“Maybe the boy’s birth date is just a typo on the certificate,” Wheaton said. “Why don’t you check the hospital records and see if they match the year on the certifi cate.”

“Which hospital was it?” Kelli asked.

Wheaton looked at the certificate again. “Uh-oh,” she said.

“What?”

“I missed this the first time. The birth took place at the Judson Clinic, in Beverly Hills.”

“I’ll call them.”

“Don’t bother,” Wheaton said. “The Judson Clinic is a very private hospital, the sort of place that tout Hollywood goes to when they want a quiet abortion, or a quiet detox, or a quiet breakdown. Vance was very private. There was no birth announcement in the papers, even, and it didn’t make the columns. You won’t crack the Judson.”

“Well, shit,” Kelli said in disgust. “I’m all out of options.”

“Then get Arrington on the phone and ask her to explain all this.”

“I called yesterday, and a secretary told me that Mrs. Barrington is writing a book about her marriage to Vance Calder, her marriage to him and his murder, and that she will have no comment to the press until the book is published, and maybe not even then. And if that isn’t enough, she’s out of town, and the secretary wouldn’t say where or for how long.”

“Well, at least you’ve got that little exclusive for Page Six: Arrington Calder Barrington is writing a tell-all book. Go with that. Maybe somebody will crawl out from under a rock, so make sure your byline is on the story.”

Kelli set down her empty coffee cup. “Good idea,” she said. “Thanks for the advice.” She went back to her desk, wrote a paragraph, including the information that Arrington had, at first, been a suspect in her husband’s death, and took it to the day editor.

“What’s your source for this business about the book?” he asked.

“Her husband’s secretary. She gave me that as a reason for Arrington’s not speaking to me.”

“Okay, I’ll run it at the bottom of the page, but no byline.”

“I need the byline, because it might generate a call from somebody who knows something.”

“Knows something about what?”

“It’s going to take me at least fifteen minutes to bring you up to date,” Kelli said. “Have you got that much time right now?”

“Go,” he said.

So, she pulled up a chair and laid out everything she had.

“Maybe it’s just a typo on the certificate,” the editor said.

Kelli explained why she couldn’t check with the hospital. “So, there are only two people who know the truth about this: Arrington and Stone Barrington, and neither of them is talking.”

“How about the boy?” the editor asked.

“He was pretty young at the time.”