Near Miss

Chapter 39

Stone was dying to know what had happened in the Gromyko case, but he was afraid to call Tiffany Baldwin and ask her. Finally, he called Thomas Kinder, at the FBI.

“Hello, Stone,” Kinder said.

“Hi, Tom. What’s happening with Gromyko? I was afraid to call Tiffany Baldwin.”

“You’re scared shitless of her, aren’t you?”

“You would be, too, if you’d had my experience with her. And don’t ask! So, is the Greek in jail?”

“Not as of yet.”

“What’s the problem?”

“When my men went to arrest him, he wasn’t there, and we haven’t been able to find him.”

Stone gulped. “Is he still in New York?”

“I don’t know. I said we couldn’t find him, remember?”

“He’s keeping a low profile. That would explain why his people were able to kidnap Carly Riggs yesterday. He grabbed her right out of my house, sprayed something in her face that rendered her unconscious.”

“That’s what happened to her? I’ll see if my people have found anything about where she is yet.”

“Not necessary. She came to behind a dumpster and managed to get away. She’s safe now.”

“Thank God! You gave me a turn there.”

“Imagine the turn I got,” Stone said.

“Well, yes.”

“Have you alerted Dino about Gromyko?” Stone asked. “He can manage a very big net with a phone call.”

“Ah, no. I guess I didn’t want to explain why we hadn’t had an arraignment.”

“I’ll alert him.”

“I’d be grateful, and I will keep you posted, Stone.” He hung up.

Stone called Dino.

“Bacchetti. Don’t tell me, Gromyko hasn’t been arrested.”

“How did you know?”

“Because I run the kind of shop where, when people say to me, ‘I’ll get back to you,’ they get back to me.”

“I just talked to Tom Kinder and heard only discouraging words.”

“Does he want me to put an APB out?”

“He does, but he doesn’t want you asking questions.”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“As I knew you would.”

“Shall we take Carly to dinner tonight?”

“I’ll ask. Clarke’s at seven-thirty?”

“Done.” Dino hung up.

Dressed for dinner, Stone came down from his room a little early to find Helene waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Carly was with her, wearing something new from Bloomie’s.

“Mr. Barrington,” Helene said, “Fred asked that you leave by way of the garden gate.”

“And why is that?” he asked.

“He says the Strategic Services people spotted two suspicious people in a car parked down the street, watching the house.”

“That’s a good reason.”

“He said he will pick you up there, in an SUV he borrowed from the firm.”

“Thank you, Helene.”

She smiled and left.

“Shall we?” Stone said to Carly.

As they made their way to the gate, she asked, “Do you think it’s the Russians?”

“As far as I know, no one else has the immediate desire for my death.”

“Maybe we should go in separate cars.”

“Carly, I’m shocked. By now I would have thought you knew the best place to be is closer to me, not farther. Though many have tried to get rid of me, none have succeeded.”

“I would like to see the statistics on those around you when prior attempts have been made, before I pass judgment.”

Stone patted his jacket pockets. “Sadly, I seem to have left that information in my office. If it helps, I trust Fred has everything well in hand.”

“That will have to do.”

Fred was right where he’d said he would be, and soon they were on their way.

Stone called Mike Freeman. “I’m not sure if you heard yet, but there are a couple of unwanted admirers camped out in a car, near my house.”

“I just received the report,” Mike said. “Gromyko’s people?”

“That would be my assumption. I think it’s time to do what we talked about.” That afternoon Stone had called Mike and discussed the possibility of beefing up the security detail watching the house, and providing bodyguards for when Stone went out.

“I thought you’d say that. I’ve already contacted additional resources and they will be in place within thirty minutes. If that doesn’t get Gromyko’s people to leave, we’ll take more direct action. Are you home now?”

“No. I’m on the way to Clarke’s.”

“I’ll have another car meet you there.”

“Thank you, Mike.” Stone hung up.

Stone and Carly were first to arrive and were shown directly to their table and placed their drink orders. Stone had had an idea that day, and asked, “Carly, do me a carlysearch on your memory.”

“For what subject?”

“Teddy Fay.” He spelled it for her.

“Got him,” she said. “Former CIA tech expert, with an unproven reputation as an assassin.”

“I’m thinking of asking him to join our little anti-Gromyko campaign.”

“Well, if the rumor that he is still alive is more than a rumor, sure, why not?”

“He has an alias,” Stone said. “Billy Barnett.”

“Producer at Centurion?”

“You are quick.”

“He was mentioned in a review of your son, Peter’s, recent film.”

“And that was enough for you to store his memory?”

“I don’t have a lot of control over what sticks in my memory. Teddy Fay did. And Billy Barnett, too.”

“Need I tell you that, should you meet, you are never, never, to speak his real name aloud?”

“Okay, got it.”

“For our purposes, your memory is now a vault, and only you have the combination.”

“Agreed.”

Stone checked his watch. “He should be here momentarily.”

A man appeared at their table.

