“I hear you had a pleasant weekend,” Herbie said, managing not to leer.

“Yes, I did,” Stone replied. “Herbie, I’ve thought about it, and if Stephanie can arrange for me to invest with Jack Gunn, I’ll give him a million dollars to manage.”

“Is that the million dollars I paid you?” Herbie asked.

“No, that’s been used to pay down my debt, but I sold my airplane, so I have some extra cash for a change.”

“I’ll speak to Stephanie about it and get back to you,” Herbie said.

“Good. Was there something else you wanted to talk about?”

“Yes,” Herbie said. “I was thinking of going into business for myself.”

Stone had a sudden vision of what a disaster that might be. “What sort of business?”

“I was thinking of opening a sports and horse-racing book.”

“Herbie, sit down,” Stone said.

Herbie sat down.

“I want you to listen to me very carefully,” Stone said.

“I’m listening, Stone.”

“You are aware, aren’t you, that taking bets is against the law?”

“Yeah, but everybody does it. Gambles, I mean.”

“Yes, but people who gamble with bookies have only their own bets to lose. A bookie, if he figures the odds wrong on a sports event, could lose everything. For instance, when New Orleans surprised everybody by winning the Super Bowl by two touchdowns over the Colts, a lot of bookies were very unpleasantly surprised. I expect they took a big, big hit on that one.”

“Well, yeah, you’ve got to expect that, but bookies lay their bets off with people who can afford to take the losses.”

“Yes, Herbie, and the people they lay them off with are called the Mafia. You’ve had some experiences with them.”

“I remember.”

“Do you remember that you’re lucky to be alive after those experiences?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Herbie, there are all sorts of downsides to running a book; taking big losses and dealing with the Mafia are only two of them. For instance, remember how you were worried about your reputation when Jack Gunn seemed to be in a lot of trouble?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I think Jack Gunn would be very worried about his reputation if it became known that he had a son-in-law who was a bookie.”

Herbie thought about that for a moment.

“That might make things very uncomfortable for you with your new wife and her family.”

“Maybe I should talk to Stephanie about that,” Herbie said.

“If I were you, I would forget the whole thing and not even mention it to Stephanie. If she starts hearing things like that from you, she’s going to start wondering if she married the right guy.”

“You think?”

“I think,” Stone replied.

Herbie thanked him and left.

Another disaster, hopefully, averted, Stone thought.

EIGHTEEN

Stone was having a sandwich at his desk when Adele Lansdown called.

“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m very well, thanks; haven’t changed since this morning.”

“I know it’s short notice, but I wonder if you could come to dinner at my house this evening?”