Stone didn’t go home immediately. Woodman & Weld was located in the Seagram Building, upstairs from the Four Seasons, so he took the elevator and went straight to Eggers’s office. The secretary showed him in.

“Afternoon, Stone,” Eggers said. The debris of his lunch was still on his desk, and the secretary cleaned up. “What’s on your mind?”

“New business,” Stone said.

“Glad to hear it. Anybody I ever heard of?”

“Steele Security.”

Eggers’s eyebrows went up. “Are you serious?”

“I am. I just had lunch with Hank Hightower, their CEO, and Mike Freeman. They’ve asked us to put together an agreement between Steele and Strategic Services to cover some joint services they’re going to be offering.”

“Sounds interesting. Could be a wedge to get some more business from Steele.”

“We don’t need a wedge,” Stone said. “Hightower says they’re feeling neglected by their current firm and are looking for new representation. He’d like to bring his in-house counsel to meet with us.”

Eggers placed a hand on his chest. “Be still my heart,” he said. “Set it up. I’ll make time whenever they want to come in.”

Stone dug Hightower’s card out of his pocket, walked over to Eggers’s sofa, sat down, and picked up the phone. Five minutes later he hung up. “Three o’clock tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

“Done,” Eggers said, making marks on his calendar to block out the time. “And you’ll be there, too.” It wasn’t a question.

“Of course, though please remember that I don’t know a hell of a lot about insurance.”

“Maybe not, but you know how to tap-dance. I’ll get a couple of department heads in on this, too.”

Stone got up to go. “Bill, thanks for handling Arrington’s will with such dispatch. I’m happy not to have been involved in that process.”

“Have you read the will?”

“No, and I don’t intend to.”

“As you wish,” Eggers said. “If you ever get around to it, I think you’ll be pleased with the way we’ve organized her estate.”

“I’m sure I will.”

“How’s the new school for Peter?”

“He’s eating it up. He’s going to screen the rough cut of his film for them next week.”

“I made a call to Yale on the subject of his and Ben’s applications,” Eggers said, “and learned that Eduardo was in ahead of me.”

“Thanks, Bill. Peter wants Yale badly.”

Stone excused himself and walked slowly back to the house, thinking he had had a pretty good day. He walked into his office and found Arrington waiting for him, and she was in tears.

Chapter 30

30

Stone sat down on the sofa next to her. “What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

Arrington grabbed a tissue from the box on the coffee table and blew her nose. “I just had a call from an old friend of Vance’s, Prunella Wheaton?”