Naked Greed

43

When Stone got to the hospital and pushed his way past the reporters and cops in the hall, Dino looked a lot more like himself. Viv was already there; she had been since waking up, Stone figured, and the two of them watched as a nurse removed the bandage from his head.

“At least they didn’t shave the whole side of your head,” Stone said. “That would have given an Italian barber more than he could handle.”

The nurse spoke up. “Dr. Gordon only took as much hair as absolutely necessary to get at the wounds, the commissioner being a public figure and all and on TV all the time. When he washes and combs his hair, you won’t even see them.” She finished with the head bandage, then cleaned the cheek wound and pressed a circular, flesh-colored adhesive bandage over it. “There,” she said, “almost as good as new.”

“Viv,” Dino said, “when are they going to let me out of here? I’m starting to get antsy.”

“You’ve been antsy since you woke up after surgery,” Viv replied. “Just relax and enjoy the rest.”

“I don’t need any rest.”

“We’ll see about that,” said a voice from the doorway. Dr. Gordon strode in and took Dino’s chart from the end of the bed and pored over it for a moment. “How do you feel, Commissioner?”

“Just great, Doc,” Dino said. “Rarin’ to go.”

“Then get out of here,” Gordon said. “What’s a well man doing taking up a badly needed hospital bed?” He held out his hand, and Dino shook it. “Nice stitching you up,” he said.

“Thank you, Doctor! Viv, find me my pants, will you?”

Viv took the doctor by a lapel. “You’re really discharging him? This isn’t a joke?”

“Do you think you can keep him caged at home for the rest of the week without working the phones? If you can, and he doesn’t have a temperature Monday morning, then he can go back to work.”

“Whatever you say, Doctor,” Viv said.

“But he has to keep taking the antibiotics until they’re all gone, you hear?” He took a bottle from a pocket and handed it to her. “After each meal.”

“I’ll see that he does, I promise.”

He handed her another bottle. “He won’t admit it, but he’s got a headache and will have for a few days. Have him take these as needed, but no more than one every four hours.”

“I certainly will.”

“Then I’ll try and scatter the people outside, so you can make your escape.” He signed the chart with a flourish, hung it back on the end of the bed, gave a little wave, and walked out of the room.

Outside in the hallway, Gordon signaled for quiet, then addressed the crowd. “Here’s an official bulletin,” he said. “The commissioner is doing so well that we’ll likely be able to discharge him this time tomorrow. I’ve nothing further to say right now, and neither does he, so all of you, get the hell out of my hospital.” He walked toward them, his arms outstretched as if he were a farmer herding geese. “The elevators are thataway, ladies and gentlemen, just keep moving, now.”

Stone cracked the door and saw them go, while Dino was putting on a fresh shirt Viv had brought and tying his tie. “The coast is clear,” he said. “My car is downstairs. I’ll tell Fred to move it around to the side entrance.” He got out his phone and did that.

The three of them left the room and headed for the rear elevators. Dino shouted over his shoulder to the surprised cop sitting outside his door, “Anybody asks, tell ’em I’m sleeping and don’t want to be disturbed.”

Five minutes later they were in the Bentley and headed for East Sixty-third Street.

“Okay, what do you hear from Dan Harrigan?” Dino asked.

“I was on the phone with him a couple of hours ago,” Stone said. “He wants to believe Ryan went down with his Honda, but I threw as much cold water as I could on that theory. He had the vehicle registrations checked to see if Ryan had a new motorcycle, but there was nothing in the record, not even in Jersey. I got him to send some people out there to talk to Gino Parisi’s kid, but he played dumb, and they went home.”

“Gimme your phone, I want to call Dan.”

“Oh, no you don’t!” Viv said. “You heard the doctor — you’re not to work the phones, and I’m going to see that you rest.” The car pulled up outside Dino’s building. “Stone, you come upstairs with me and help me wrestle him into bed.”

Dino shook the doormen’s hands and waited until he was in the elevator before starting to complain. “The doctor did not say I had to stay in bed,” he said. The elevator stopped, and Viv let them into the apartment. “I’ll be in my study with Stone. Tell Eva when she has our lunch ready to bring it to us in there, and you can even join us, if you promise not to try to do anything to me.” Dino pushed her toward the kitchen, then led Stone into his study. He closed the door behind them and sat down in his favorite chair. “Now,” he said, “let’s think of ways we can make Dan Harrigan’s life hell, until he finds Gene Ryan.”

Ryan was, at that point, handing a man in a used-car lot twenty thousand dollars, cash, in a paper bag and the title and registration for his old car, in exchange for a three-year-old BMW 328 with only twenty-nine thousand miles on it that he had just test-driven. “Count it,” Ryan said.

“Sign here, here, and here,” the salesman said, handing him a clipboard and a pen and starting to count. “My girl is getting the title now.”

Ten minutes later, Ryan was tooling up the avenue and turning into the parking lot in front of a new apartment building with a huge banner draped across it, advertising its contents. Ryan found the agent, dozing in a chair outside the front door, and demanded to be shown the two models, a one- and a two-bedroom. He liked them both. “Let me see your lease,” he said to the man.

The agent handed it to him, along with another printed sheet. “You need to fill out the application,” he said, waving a pen.

Ryan finished reading the lease, filled out the application, signed it, and handed it back.

“I’ll have to get this approved by my boss,” the agent said.

“Just tell him I’m a retired cop,” Ryan said, flashing his badge, “and he’ll approve it quick. There’s nothing a landlord likes better than a tenant with a badge. Now I’m going to go out to my car and get you cash for the security deposit and two months’ rent — make sure you tell him cash. And there’s five hundred in it for you if you get me the one-bedroom with the furniture left in it.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” the man said, and walked into the kitchen to use his phone while Ryan went to the car, opened the trunk, and counted out the money. When he came back, the man counted it, handed him a lease to sign, and put two sets of keys on the kitchen counter. “Your parking space number in the garage is one-oh-one,” he said, “since you’re our first tenant.”

Ryan raked the keys off the counter. “I’m going to get my stuff, and I’ll be back in an hour. I assume there’s no problem with parking a motorcycle in some dead space near my car.”

“I wouldn’t think so.”

“Then you come with me and drive my car back. I’ll ride the bike. It’s only ten minutes away.”

“Sure thing.”

An hour later, Ryan sat back in his new, reclining chair and switched on the TV, but it didn’t come on. He got up and inspected it, found it to be a display dummy.

“Well, shit,” he said aloud. “Now I have to go TV shopping.” He went into the bedroom and pulled back the cover. “Sheets, too.”

While Ryan was at a mall, buying sheets and towels and a TV, two New Jersey state patrolmen were being let into his old apartment by the manager, their guns drawn, only to find it empty, except for a note to the manager telling him to go fuck himself.