Hit List

34

Twenty minutes later, Stone heard the elevator open, then footsteps. There was a loud rap on the door. “Stone, it’s Dino.”

Stone unlocked the door and made sure Dino was alone.

“What are you doing?” Dino asked.

“The last person who came through that door had Sig Larkin right behind her.”

“And you got a shot at him?”

“Sort of. He was standing behind a nurse that he took with him. I blew his hat off,” he said, handing it to Dino, “but I think I only grazed him.”

“We found blood all the way out of the building.”

“Scalp wounds bleed a lot.”

“He got away in an ambulance.”

“Figures. Frances, here, thinks he brought the ambulance for her.”

“Sweetheart,” Dino said to her, “he came here for your blood, nothing else. If Stone hadn’t shot him, you’d both be dead now.”

She shook her head. “You don’t know him.”

“Here’s what I know,” Dino said. “He’s murdered a bunch of innocent people in less than two weeks, and he’s made multiple attempts at Stone, but Stone is the luckiest guy I know.”

“Let’s get her back to her room,” Stone said.

“We can’t go in there right now,” Dino said. “Just leave her where she is for a while.”

“Is there something in her room that she shouldn’t see.”

“Yeah. Well, no, now that you mention it. Let’s roll her in there.”

They got the bed out of the storeroom and turned it into Frances’s room. Carol was sitting in a chair next to the window, her throat cut.

“There you go, Frances,” Dino said. “Another example of Sig Larkin’s tender heart.”

Stone plugged in her bed and pressed the button that sat her up. She saw Carol and gave a strangled cry.

“We won’t have any more discussions about what a sweet guy Sig is,” Stone said. “Carol died trying to protect you from him.”

Frances was sobbing now. The crime scene people did their work, then two attendants arrived with a gurney and took Carol’s body away. A nurse’s aide came in and cleaned up the blood. Dino and Stone each took chairs.

Frances had stopped crying now. “All right,” she said. “What do you want to know?”

“Where have you been living?” Stone asked.

“At the Edison Hotel, since all this started.”

“Did you know what Sig was doing?”

“Only when I read about it in the papers and saw it on TV. He didn’t talk about it in advance.”

“Does Sig have an apartment in the city?”

“We moved out of there and into the Edison.”

“Where do you think he is now?”

“Looking for another place to live.”

“Where do you think he would look?”

“He likes the Upper East Side. He’ll look for a short rental, like a month or two.”

“Where does he find them?”

“He uses a rental agent named Angela Dunn; she’s in the phone book.”

“What name would he use with her?”

“Tony Pierce.”

“Where would he have gone in the ambulance?”

“He’ll dump it somewhere.”

“What was his long-term plan?”

“He bought a house in Santa Fe, New Mexico, right after he won the lottery, to get away from his family. That’s where I met him; I was on vacation there.

“It’s on Acequia Madre,” she said, and gave him the number.

“I know the neighborhood,” Stone said. “It’s on the East Side, runs sort of parallel with Canyon Road.”

Dino was taking notes.

“How will he travel there?” Stone asked.

“He’ll fly, I imagine. He may charter. He’s done that before.”

“Out of what airport?”

“I don’t know.” It was the first time she’d said that, and Stone believed her.

“What was his excuse for killing the people on the list?”

“He said they were evil and deserved to die.”

“Any details on why he thought that?”

“No, I just took his word for it. Now I see what an idiot I was.”

Dino left the room.

Stone sat with Frances until a new nurse was assigned to her, then he took Trixie outside to empty her. On the way back he encountered Dino, who was on the phone.

“Okay,” Dino said, hanging up. “We’re checking all the airports for charters he might have used. I’ve talked with the Santa Fe chief of police, and he’s staking out the house.”

“What’s your next move?”

“My next move is, you fly me to Santa Fe.”

Stone looked at his watch. “If he has to stop to refuel, we have a shot at beating him there. Let’s take your car. Give me a minute.” He went back into the room and sat down next to Frances. She had stopped crying but still looked distressed.

“I’ve got to leave town on business,” Stone said. “I’ll be gone a day or two. I’ll arrange for a secure apartment for you, and you’ll be taken there, with a nurse, when the doctor discharges you. All you have to do then is relax and watch old movies on TV.”

“I love old movies,” she said.

Stone kissed her on the forehead and left. On the way to Teterboro, his first call was to Ed Eagle, a top-notch Santa Fe defense lawyer and an old friend.

“Dino and I are coming your way,” Stone said.

“Great! Use my guesthouse.”

“Thank you, sold!”

“Will you be here in time for dinner?”

“Maybe, but don’t count on us. We’ll see you when we see you. I’ll call you when we land.”

“Okay. I’ll let Susannah know.”

Stone called Joan and asked her to get Faith to the airplane as soon as possible. “Tell her I’ll fly left seat.” He asked her to book a rental car in Santa Fe and to pack a bag for him and overnight it to Eagle’s address.

In the meantime, Dino was making his own calls and similar arrangements. “I’m good,” he said, finally.

They made Teterboro in forty-five minutes, not bad time. The airplane was out of the hangar, and Faith was there with a copilot, preflighting. The fuel truck was pumping JetA.

They got aboard, and Stone went to the cockpit and started to run the checklist. Faith soon secured the outer door and joined him.

“I’ve already filed,” she said. “I’ll get the clearance.”

Stone started the engines as Faith entered the flight plan and radioed for a clearance to taxi. She got it and Stone taxied.

“Why did you bring a copilot?” Stone asked.

“You only enjoy takeoffs and landings,” she said. “You’ll want a nap as soon as we’re at altitude.”

She was right, he knew. He taxied, took off, and got the airplane out of New York airspace, then turned it over to Faith and her copilot and went aft, where Dino was already asleep. It didn’t take Stone long to join him.