Authors: Stuart Woods

Tags: #Thriller, #Mystery, #Fiction, #General, #Suspense, #Mystery & Detective

D.C. Dead (37 page)

Then he noticed that the light on his answering machine was blinking, and he pushed the button to get his messages.

“Hello, Dino,” a familiar female voice said. “I’ve been thinking about you, and I couldn’t resist calling.”

“Jesus,” Dino muttered to himself, then checked the caller ID. “Number Blocked,” it read.

“I wanted you to know that I’m all right,” she continued. “I had feared something like this might happen, so I made some preparations in advance. I’m in a new place, now, with a new life. Eventually, though, I might get to New York. If I do, would you like to hear from me? Think about that, and I’ll call again sometime. In the meantime, I’ll think about you in bed, and that little thing you do so nicely. Bye-bye.”

Dino hung up and thought for a moment, then he called Stone’s office number.

“Woodman and Weld,” Joan said.

“Joan, it’s Dino. Let me speak to him.”

“Hang, Dino.” She put him on hold.

“Hey, Dino,” Stone said. “Miss me already?”

“Oh, terribly,” Dino said.

“Dinner at Elaine’s, eight-thirty?”

“You’re on, but I’ve got news. Guess who left a message on my answering machine?”

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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 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 probably 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, Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 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 98212-1825.

Those who wish to make offers for rights of a literary nature should contact Anne Sibbald, Janklow & Nesbit, 445 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022. (Note: This is not an invitation for you to send her your manuscript or to solicit her to be your agent.)

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 Penguin representativwriting oe or the Penguin 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 Rachel Kahan at Penguin’s address above. Do not e-mail your discoveries to me, as I will already have learned about them from others.

A list of my published works appears in the front of this book and on my website. 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 online bookstores can help you find them. Otherwise, you will have to go to a great many garage sales.

BOOKS BY STUART WOODS

FICTION

Son of Stone
^†Bel-Air Dead
^†Strategic Moves
^†Santa Fe Edge
^§Lucid Intervals
^†Kisser
^†Hothouse Orchid*
Loitering with Intent
^†Mounting Fears
^‡Hot Mahogany
^†Santa Fe Dead
^§Beverly Hills Dead
Shoot Him If He Runs
^†Fresh Disasters
^†Short Straw
^§Dark Harbor
^†Iron Orchid*
Two-Dollar Bill
^†The Prince of
Beverly Hills
Reckless Abandon
^†Capital Crimes
^‡Dirty Work
^†Blood Orchid*
The Short Forever
^†Orchid Blues*
Cold Paradise
^†L.A. Dead
^†The Run
^‡Worst Fears Realized
^†Orchid Beach*
Swimming to Catalina
^†Dead in the Water
^†Dirt
^†Choke
Imperfect Strangers
Heat
Dead Eyes
L.A. Times
Santa Fe Rules
^§New York Dead
^†Palindrome
Grass Roos
^‡White Cargo
Deep lie
^‡Under the Lake
Run Before the Wind
^‡Chiefes
^‡