and he’s accused of helping her try to kill Ed. You may recall that he was attacked by a man with a knife outside his home a while back. Long apparently introduced Barbara to the man, who was a dogsbody and sometime pilot for Long.”

“I heard about that,” Stone said.

“Are you willing to go and see Long in jail and talk to him about buying his shares? He’s got fifteen thousand so he could put us over the top. His attorney’s name is Harvey Stein.” Rick gave him the number.

“Sure, I’ll go see him. Arrington is out looking at an airplane at Burbank. When she comes back, I’ll brief her about this.”

“Good. Let me know how it goes with Long, will you? You can tell him I sent you; we had a cordial relationship when he was on the lot.”