Dino opened it and handed Stone Marcel’s glass. “I know you’ll want to return that.” He also handed Stone a letter. “I think this says they came up with zilch, but here are Peter Grant’s addresses in Paris and the Cap d’Antibes.”
Stone stumbled through the French. “I think this is about the speeding ticket,” he said. Slipping the letter into his pocket, he picked up his phone, called Lance, and scrambled.
“I’ve got something for you,” he said. “Peter Grant had a speeding ticket on the Grand Corniche last year.”
“Go on,” Lance said.
“That’s it. The only proof that the man exists on the planet, as far as I can tell.”
“That’s very disappointing, Stone.”
“Lance, how is it you can tell me who I screwed in the back seat of a Buick twenty-five years ago, but you know fuck-all about Peter Grant?”
“You are a more visible subject,” Lance said.
“Come to think of it, I believe I know why you can’t learn anything about this man.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he doesn’t exist.”
“Of course he exists,” Lance said. “You had dinner with him last night.”
“I mean, he doesn’t exist by that name, except maybe in Paris, and I doubt there’s any written record of him. Here’s something you can check,” Stone said, retrieving the letter to Dino and reading Lance the two addresses. “Get Rick La Rose to check the real-estate records of the addresses and find out who the owners of record are.”
“Well, it’s lame, but it’s something.”
“Here’s something else for you,” Stone said. “Check every county clerk’s records in the United States and see if there was an application for a change of some other name to Peter Grant. If he had his name legally changed, he had to submit his old name, or his attorney did.”
“Stone, for a lot of his life nothing was on computers, except in big cities. Your suggestion would require an enormous amount of handwork.”
“Well, try the cities that have had computers for a long time. Start with Boston, where he says he’s from. Also check the student records at Groton and Harvard, where he says he was educated. The rest is your problem. Good day to you, Lance.” He hung up.
18
Tessa arrived at a quarter past seven, apologizing for being late.
“That’s not late,” Dino said, “that’s fashionable.”
Stone introduced everybody, then tended bar and settled everyone before the living room fireplace, which produced a brave little blaze.
“How was your day?”
“Busy,” Tessa replied. “I got a request last night for a last-minute party tomorrow night, and we’re all invited.”
Stone looked at Dino and Viv. “Are you okay for another night in Paris?”
“We both took a week,” Dino said, “which, with the weekend, is ten days.”
“By Dino’s count,” Viv said.
“I’ve arranged a caterer, a musical duo, and I’m doing the staging myself.”
“What sort of staging?”
“Well, our host has a good eye for art, but not for where to hang it. Same goes for small sculptures and objects. I think he’s just always hung or set things down when he bought them, then forgotten about them.”
“Who is our host?”
“Peter Grant.”
Stone blinked. “I thought you said he was too cheap to entertain.”
“I don’t think I used those words, exactly,” she replied. “I think reluctant is a better word.”
“Is there an occasion?”
“I don’t know. He just came up to me after dinner last night and asked if I could do it on short notice. Since short notice happens to be my métier, I said yes.”
“Who else is coming?”
“I don’t know; he said he’d handle the place cards.”
“Do you find this event mysterious in any way?”
“What’s mysterious about a dinner party?”
“Well, it’s mysterious that he would invite me, on such short acquaintance. And I don’t think he even met Viv and Dino last night.”
“We shook his hand,” Dino said.
“It was ice cold,” Viv replied. “That bothers me in a man. It’s downright reptilian.”
“I didn’t notice,” Stone said.
“You would have, if he’d been a woman.”
“Well, I do enjoy a cold hand on the back of the neck on a warm evening.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Tessa remarked. “Where are we dining? Am I correctly dressed?”
“At Tour d’Argent,” Stone replied. “I had a craving for duck, which I have ordered for all of us. I hope that’s all right.”
“You got a table there on short notice?” Dino asked.
Stone shrugged. “Sometimes I get lucky.”
Viv choked a little on her drink.
* * *
—
They arrived at the restaurant only a little late and were taken up in the elevator to the dining room and seated at the table with the best view in town of Notre Dame.
“I can see why you got lucky,” Dino said.
Stone looked out the window at Notre Dame and found it covered in scaffolding and lit only by emergency lighting. He had forgotten about the fire. “It’s hard to see it that way,” he said to nobody in particular.
“Macron says he’ll have it done in five years,” Tessa said, “and he already has the money. Marcel gave €250,000,000, the largest donation I’ve heard about.”
“I hope they spring for the sprinkler system this time,” Dino said.
* * *
—
Stone had ordered for them, and they were served seared foie gras, while their duck was carved at a nearby table. They had a good claret, but not a great one, because the wine list prices were breathtaking, and Stone wasn’t sure he had that much breath to spare.
Tessa leaned over when they touched glasses. “I’m glad you were able to make your companion of last evening vanish,” she said.
“I had nothing to do with it. Blame the hot market for large aircraft.”