The Partner by John Grisham

when they booked him. It was called a tracing cone, a tiny but powerful transmitter used to monitor movements of people, packages, even automobiles. He’d frisked himself while chatting with Jaynes, and had been tempted to rip out the cone and toss it on his desk.
    He was an expert at surveillance. He stuffed his jacket under the seat of the cab, and walked quickly into the Hay-Adams Hotel, across from Lafayette Park. There were no rooms, he was told. He asked to see the manager, a former client, and within minutes Mr. Stephano was escorted to a suite on the fourth floor, with a splendid view of the White House. He stripped to his socks and shorts and carefully placed each item of clothing on the bed where he examined and even caressed every inch of fabric. He ordered lunch. He called his wife, but there was no answer.
    Then he called Benny Aricia, his client, the man whose ninety million got diverted just minutes after it had arrived at the bank in Nassau. Aricia’s take was to have been sixty million, with thirty going to his lawyers,Bogan and Vitrano and the rest of those filthy crooks in Biloxi. But it had vanished, just before it reached Benny.
    He was at the Willard Hotel, also near the White House, hiding and waiting to hear from Stephano.
    They met an hour later at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown, in a suite Aricia had just reserved for a week.
    Benny was almost sixty, but looked ten years younger. He was lean and bronze, with the perpetual tan of an affluent South Florida retiree who played golf every day. He lived in a condo on a canal with a Swedish woman who was young enough to be his daughter.
    When the money was stolen, the law firm owned an insurance policy covering fraud and theft by its partners and employees. Embezzlement is common in law firms. The policy, sold by Monarch-Sierra Insurance Company, had a limit of four million dollars, payable to the firm. Aricia sued the law firm with a vengeance. His lawsuit demanded sixty million; all that he was entitled to.
    Because there was little else to collect, and because the firm was about to run to bankruptcy court, Benny had settled for the four million paid by Monarch-Sierra. He’d spent almost half of that searching for Patrick. The fancy condo in Boca had cost a half a million. Other expenditures here and there, and Benny was down to his last million.
    He stood in the window and sipped decaffeinated coffee. “Am I going to be arrested?” he asked.
    “Probably not. But I’d keep low anyway.”
    Benny placed his coffee on the table and sat acrossfrom Stephano. “Have you talked to the insurance companies?” he asked.
    “Not yet. I’ll call later. You guys are safe.”
    Northern Case Mutual, the life insurance company which had made Trudy rich, had secretly set aside half a million for the search. Monarch-Sierra had put up a million. In all, Stephano’s little consortium had pledged and spent over three million dollars in the hunt for Patrick.
    “Any luck with the girl?” Aricia asked.
    “Not yet. Our people are in Rio. They found her father, but he wouldn’t talk. Same at her law firm. She’s out of town on business, they say.”
    Aricia folded his hands and calmly said, “Now tell me, what exactly did he say?”
    “I haven’t heard the tape yet. It was supposed to be delivered to my office this afternoon, but now things are complicated. Plus, it was sent from the jungles of Paraguay.”
    “I know that.”
    “According to Guy, he broke after five hours of shock. He said the money was still intact, hidden in various banks, none of which he could name. Guy damned near killed him when he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, name the banks. By then, Guy figured, correctly, that someone else had control of the money. A few more jolts, and the girl’s name came out. Guy’s men immediately called Rio, and confirmed her identity. She had already vanished.”
    “I want to hear that tape.”
    “It’s brutal, Benny. The man’s skin is burning and