“The NYPD has been looking for him for two, three weeks, and you found him in a few hours?”

“Actually, it only took me twenty minutes, but I screwed around most of the day and didn’t start until twenty minutes ago.”

“What did you find out?”

“Well, I think I can tell you where he is and what he’s doing right now.”

“How can you do that?”

“After all these years, you doubt me? That really hurts, Stone.”

“Okay, where is he and what is he doing?”

Cantor gave him an address and he wrote it down. “Oh, and it’s Apartment 1B.”

“And what’s he doing right now?”

“He’s eating a pizza.”

“Come on, Bob.”

“It’s a large pepperoni and sausage.”

“Bob, I’m dazzled.”

“It wasn’t that hard, really.”

“Then how did you get it?”

“I hacked into that phone company file that lets him look at his account on a real-time basis and discovered that he had made a phone call about forty minutes ago, then I checked the reverse directory and found out the number belongs to a pizza parlor in Jersey. Then I hacked into the pizza joint’s computer and found out a guy name Ryan had ordered a large pepperoni and sausage, and the address and apartment number it was delivered to. He got the pizza about ten minutes ago, so I guess he’s still eating it.”

“Bob, I can’t thank you enough. Send me a bill.”

“I didn’t even spend half an hour on it, Stone. I can’t send you a bill for half an hour.”

“Then I’ll surprise you with something.”

“I love surprises, especially if they’re very expensive scotch.”

“Done. I gotta run, I’m meeting Dino.”

“See ya.”

—

Stone walked into Patroon and found Dino sipping his first drink. As soon as he sat down, somebody put a Knob Creek on the rocks before him.

“Hey,” Dino said. “What’s new?”

“I found Ryan.”

Dino choked on his scotch. “What?”

“He’s at an apartment building in Jersey, eating a pizza.”

“What the hell?”

“A large pepperoni and sausage.” Stone looked at his watch. “He’s just finished all he can eat, and he’s saving the rest for tomorrow.”

“Have you got a bug in his refrigerator?”

Stone ran Bob Cantor’s story down for him. “And he only started on it this afternoon? Amazing.”

“He started on it about forty-five minutes ago.”

“And my people have been looking for him for weeks!”

“Of course, they couldn’t illegally hack into the phone company’s accounts, or into a pizza joint’s computer. You see how nice life could be if you didn’t have to worry about search warrants and all that?”

“It would be heaven on earth,” Dino admitted, “but if you ever tell anybody I said that, I’ll call you a liar on television.”