Barely Legal

31

Dino called Stone. “Are you up for dinner?”

“Sure. I gather Viv is on a job and unfree to entertain you?”

“Viv’s always working, but in this case I have news,” Dino said. “Patroon at seven?”

“Have they repaired the damage?”

“Does it matter? It’s just a couple of bullet holes.”

Stone arrived first and took the seat with his back to the wall, facing the door.

Dino walked in and chuckled. “Hello, gunslinger. Did you order yet?”

“Just got here.”

Dino pulled up a chair and sat down.

“You’re sitting with your back to the door,” Stone said.

Dino shrugged. “Sure. My buddy’s watching the entrance for me.”

The waitress came over and took their orders. Dino had the rib eye. Stone ordered the osso buco.

“Something on your mind?” Stone said.

“More bad news.”

“Seems to be the only kind you get. What’s up?”

“James Glick isn’t getting out of the hospital.”

“He died?”

“He was never there. James Glick skipped town. I don’t know what kind of pressure he was under, but he’s taken to flight.”

“How do you know?”

“I’m the commissioner of police, I had the hospitals checked. He’s not there and never was. He took the Amtrak to Washington, D.C., a couple of days ago. He bought a train ticket to Miami at Union Station, but it’s a good bet he never used it because he bought another train ticket from Washington to St. Louis a good two hours after his train to Miami would have left.”

“Did he go to St. Louis?”

“If he didn’t, someone else stayed over at the Hyatt on his credit card. So James Glick is either on the run, or someone has his wallet. If he’s on the run, he’s not doing a very good job of it because if I can trace him that easily, others can, too.”

“Will you tell Herbie?”

Dino grimaced. “I don’t want this to become a bad habit, but what good will telling Herbie do? He knows the guy’s not coming back. There’s nothing he’d be doing any differently now if he had the information.”

“So what are you going to do about Glick?”

“I’ll track him, and if there seems any point, I’ll pull him in.”

“You can do that?”

“With a phone call. We’re not the only police department in the country, you know. Though right now, it would only muddy the waters. And they’re murky enough as it is.”