Hit List

45

Stone and Jenna were busy at work the following morning when Stone’s cell rang. He kept right on going. Jenna stopped. “I can’t do it when the phone’s ringing,” she said.

“It’s just a phone,” Stone said, trying lamely to rekindle her interest.

“I’m sorry. Sometimes I’m on call at night, and once awoken I never get back to sleep.”

“It’s not the middle of the night, and you don’t have to go back to sleep,” Stone said, making a valiant final effort. It failed, and he picked up his phone. “What?”

“It’s Dino.”

“I should have known.”

“Is that all you two do, even in the daylight hours?”

“Just barely the daylight hours.”

“Well, before you turn on the morning news, there’s news.”

“I hope it’s good.”

“It’s bad and it’s good.”

“Who did he kill this time?”

“Nobody on the list. That’s the good news and the bad news, because he killed two other people — collateral damage.”

“No connection?”

“None.”

“Then why?”

“An apparent case of road rage. Our guy was headed north on the West Side Highway, about Seventy-ninth Street, when he slammed on his brakes, maybe to avoid an animal. The remains of some kind of rodent were found.”

“So he killed the rodent. Who else?”

“Nah, when he slammed on the brakes, he got rear-ended. According to witnesses in the opposite lane, who were stopped because of a traffic accident, he reached into the glove compartment for something, presumably a weapon, walked calmly to the car who hit him, and shot two people, man and woman, through their windshield, both DOA.”

“God, that’s terrible. We’ve got to get this guy off the street, one way or another.”

“I’m leaning heavily toward the other,” Dino said.

“You shouldn’t say that on the phone.”

“I didn’t say it, I must have been thinking it.”

“Then the route between your brain and your tongue has recently been cleared.”

“Entirely possible, but you can’t quote another man’s thoughts, especially on a witness stand.”

“You have a point,” Stone confessed. “Do you have an idea?”

“Yes. It’s much the same as my last idea, and as with my last idea, we have to find him before we can murder him.”

“You didn’t say that.”

“There I go thinking again. Please ignore my brain.”

“Well, if I thought it would help, I’d drive around the city rear-ending people until he took a shot at me, but it seems a little haphazard.”

“Not so much as you’d think. There’s a lot of road rage out there. These days, you could probably get yourself shot inside of half an hour, even if by the wrong shooter.”

“I think I had in mind something both more productive and more specific, in terms of the shooter.”

“I can see how you might feel that way. I’ll keep you posted.” Dino hung up.

“Dino?” Jenna said.

“Dino. Larkin shot two more innocent people last night.”

“Don’t look so dejected, Stone.”

“Why not? I got two citizens shot to death on the West Side Highway.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Why not? When disasters surrounding me get people killed, it’s usually my fault.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, and please don’t try to make it better. You’ll just depress us both even more.”

Stone shrugged, because he couldn’t think of anything to say.

Jenna threw off the covers. “I’m going to take a shower and go to work.”

“Breakfast?”

“I’ll grab a bite somewhere.”

Stone rang for his usual. When Jenna came out of the bathroom, all clean and perky, she grabbed half of his English muffin, heaped some scrambled egg onto it, and was eating it when she walked out with an airy wave.

“That was half my breakfast!” Stone called after her.

“Reorder!” she called back and closed the door behind her a little too firmly.

When Stone got downstairs, there was a wrapped hot roll from a nearby deli on his desk, and he had it with his second cup of coffee. It was delicious. Then he saw the note in the bag.

Her address and phone number were on the note, and he asked Joan to deal with the reservation and the bag.