“Your martini, m’amselle,” the man said, removing the drink from a silver tray.

“Carly Riggs, may I introduce Billy Barnett?”

“How do you do?” Carly said. “And how did you...”

“A waiter was already approaching with your drink,” Billy said and sat. “I’m not a real magician.”

“Then who choreographed this little scene?” she asked.

“Stone did.”

“All the elements for a flush were at hand,” Stone said. “I just dealt the cards.”

“From the bottom of the deck,” Carly said.

“I believe you intentionally asked Dino to come half an hour later,” Billy said.

“That’s right. Shall I begin?”

“Please.” Someone set a Knob Creek before him, and before Stone, as well. “Shoot.”

Stone delivered a three-minute disquisition on Alexei Gromyko. “Have I left out anything?”

“You left out me,” Carly said.

“I filled in Billy on the subject of you this afternoon.”

“And you got here from L.A. in time for dinner?”

“I was in Miami, on the way to the airport for a flight home. I canceled that one, and I caught the next plane to JFK.”

“Of course.”

“People always underestimate Billy, Carly. It’s a trait you might adopt for yourself.”

“I already have,” she replied.

“Then you might leave out a few chapters, next time. You don’t need to be completely knowable at first glance,” Billy said. “There’s value in mystery.”

“Tried it, and it didn’t work for me.” she replied. “There’s a lump of compulsion at the center of my psyche.”

“And you must learn to control it, now and then.”

“Okay,” Carly said to Stone. “He’s smart; smarter than I.”

“You used the proper pronoun in that sentence,” Billy said. “It’s a start.”

“Finally, I scored,” Carly said.

Dino arrived.

“Good evening, Carly. And, Billy, nice surprise.”

“Thank you, Dino,” Billy said. “I’ve been getting to know Carly.”

“Good luck with that,” Dino said. “She’s a bundle of surprises, wrapped around a stick of dynamite.”

“I like that description,” Carly said. “Even if it is rampant hyperbole.”

“Hyperbole must be near the truth, to be effective,” Stone interjected.

“Touché,” Carly replied.

After they finished eating, the group lingered over coffee and brandy.

“I have an idea or two,” Billy said, lowering his voice.

Dino looked at his watch. “I think that’s my exit line,” he said. He shook Billy’s hand again and departed.

“I’ve never seen Dino leave early like that,” Carly said.

“There are things he doesn’t need nor want to know,” Stone said.

“Of course,” she replied.

“It occurs to me,” Billy said, “that I’m the only one in this little cabal that Alexei doesn’t know on sight. I think it is to our advantage to preserve that little edge, since it seems to be the only one we’ve got.”

“And you have lots of faces,” Stone said. Teddy was a master of disguise.

“I brought a little case with me,” he replied. “I’ll see what I can cook up that will preserve my unfamiliarity with the little file of faces in Mr. Gromyko’s brain.”

“Now we have two edges,” Stone said, “or as many as you can hatch from your little case.”

“You say that he maintains offices in Little Italy?”

“Well, he sometimes does business from a private dining room behind the bar at a restaurant, which is closed at lunchtime,” Stone said. “I’m not sure it qualifies as an office, but I doubt he’d be there. The FBI is looking for him, and it’s probably one of the first places they checked.”

“Forget the office, then. We need only a short time in his presence, long enough to conduct a single transaction and to depart the scene without sprinting into a subway station with his minions in hot pursuit.”

“I’ve heard he sometimes buys fruit on his way home,” Carly said, “à la Brando in the Godfather.”

“I can’t establish myself as a fruit seller on the street, without exciting the enmity of half a dozen others who ply the same trade. I would be noticed in a trice and dealt with in the same moment. Besides, if he can’t visit his favorite restaurant/office at the moment, I’m confident he won’t go anywhere near his home.”

“Let’s put the Godfather out of our minds,” Stone said. “Where else does he do business?”

“My notes,” Carly said, tapping her temple with a forefinger, “put him constantly on the move, and switching cars frequently, which obviates planting an explosive device in his transportation, à la Trench.”

“Quite,” Stone said, in an upper-class British accent. “Though doing so would be poetic.”

“Perhaps we could find a way to put his paranoia to our own uses,” Billy said.

“That’s an attractive idea.” Stone glanced at his watch. “Why don’t you two put some flesh on its bones, and we’ll talk again tomorrow. Billy, I’ll trust you to get Carly home safely, since you’re both staying at my house.”

“Of course,” Billy replied.

“I’ll have Fred drop me off and come back for you in a few minutes.” He got up, went outside, and crawled into the rear seat of the SUV.

“Only you, sir?” Fred asked.

“You can take me home and come back for Billy and Carly.”

“Yes, sir.”

For the rest of the ride, Stone didn’t occupy himself with the problem at hand, since he had two devious minds already at work on it.

Gromyko’s watchers were gone by the time they reached home. Fred dropped Stone in the garage, and Stone made his way to the master suite, unbuttoning things along the way. He was sleeping alone tonight, and he needed the rest.