Lucid Intervals
Lucid Intervals
Number XVIII of
Stone Barrington
Stuart Woods
Putnam Adult (2010)
Rating: ★★★★☆
Tags: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Mysteryttt Suspensettt Thrillerttt
A brand-new page-turning Stone Barrington novel from the perennially entertaining
New York Times
-bestselling author.
It seems like just another quiet night at Elaine's. Stone Barrington and his former cop partner, Dino, are enjoying some pasta when in walks former client and all around sad sack Herbie Fisher...with a briefcase containing $14 million in cash.
Herbie claims to have won the money on a lucky lotto ticket, but he also says he needs a lawyer-and after a single gunshot breaks the window above his head and sends diners scrambling, Stone and Dino suspect Herbie might need a bodyguard and a private investigator, too.
Stuart Woods Three Stone Barrington Adventures
Lucid Intervals
Strategic Moves
Bel-Air Dead
Stuart Woods
Table of Contents
BOOKS BY STUART WOODS
FICTION
Kisser
2
Hothouse Orchid
1
Loitering with Intent
2
Mounting Fears
Hot Mahogany
2
Santa Fe Dead
4
Beverly Hills Dead
Shoot Him If He Runs
2
Fresh Disasters
2
Short Straw
4
Dark Harbor
2
Iron Orchid
1
Two-Dollar Bill
2
The Prince of Beverly Hills
Reckless Abandon
2
Capital Crimes
3
Dirty Work
2
Blood Orchid
1
The Short Forever
2
Orchid Blues
1
Cold Paradise
2
L.A. Dead
2
The Run
3
Worst Fears Realized
2
Orchid Beach
1
Swimming to Catalina
2
Dead in the Water
2
Dirt
2
Choke
Imperfect Strangers
Heat
Dead Eyes
L.A. Times
Santa Fe Rules
4
New York Dead
2
Palindrome
Grass Roots
3
White Cargo
Deep Lie
3
Under the Lake
Run Before the Wind
3
Chiefs
3
TRAVEL
A Romantic’s Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and Ireland (1979)
MEMOIR
Blue Water, Green Skipper (1977)
G. P. PUTNAM’ S SONS
Publishers Since 1838
Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Copyright © 2010 by Stuart Woods
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. Published simultaneously in Canada
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lucid intervals / Stuart Woods.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-101-18697-8
1. Barrington, Stone (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Attorney and client—Fiction.
3. Private investigators—Fiction. 4. Lottery winners—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3573.O642L
813’.54—dc22
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is for Ted and Barbara Flicker.
1
E
laine’s, late.
Stone Barrington and Dino Bacchetti were sitting at their usual table, eating penne with shrimp and vodka sauce, when a young man named Herbert Fisher walked in with a tall young woman.
Stone ignored him. Herbie Fisher was the nephew of Bob Cantor, a retired cop with whom Stone had worked many times. Bob Cantor was Herbie’s only connection with reality. Herbie Fisher, in Stone’s experience, was a walking catastrophe.
Herbie seated his girl at a table to the rear, then walked back and took a chair at Stone’s table. “Hi, Stone,” he said. “Hi, Dino.”
“Dino,” Stone said, “you are a police officer, are you not?”
“I am,” said Dino, spearing a shrimp.
“I wish to make a complaint.”
“Go right ahead,” Dino said.
“What’s going on, Stone?” Herbie asked.
Stone ignored him. “There is an intruder at my table; I wish to have him removed.”
“Remove him yourself,” Dino said. “I’m eating penne with shrimp and vodka sauce.”
“You are a duly constituted officer of the law, are you not?” Stone asked.
“Once again, I am.”
“Then it is your duty to respond to the complaint of an upstanding citizen.”
“What kind of citizen?”
“Upstanding.”
“I’m not at all sure that the word describes you, Stone.”
Herbie, whose head was following the conversation as if he were seated in the first row at Wimbledon, said, “No kidding, Stone, what’s going on?”