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office doorbell rang. Stone went and relieved the deliveryman of three shopping bags of food and paid him in cash. He closed the door and was picking up the bags when a man appeared at the door. He was large and rough-looking, and he began to look over the door and the lock, not realizing that Stone was on the other side of what amounted to a one-way mirror. He took something from his pocket and began to fool with the lock.
    Stone set the bags aside, went into Joan’s office and retrieved her .45, then he went back to the door and jerked it open, the pistol ready. “What’s on your mind?” he asked, holding the gun shoulder high.
    The man froze, then looked worried. “Sorry,” he said, “wrong house.”
    “This is a dentist’s office,” Stone said. “Never mind the sign. If you come back you’ll leave minus some teeth.” The man hurried away just as a cab pulled up outside, and Caroline got out, carrying a large purse and a small suitcase.
    “Hey,” she said, kissing him. “Was that who you’ve been expecting? I mean, there’s a .45 in your hand.”
    “I believe it was,” Stone said. “He was trying to pick the lock.”
    “That’s pretty brazen.”
    “Yeah, I guess he thought there would be no one in the office this late, and he could get into the house this way. He was nearly right.” Stone picked up the food bags. “Let’s get to the kitchen. We’ve got two hundred dollars’ worth of Chinese food here, getting cold.”
    He locked the door behind her and set the alarm, then led her through his office to the kitchen.
    “This house just goes on and on, doesn’t it?”
    “Sort of. I own the one next door, too. My people live there.”
    “How many people?”
    “Fred and Helene, my cook/housekeeper, and Joan Robertson, my secretary.”
    “How convenient.”
    “For everybody.” He set the food on the kitchen table. “I’ll get plates and some wine. You root around in that and see if there’s anything you like.” He set the table and put out half a dozen serving spoons, then got a bottle of good Chardonnay from the wine fridge and opened it.
    “What would you like?”
    “A couple of dumplings, lots of fried rice, General Tso’s Chicken, and the Grand Marnier Shrimp, for a start.”
    She served them both and they ate greedily.
    “I figured out why you have so many Matilda Stone paintings,” she said. “She was your mother.”
    Stone’s mouth was full, so he just nodded.
    “I looked her up on Wikipedia, and it said she had one son.”
    Stone swallowed and washed it down with the wine. “You are correct,” he said.
    “What was she like?”
    “Just wonderful. She worked like a beaver all day and was transformed into a mother at quitting time.”
    “I’m a little like that. I work like a beaver all day, then I turn into a sex maniac at quitting time.”
    “Then I’d better stop eating, or I won’t be able to get my clothes off.”
    “I’ll help,” she said.

The following morning, after their usual early-morning carnal cavort, Caroline took her shower and dressed in the change of clothes she had brought in her bag.
    “I had a thought,” Stone said.
    “Speak it, then, I don’t want to be late.”
    “Why don’t we get out of town for the weekend? I’ve got a country place. We can breathe free up there.”
    “What a good idea!”
    “Can you shake loose from work after lunch?”
    “I can go home, pack a bag, and be here by, say, noon?”
    “Good. See you then.”
    —
    J erry Brubeck got to his office by eight AM , as usual. He had not slept well, and he knew he was going to have to confront Gino, which always made him nervous. He made coffee and put the cheese Danishes he had bought on the way into the city on a plate, then poured himself a cup. At eight-thirty, right on schedule, Gino bustled into the office.
    “Grab some coffee and Danish, Gino,” Jerry said. “We have to talk.”
    “Oh, shit, not again.”
    “I don’t know what you mean by that, but this is an