Read Online 6 Stone Barrington Novels by Stuart Woods - Free Book Online

remember what jewelry Mrs. Calder wore?”
    â€œShe wore diamonds,” he said. “She usually does, when it’s a black-tie event.”
    â€œThank you, Manolo; I should be back in a couple of hours.”
    â€œWill you be dining here, then?”
    â€œYes, I think I will,” Stone said.
    â€œI’ll tell the cook.”
    â€œSomething simple, please; a steak will be fine.”
    â€œOf course.”
    Stone helped Mrs. Carter and Peter into the van, then got into his own car. They made it out the back way undetected.

Ten
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    S TONE SAW MRS. CARTER AND PETER OFF ON THE CENTURION jet, then returned to the Bel-Air, checked out, left his rent-a-car with the parking attendant, and took a cab back to the Calder residence. He had thought of returning through the rear entrance, but he didn’t want a cabdriver to know about that, so he called Manolo and asked him to be ready to open the front gate. There was only a single television van at the gate when he arrived, and the occupants took an immediate interest in him, but before they could reach the cab with a camera, he was safely inside. Before he got out of the cab, he handed the driver a hundred-dollar bill. “That’s for not talking to the TV people about who you delivered here,” he said.
    â€œThank you, sir,” the man said, “but I don’t know who you are, anyway.”
    â€œJust don’t stop when you go out the gate.”
    Manolo and a maid took Stone’s bags through the central hallway of the house, out the back, and around the pool to the guesthouse. Stone thought the little house was even nicer than the suite at the Bel-Air. While the maid unpacked for him and pressed his clothes, Stone walked back into the house with Manolo.
    â€œYou said you wished to speak with me, Mr. Barrington?”
    â€œYes, Manolo; it’s important that I know everything that happened here on Saturday night. Please tell me what you saw and heard.”
    â€œI was in my quarters, a little cottage out behind the kitchen entrance, when I heard a noise.”
    â€œHow would you characterize the noise?”
    â€œA bang. I didn’t react at first, but I was curious, so I left my quarters, entered the house through the kitchen door and walked into the central hall.” He led the way into the house.
    â€œWhich door did you come through?” Stone asked.
    â€œThat one,” Manolo replied, pointing to a door down the hall.
    â€œAnd what did you see and hear?”
    â€œI saw Mr. Calder lying right there,” he said. “He was lying. . . . He . . .”
    â€œCan you show me?”
    â€œYessir.” Manolo walked to the spot and lay down on his side, then rolled partly onto his belly. “Like this,” he said. “Can I get up, now?”
    â€œYes, of course.”
    Manolo stood up. “He had a hole in his head here,” he said, pointing to the right rear of his own head. “It was bleeding.”
    â€œDid you think he was alive?”
    â€œYessir, he was. I felt his pulse in his neck.”
    â€œWhat did you do then?”
    â€œI went to the phone there,” he pointed to a table, “and called nine-one-one and asked for the police and an ambulance quick.”
    â€œWhat next?”
    â€œThe maid, Isabel, came into the hall from the kitchen; I told her to go and see if Mrs. Calder was all right, and she went toward the master suite, there, through the living room, and through that door.”
    â€œHow much time elapsed between the time you heard the shot and the time you found Mr. Calder?”
    â€œI didn’t go right away; I kept listening and wondering if I had heard what I heard. I expect it may have been two or three minutes.”
    â€œWhich—two or three?”
    â€œCloser to three, I guess. I wasn’t running.”
    â€œWere those doors open?” Stone asked, pointing to the French doors that led to the pool,