“Very nice. I have one of those, too. Remember, you can’t carry it loaded, and the magazine can’t be in the same bag as the gun.”

“Got it.”

“I forgot to ask: Did you eat?”

“How soon you forget!”

Chapter 10

Caroline stayed for breakfast and one more roll in the hay, then she showered and took off for work.

When Stone got to his desk he buzzed Joan.

“Yep?”

“Please send two dozen yellow roses to Caroline Woodhouse at Kelly & Kelly advertising, no card necessary.”

“Got it. Also, Brad Kelly is holding on line one.”

Stone punched the button. “Morning, Brad.”

“Morning, Stone. I’ve just messengered over a contract between us and Pepe Perado. It covers the items we discussed when you were both here, plus a lot of nitpicks your associate at Woodman & Weld threw at us. Will you have a look at it and let me know if it’s okay?”

“Sure, Brad.”

“By the way, the first thing you asked me when you called was if we had a beer account. We didn’t, but we did have a beer distribution account. That won’t be a problem, because we resigned it about ten minutes ago, since one clause of the contract seems to bar us from having such clients other than Perado.”

“If I were your attorney, I’d have advised you not to resign the other account until you had a signed contract with Pepe.”

“Well, to tell you the truth, we’re not unhappy to be unloading them.”

“Out of curiosity, who are they?”

“They’re called Bowsprit Beverages, and one of the partners has been nothing but a royal pain in the ass since we signed them two years ago.”

Stone shrank a little inside. “Let me hazard a wild guess: The partner in question is one Gino Parisi?”

“Right, and we’ve heard they’re mobbed up, too, and we don’t go for that.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that, too. Tell me, did you tell Parisi who your new client will be?”

“They wanted to know, and I didn’t see any reason not to tell them. We’d already shaken Pepe’s hand on the deal.”

“Thanks, Brad, I’ll go over the contract as soon as I get it.”

“We’re ready to sign, unless there are problems.”

“I’m seeing Pepe later this morning, and I’ll run it by him.” They both hung up, and Stone called Dino.

“Bacchetti.”

“Morning.”

“You sound tired. Another athletic night?”

“Funny you should mention that. I may have to hire some help.”

Dino thought that was very funny. “That’s what Viv said.”

“You told her about this?”

“You’ve never been married long enough to know this, pal, but fully joined couples tell each other everything.”

“Everything?”

“Well, almost everything. Is bragging about your sex life all you called about?”

“I wasn’t bragging—you asked.”

“Never mind. Why did you really call?”