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the States?”
    “Safely,” Cantor said. “By governmental means, you might say. We didn’t do the split until it was on these shores and not on government property any more.”
    “How wise of you.”
    “It wasn’t us; the Colonel is a very wise man. He found a way to convert the, ah, discovery, to cash, and at something close to its actual value.”
    “So what went wrong?”
    “What makes you think something went wrong?”
    “Bob, the Colonel had an outstanding war; he was up for general. It is what every Marine officer at his level lives and breathes for; but he resigned his commission.”
    “Well, yeah, there was that.”
    “Why?”
    “He had his reasons.”
    “Come on, Bob, what were they?”
    “Some brass hat got suspicious.”
    “Was there an investigation?”
    “Yes.”
    “Were you investigated?”
    “No, none of us, only the Colonel.”
    “And what did the investigation determine?”
    “Nothing. They couldn’t prove a thing. Well, not much of anything.”
    “What did the investigation prove?”
    “It was like this: There was going to be a court martial, but the brass hat running things offered the Colonel a deal. He could cough up the proceeds — all the proceeds — and have the charges dropped and, maybe, get his promotion.”
    “That sounds like a pretty good offer to me.”
    “Trouble was, the Colonel no longer had all the proceeds; we had done the split and scattered to the four winds. Three of us were out of the Corps by this time, one was getting out in a matter of days and the other one was dead.”
    “Did that one get dead because of this… transaction?”
    “I don’t want to go into that.”
    “But the rest of you wouldn’t give back, so you cost the Colonel his career?”
    “No, no, you don’t understand.”
    “Make me understand.”
    “The Colonel never asked us for our end back; he never even contacted us. The brass hat wanted the money for himself, so the Colonel turned down the deal and resigned from the Corps. By the time any of us heard about it, the deal was done, and the Colonel was gone.”
    “Gone where?”
    “Nobody knew. He was just gone.”
    “Did any of you look for him?”
    “I did. When I joined the NYPD I did a search every year or so, using department resources, but I always came up dry.”
    “Are you in touch with the other three guys?”
    Cantor shook his head. “We agreed never to make contact again. It was safer that way.”
    “Did anybody get caught?”
    “Nope.”
    “And you never saw each other again?”
    Cantor looked around. “Not until yesterday.”
    “What happened yesterday?”
    “I was having a drink here last night.”
    “At Clarke’s.”
    “At the bar. I looked up from my glass, and a guy was standing at the end of the bar, looking at me.”
    “You know his name?”
    “Of course, but I’m not telling you. All you need to know is that he was the one who wasn’t happy with the cut. In fact, he was so unhappy that a couple of us were going to off him, but he cut and ran before we had the chance.”
    “Did you talk to him?”
    “I looked away for a minute, trying to figure out what to do, and when I turned back, he was gone.”
    Stone nodded, he hoped sagely.
    “Stone?”
    “Yes?”
    “How is the Colonel?”
    Stone told him.
    “I’m glad he’s all right,” Cantor said.
    “Bob.”
    “Yeah?”
    “If you see this guy again or hear from him, you should get in touch with me right away.”
    “Why?”
    “To make sure the Colonel stays all right.”

10

    Stone went back to his office and tried to get some work done, but it took him more than two hours to write a brief that should have taken half an hour. There were times when he wished he had an associate to dump these things on.
    Joan buzzed him. “Cabot on line one,” she said.
    “Which Cabot?”
    “There’s more than one?”
    Stone picked up the phone. “Hello?”
    “It’s Lance.”
    “How did it go this morning?”
    “We had a very nice lunch together at