“Now is great.” Stone motioned to his guest chair. “Have a seat.”
For the next fifteen minutes, they went over things that might come up while Stone was gone.
“I think that’s it,” Stone said. “If you have questions, you can always call me.”
Joan came back in. “Fred’s out front. He says you should leave soon if you want to make your departure time.”
“Thank you, Joan,” Stone said, then returned his attention to Ash. “If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.”
Ash stood, clutching his notepad and pen. “Very good, Mr. Barrington.”
“Stone.”
“Sorry. Stone.”
He turned to leave.
“One more thing,” Stone said.
Ash looked back.
“You’re doing great. We’re happy to have you here.”
“Thank you, Mr. Ba—” He stopped himself. “Thank you, Stone. I’m happy to be here.”
Ash exited with a grin on his face.
Stone put his computer to sleep and stood up from his desk. “See? I’m nothing but encouraging.”
Joan rolled her eyes.
As Stone walked out of his office, the phone rang and Joan picked it up.
“Woodman & Weld, Stone Barrington’s office.” She listened for a moment, then said, “He’s just leaving, but let me check.” She put a hand over the phone. “It’s Bob Cantor.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Stone said.
She gave him the phone.
“Hi, Bob. I’m about to head to Teterboro. If this will take long, I can call you back.”
“This will only take a minute.”
“All right. Go ahead.”
“Spent all day yesterday in Chicago, trying to see if there’s a connection between what happened to Sara’s husband and what happened to her blind date.”
“And?”
“As far as I can tell, there’s not. But the husband wouldn’t talk to me, so I don’t feel confident saying there’s no link for sure.”
“Did he know you were working on behalf of Sara?”
“No. I said I was with theTrib, doing a story about the mugging.”
“It was a long shot anyway. Thanks for checking, though.”
“You bet.”
