Distant Thunder

42

Stone came downstairs the following morning and was surprised to find Dino still in his office. “Have you seen Rosie?”

“She’s awake, but they won’t let me see her until the surgeon has conducted his post-op examination. They told me to come at ten o’clock.”

“Have you dismissed your driver?”

“Yes, I sent him home for some sleep.”

“Then we’ll take my car.” Stone picked up the phone and asked Fred to get it ready to leave the garage. At 9:30 they got into the Bentley, and Fred opened the garage door and drove out. The traffic was heavy, and it was ten o’clock before they got out of the car at Lenox Hill. A nurse took them upstairs, and the surgeon was leaving Rosie’s room as they arrived. Dino introduced himself. “How is she?”

“She’s had a rough night. Although we made the repair without difficulty, she’s picked up an infection, and we’re treating her with intravenous antibiotics.”

“But she’s going to make it, isn’t she?”

The surgeon’s brow wrinkled. “I suspect that the needle she was stabbed with was infected with something.”

“Deliberately?”

“Most likely. We’re waiting for the antibiotics to kick in now.”

“May we see her?”

“For just a moment, if she’s awake.” The surgeon nodded to a nurse, who led them into the room and to Rosie’s bedside.

Rosie’s eyes were closed, but they fluttered as Dino spoke her name.

“Dino?”

“I’m right here, baby; Stone is here, too.”

Rosie spoke with some difficulty. “It was the wig,” she said.

“Her hair was a wig?”

Rosie nodded. “I think... I think the key and the needle were hidden under the wig.” Then she closed her eyes and seemed to sleep again.

The nurse took Dino by the wrist and elbow and forcibly escorted him from the room. He and Stone sat down on a bench.

“Did you make her hair as a wig?” Dino asked.

“It never crossed my mind,” Stone replied. “Good place to hide something small like a handcuff key and a hatpin, though.”

“It also means that we’re not going to find her anytime soon. Her appearance will be too different. And if she or whoever’s running her is that smart, it means she was in a safe house very soon after she left the station. I forgot to tell you. They found the cruiser she stole parked next to the Lexington Avenue subway stop at Sixty-Third Street. She could have taken the train uptown or downtown.”

“Or she could have left the car there, got rid of the wig, and hoofed it to the safe house. Let’s go back to my place and have some breakfast. They’ll call you when she wakes up again.”

“Okay, I don’t know how much more Rosie could tell us, anyway.”

They had a good breakfast and were on coffee when Stone’s cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

“It’s Lance. How’s the detective doing?”

Stone told him everything he knew.

“That’s all very clever, isn’t it?” Lance asked.

“Too clever for a Russian crime boss?”

“It smells more like an intelligence service.”

“If you say so.”

“Except what motive would an intelligence service have for wanting you and, possibly, Dino dead?”

“And what crime boss would try it at P. J. Clarke’s, at dinnertime?”

“I’m going to have to take a deeper interest in this,” Lance said.

“Welcome aboard,” Stone replied. “We’re certainly not getting anywhere.”

“Now the attempted murder of Jack Collins looks more like something planned by an intelligence service, too. I mean, all three of the potential victims are associated with us.”

“Any suggestions?”

“Yes, I’d like for you and Dino, if you can persuade him, to move into rooms at our New York station, where we can seal you off from anything that might be out there.”

“No, thanks. I’m not moving into some federal motel for the duration. You can seal me off at home — if you think you can do it.”

“Have you talked to Mike Freeman at Strategic Services yet?”

“Only in passing.”

“I’ll call him and work out a plan. In the meantime, don’t answer your door for anybody, male or female. And tell Joan to tell anybody who calls that you’ve gone up to Maine for a few days.”

“All right.”

“Talk to you later.”

Stone hung up and buzzed Joan to come into his office. “We’re under siege here, sort of,” he told her. “Nobody gets into the house until after the Strategic Services people get here to screen them. And all callers are to be told that I’ve gone to the Maine house for a week or so.”

“Right, boss,” Joan said.

“And I don’t want you leaving the two houses at all for a while. Fred can deal with groceries.”

“Oh, good, I can sleep all the time, or watch old movies on TV.”

“Nope. You still have to work. You just have to do it indoors and on the phone.”

“Oh, all right. Have you told Lance about this?”

“Yes, and he’s the reason I’m taking all this so seriously.”

“Then I guess I’d better, too.” She went back to her office.