IN TENNIS CLOTHES, Jim Hackett was revealed to have a muscularly gnarled body that appeared to have lived through many difficult moments. His broken nose was a perfect representation of the rest of him. His tennis game was murderous; he thought nothing of aiming a shot between the eyes of an opponent who had come to the net. Stone knew this, because he had been struck between the eyes. It tended to make one more cautious on the court, which was exactly what Hackett intended.

Hackett and his partner, Mike Freeman, an employee of his who appeared to have been hired entirely for his tennis game, defeated Eggers and Stone in straight sets, 6-4 and 9-7. Stone felt as if he had played fifty tiebreakers at Wimbledon.

Afterward, at dinner in the member’s grill, Hackett bought the drinks and collected a couple of hundred in cash from Eggers. “You two gave us more of a match than I had anticipated,” he said.

“Where did you find Freeman?” Eggers asked. “At the U.S. Open?” Hackett laughed and shook his head. “Mike was a middling pro a very long time ago, but he made a very fine living for many years allowing gentlemen to nearly win their matches at some of the world’s finest clubs.”

“The man is an assassin,” Eggers said.

“That must be what he does for you these days,” Stone said. “When he’s not assaulting people on the courts.”

“No. Jim is a client’s man; he has great charm, and he’s a fine organizer of teams for special sorts of work,” Hackett said. “Stone, what exactly do you do for this upstanding law firm of Bill’s?”

Stone looked sideways at Eggers. “Oh, I handle the cases that Bill and his white-shoe colleagues don’t want to be seen to handle.”

“Is that a good description, Bill?” Hackett asked.

“Not far off the mark,” Eggers replied, a little uncomfortably.

“You should be very pleased to have Stone,” Hackett said. “Every business needs someone like him, and certainly every law firm.” Hackett passed Stone a business card. “Stone, if Bill ever stops appreciating you, give me a call. You’d find a very comfortable home at Strategic Services.”

“Jim,” Eggers said, “that is an outright attempt at theft, and I resent it. I mean, it’s not like you let me win at tennis first.”

“On the contrary, Bill,” Hackett said, “knowing that you have someone like Stone on the payroll impresses me, makes me more likely to want to hire your firm. He also kept you alive in the second set, even after I knocked him senseless at the net.”

“Stone has his uses,” Eggers said. “Standing between me and cannon fire is one of them.”

“I understand that you two impressed Lord Wight yesterday at lunch,” Hackett said.

“We had a pleasant conversation,” Eggers said, “even if Stone had to leave to get someone out of jail.”

“Hah!” Hackett roared. “I love it! Someone from Woodman and Weld fishing a client out of the pokey!”

“And I have the only record of his arrest in my pocket,” Stone said.

“I hope to God he didn’t murder anybody,” Eggers said.

“No,” Stone replied. “He merely pressed a disagreement over a traffic ticket a little too far and got himself a free ride to the precinct.”

“That’s what I mean,” Hackett said. “A firm needs somebody like Stone.”

AS EGGERS WAS being shown into his chauffeured car after dinner, he turned back toward Stone. “I hope you didn’t take that offer from Jim Hackett seriously.”

“I hope you did,” Stone said, turning toward home.

As Stone arrived at Elaine’s, Dino and Felicity were just ordering. He waved away a menu. “No thanks, just a drink; I’ve already eaten.”

Elaine, who was seated with regulars at the next table, reached over and took Stone by a lapel. “What did you say?”

“A business dinner,” Stone said, knowing her views on those who dined before they arrived at her restaurant.

“People do business here,” Elaine said, freeing the lapel from her grasp.

“I was forced to dine elsewhere, sweetheart,” he said.

She looked unconvinced but turned back to her previous conversation.

“So,” Felicity said, “what did you find out about Whitestone?”

“It didn’t come up,” Stone replied. “It would have been awkward to raise the question. Anyway, Hackett probably already knows I’m interested in Whitestone.”

“How would he know that?”

“Because I raised the name with Lord Wight, and Hackett was aware of my and Eggers’s lunch with him yesterday.”

“So you think Hackett and Wight are in league?”

“Wight owns the building that is Hackett’s headquarters. I don’t know that they’re otherwise ‘in league,’ as you put it.”

“Let’s suspect the worst,” she replied.

“You do that; I’ll just try to find Whitestone.”

“You’re not making a lot of progress on that, are you?” Dino asked.

“We’ve got the bank and the Seagram Building staked out; that’s all we can do at the moment.”

“Stone is making progress,” Felicity said to Dino.

“Thank you, Felicity,” Stone said.

Felicity took a sip of her Rob Roy. “If they are in league, then Hackett knows that you and I know each other, because you introduced me to Wight at the ambassador’s dinner party.”

“Good point,” Stone said. “Also, Hackett seems to be the sort of guy who knows everything about everybody, so we’d best assume he knows everything about us.”

“Everything?” Felicity asked.

“Well, not everything.”

“Hackett also made me a job offer,” Stone said. “Sort of.”

“What sort of job offer?”

“He gave me his card and said if I ever tired of working for Woodman and Weld, he would make me comfortable at his company.”

“Take the job,” Dino said. “Then maybe you’d know everything.”

“I think he did it just to annoy Bill Eggers,” Stone said, “and it worked.”

“Dino has a point,” Felicity said.

“You want me to go to work for Hackett?”

“That would never do,” Dino said. “Then Stone would actually have to work for a living.”

Felicity couldn’t suppress a laugh. “Why don’t you drop him a note and manage to indicate some interest?”

“Because Hackett would see that Eggers knew about it, and I’d catch hell from him.”

“Then tell Eggers why you’re doing it,” she said.

“You want him to know about Whitestone?”

“You already mentioned the name in his presence at the dinner party.”

“You want me to tell him I’m working for you?”

“Certainly not. You can lie about that.”

“Lies have a way of coming back and biting one on the ass.”

“Oh, handle it, Stone,” she said.

Dinner came, and the waiter began pouring an expensive bottle of wine.

“That’s two, Dino,” Stone said.

“And two to go,” Dino replied.

THE FOLLOWING MORNING Stone was in his office when the phone rang. Joan had gone out for something, so he picked it up. “Stone Barrington.”

“You answer your own phone?” Hackett said. “Don’t you have a secretary?”

“You place your own calls?” Stone asked. “Don’t you have a secretary?”

Hackett laughed heartily. “Let’s have lunch today,” Hackett said. “There’s something I’d like to discuss with you.”

“All right,” Stone replied.

“The Four Seasons at one?”

“That’s Eggers’s hangout,” Stone replied.

“All right, Michael’s?”

“Good,” Stone replied. “See you at one.” He hung up and called Eggers. The secretary put him through.

“Good morning, Stone,” Eggers said. “I thought that went well yesterday.”

“I don’t know about you, Bill, but it wore me out,” Stone replied.

“You should stay in better shape,” Eggers said, chuckling.

“You going to get any business from Hackett?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“How close are Hackett and Wight?”

“They know each other. I don’t know any more than that.”