Dirty Work
Chapter One
ELAINE'S, LATE.
A big night-a couple of directors, a couple of movie
stars, half a dozen writers, an assortment of journalists,
editors, publicists, cops, wise guys, drunks, hangers-on,
women of substance, and some of considerably less substance. And
this was just at the tables; the bar was a whole other thing.
Stone Barrington pushed his plate away and sat back. Gianni, the
waiter, snatched it away.
"Was it all right?" Gianni asked.
"You see anything left?" Stone asked.
Gianni grinned and took the plate to the kitchen.
Elaine came over and sat down. "So?" she said. She did not light
a cigarette. To Stone's continuing astonishment, she had quit, cold
turkey.
"Not much," Stone replied.
"That's what you always say," Elaine said.
"I'm not kidding, not much is happening."
The front door of the restaurant opened, and Bill Eggers came in.
"Now something's happening," Elaine said. "Eggers never comes in
here unless he's looking for you, and he never looks for you unless
there's trouble."
"You wrong the man," Stone said, waving Eggers over to the t ... read full excerpt from: Dirty Work ebook