by Stuart Woods
“There’s an RAF airplane waiting for me at Teterboro,” she said. “I’m taking back two bodies as hand baggage.”
“Oh, yes.”
“What will happen to La Biche’s remains?” she asked Dino.
“Potter’s field is my guess.”
“No,” Stone interjected. He told them about the package from Marie-Thérèse. “She wants her ashes sent back to Switzerland.”
“Why don’t you just flush them down the toilet?” Carpenter asked.
“Shut up, Felicity,” Stone said.
“You liked her, didn’t you?” she asked.
“No, I didn’t. I admired . . . some of what she was—determined, even principled, in a way.”
“And you don’t like me anymore?”
“I like you, but I don’t admire you,” Stone said.
“I did what had to be done.”
“No, you did what you had to do; there’s a difference.”
“At least I know that she’s not after me anymore. I can relax now.”
“I don’t know how you can ever relax again,” Stone said.
“I’m quitting, you know.”
“Are you really?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
“Don’t think about it, just quit. You can’t be a human being again until you do.”
“I wish you understood,” she said.
Stone shrugged. “Like you said, it’s a war; what’s to understand?”
She stood up. “I have to go.” She gave Dino a hug, then turned to Stone.
“I don’t feel like kissing you,” she said.
“Then don’t.”
“Call me when you’re in London?”
“After you’ve retired.”
She gave him a little wave, then left.
They were quiet for a while, sipping their drinks, then Dino finally spoke. “You were too hard on her.”
“Was I?”
“We all have our dirty work to do—Carpenter, me, and you.”
Stone downed the rest of his bourbon and signaled a waiter for another. “I think you’d better order a police car to take me home tonight.”
“It’s waiting outside,” Dino said.
THE END
Mount Desert, Maine, June 26, 2002
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to my editor at Putnam, David Highfill, for his continuing fine work on my manuscripts and his shepherding of my books inside the publishing house, as I am to all the people behind the scenes at Putnam who do so much to make my work a success.
I am grateful, too, to my literary agents, Morton Janklow and Anne Sibbald, for all their work in the management of my career over the past twenty-two years. They have always made me feel I am in good hands.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I am happy to hear from readers, but you should know that if you write to me in care of my publisher, three to six months will pass before I receive your letter, and when it finally arrives it will be one among many, and I will not be able to reply.
However, if you have access to the Internet, you may visit my website at www.stuartwoods.com, where there is a button for sending me e-mail. So far, I have been able to reply to all of my e-mail, and I will continue to try to do so.
If you send me an e-mail and do not receive a reply, it is because you are among an alarming number of people who have entered their e-mail address incorrectly in their mail software. I have many of my replies returned as undeliverable.
Remember: e-mail, reply; snail mail, no reply.
When you e-mail, please do not send attachments, as I never open these. They can take twenty minutes to download, and they often contain viruses.
Please do not place me on your mailing lists for funny stories, prayers, political causes, charitable fund-raising, petitions, or sentimental claptrap. I get enough of that from people I already know. Generally speaking, when I get e-mail addressed to a large number of people, I immediately delete it without reading it.
Please do not send me your ideas for a book, as I have a policy of writing only what I myself invent. If you send me story ideas, I will immediately delete them without reading them. If you have a good idea for a book, write it yourself, but I will not be able to advise you on how to get it published. Buy a copy of Writer’s Market at any bookstore; that will tell you how.
Anyone with a request concerning events or appearances may e-mail it to me or send it to: Publicity Department, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.
Those ambitious folk who wish to buy film, dramatic, or television rights to my books should contact Matthew Snyder, Creative Artists Agency, 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212-1825.
Those who wish to conduct business of a more literary nature should contact Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit, 445 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022.
If you want to know if I will be signing books in your city, please visit my website, www.stuartwoods.com, where the tour schedule will be published a month or so in advance. If you wish me to do a book signing in your locality, ask your favorite bookseller to contact his Putnam representative or the G. P. Putnam’s Sons Publicity Department with the request.
If you find typographical or editorial errors in my book and feel an irresistible urge to tell someone, please write to David Highfill at Putnam, address above. Do not e-mail your discoveries to me, as I will already have learned about them from others.
A list of all my published works appears in the front of this book. All the novels are still in print in paperback and can be found at or ordered from any bookstore. If you wish to obtain hardcover copies of earlier novels or of the two nonfiction books, a good used-book store or one of the on-line bookstores can help you find them. Otherwise, you will have to go to a great many garage sales.
Contents
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AUTHOR’S NOTE
