Page 142 of Stuart Woods' Smolder

“Maybe whoever came here is a fan of street art,” Stone suggested.

“Not sure if any of this qualifies as art,” Dino said.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

“If there’s beauty here, I’m not beholding it.”

“Always the critic.”

Teddy disappeared through a door at the other end of the room, then called out, “Found something!”

As Stone and Dino stepped into what had likely once been an office, they were hit with the familiar metallic odor of blood.

Stone expected to see a body, but the smell was coming from several dark smears that arced around a chair in the middle of the room.

Teddy picked up one of four short lengths of rope that lay on the floor, then touched one of the chair’s arms. He held up a gloved finger. On it were a few tan strands. “Rope fibers. Someone was tied to the chair.”

“Whoever it was, he isn’t having a great day,” Stone said.

“If his friends who brought him here haven’t killed him already,” Dino said.

“I would also consider that a bad day.”

“Fair point.”

“The question is, does this have anything to do with Petry or not?” Stone said.

“No way to know for sure,” Dino said. “But the blood’s not completely dry, so I’d say there’s a good chance his car was parked outside when whatever happened here happened.”

“Agreed,” Teddy said.

A search for other clues turned up nothing.

“Did you happen to bring a throwaway phone with you?” Stone asked Teddy. Even if this was unrelated to Petry, he wanted to tip off the police to what had gone down here.

“Do I look like an amateur?” Teddy asked, then pulled a cell out of his bag and tossed it to Stone.

Chapter 42

At eight p.m., Stone, Monica, and Dino met Viv at Spago in Beverly Hills.

Viv ran a finger down the menu. “None of you will look at me funny if I order one of everything, will you?”

“That depends on who’s paying,” Dino said.

“Stone and I have a bit of business to talk about, so I think we can put this on the Strategic Services tab,” she said.

“In that case, order as much as you want.”

She patted his hand. “Always the supportive husband.”

“No time to eat today?” Stone asked.

“Not a second. Dealing with Jakarta took up the first half of the day, and you the second.”

“The aforementioned business we need to discuss, I presume.”

“One and the same.”

---