Stone saw Peter coming down the hall and looked at his watch. He had been gone for only twenty minutes. The three of them got up and walked out to the parking lot. “That was quick, wasn’t it?”

Peter shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I was in there twice as long,” Ben said. “How did it go?”

“They were all very nice,” Peter said.

“Had they seen your film?” Stone asked.

“Yes, all three of them. They promised not to discuss it with anyone.”

“Did they like it?”

“They didn’t say.”

They found a restaurant and had lunch. Stone thought the boys were unusually quiet.

Chapter 33

33

When Stone got the boys home he went upstairs to the master suite and found Arrington in bed, reading a New Yorker. “How did it go for the boys?” she asked, putting down the magazine.

“I’m not sure there’s any way to tell,” Stone replied. “They were both asked a lot of questions, but Peter was in there only half the time that Ben was. We weren’t sure what to make of that. Peter extracted a promise from them that they’d return his screenplay and DVD and not mention his film to anyone.”

“That’s a relief,” she said.

Stone picked up the magazine. “Why are you reading a fifteenyear-old New Yorker?”

“I’m reading the profile of Vance I wrote for them.”

“Oh.”

“Did you ever read it?”

“No, I was jealous.”

“I”m sorry.”

“Why are you reading it now?”

“There was another phone call from somebody at the Post, wanting information about Vance. I didn’t return it, but clearly there’s something afoot. I thought one way to stop it was to say that I’m writing a biography of Vance, to include a memoir of our marriage and his murder.”

“I think that’s a terrific idea,” Stone said. “Once you’re in the new house you’ll have time on your hands, and working again would be good for you.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Arrington said. “I talked with my old agent, Mort Janklow, and he thinks there would be a lot of interest in the book.”

“If you do it, you’re going to have to explain when Peter was born and why his name has been changed, and I don’t think it would be a good idea to tell anything but the truth.”

“I think you’re right, but by the time anyone saw the book, Peter would be older, when it might not matter. If I publish after he’s out of Yale and working at making movies, the publicity might even give his career a boost.”

“The boy wonder stories would run after he wasn’t so much a boy anymore,” Stone said, “and if we can keep a tight lid on it until then, it would be a stunner.”