Book 15 in the Stone Barrington series

Elaine’s, late.

Stone Barrington breezed into the restaurant and found his former NYPD partner, Dino Bacchetti, waiting for him, Scotch in hand.

A waiter set a Knob Creek on the rocks before Stone, and he took a large sip.

“Where have you been?” Dino asked.

“You mean for the past week?”

“You’ve been gone a week?”

“Dino, remember when I went to Lakeland, Florida, to ground school for the new airplane? For a week?”

“That’s where you’ve been?”

“No. I’ve been in Vero Beach, Florida, for flight training.”

“For a week?”

“For three days.”

“You have a new airplane?”

“Not exactly. I had the engine removed from my Piper Malibu Mirage and replaced with a turbine – that’s a jet engine, turning a propeller. So now it’s called a JetProp, and it’s like a new airplane, and because it’s like a new airplane, my insurance company insisted I have flight training in it from a guy named John Mariani, in Vero Beach.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Dino, why don’t you remember any of this? How much have you had to drink?”

“You think I’m drinking too much?”

“You seem to be in a state.”

“What sort of state?”

“The word stupor leaps to mind.”

“Genevieve will be here in a few minutes,” Dino said. Genevieve James was Dino’s girlfriend, a nurse in the ER at a nearby hospital.

“Good.”

“When she gets here, don’t leave me.”

“Why not?”

“I’m in some sort of trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“I don’t know, but if you’re here, she won’t hurt me.”