“No,” Stone said, “but if she starts reading about Laurence in the tabloids, her discretion might be taxed.”

“There’s another kind of predator you have to worry about, too,” Dino said. “The financial kind. These people won’t need to read about you in the papers, they’ll see you going in and out of the Fairleigh, in and out of your car, in and out of restaurants, and, the way you look and dress, you might as well have the word ‘mark’ tattooed on your forehead.”

“What do you suggest I do?” Laurence asked.

“Get out of town.”

“Back to Palm Beach?”

“Oh, no, somewhere you’re not known, maybe someplace abroad you’ve always wanted to go.”

Laurence said, “A place comes to mind. Stone, I haven’t had a chance to tell you about this yet, but I’ve been talking with the Florida sales director of Cessna, a Mr. Hayes, and he tells me that he’s had the cancellation of a sale, due to a death, of a CJ 3 Plus. It’s loaded with equipment and has a nice paint scheme.”

“When would it be delivered?”

“In three weeks, and I’ll need sixteen days of training to get a 525 type rating—in Wichita, Kansas. Is that far enough away, Dino?”

“Wichita is as far as you can get from everywhere,” Dino said, smiling.

“And you’ll be in the classroom and simulator eight or ten hours a day,” Stone pointed out. “You’ll be too exhausted to go out at night.”

“Then I think I’ll kill two birds with one stone,” Laurence said.

“Let me negotiate the sale for you. I know David Hayes from past dealings.”

“That’s his name.”

“I’ll call him tomorrow. You book your training slot at Flight Safety. You’re going to need a mentor pilot for a while, too.”

“How long?”

“Thirty to fifty hours, depending on how precocious you are. I have a friend named Pat Frank who started an aircraft management business a couple of years ago. She’ll find you just the right mentor. Also, she’ll manage the airplane for you. There’s quite a lot of paperwork and maintenance records. She can make it painless.”

“Does she manage your airplane?”

“Yes.”

“Then she’s good enough for me.” He looked a little embarrassed. “There’s something else you’ll need to negotiate with David Hayes.”

“What’s that?”

“I want to buy a Citation Latitude, too.”

“That’s a big jump up in airplanes from the CJ 3 Plus.”

“It is, but I can fly nonstop transatlantic in it.”

“Ah, yes. Do you plan to train in that, too?”

“Eventually, but it’s going to be nine months before I can take delivery, so I can build time in the CJ 3 Plus while I’m waiting for it, and Hayes said it might be possible to work out a deal where I trade in the CJ for the Latitude.”