Near Miss

Chapter 40

First thing the next morning, Stone sat in his study and waited for his newly formed team of assassins — a film producer and a rookie attorney — to join him.

Eventually, they filed in and sat down.

Stone waited for their plot to unfold.

“We’ve talked it over at some length,” Billy said, “and I’ve decided that it’s best to fall back on old habits and experience. Fewer ways to screw up.”

Stone squinted at Billy over his folded fingers and waited. Old habits? he asked himself. “What kind of ‘old habits’?” he asked Billy.

“I’ve put out some feelers. Gromyko’s been moving around a lot, but I found out where he’ll be this afternoon. We wait for him to step out of his nest, then I walk up behind him and put two in his head.” As if it were the easiest thing in the world. “It’s the easiest thing in the world,” Billy said.

“And Carly’s role in this?”

“To walk on the other side of the street and observe. It will be good experience for her.”

“And how do you get your own ass out of there after shooting the guy in the head?”

“You leave that to me,” Billy said, like it was a done deal.

Stone took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“I know it’s not the sort of plan you were thinking about,” Billy said. “That’s why it will work. It’s simple. Nobody will be thinking of it.”

“You don’t think Gromyko’s bodyguard will notice when his charge collapses in the street?”

“Oh, I’m sure he will,” Billy said, as if that explained everything.

“Billy, I know your work well enough to know that you will vanish into thin air, but is Carly just supposed to hike up her skirts and sprint away?”

“It’s hard to explain, cold, like this,” Billy said, “but it will go much better in the viewing.”

“This won’t be happening in a screening room, but in a public street, likely a crowded one.”

“The more witnesses, the better,” Billy replied. “They’ll each have their own story to tell, and none of them will match.”

Stone took another deep breath.

“I want there to be no way for Carly to be associated with what happens; that’s the only way I’ll feel comfortable with her participation.” He packed as much finality into that sentence as he could manage.

“No one will be paying her any kind of attention.”

“Is that a promise?”

Billy drew an X across his chest with his finger, and said, “Cross my heart.”

Stone looked at Carly. “And you’re okay with everything?”

Carly shrugged. “Peachy keen. I’ve heard enough from Billy to believe that he knows what he’s doing.”

“The first sign you might be in danger, I want you off the street and unobservable from any point of view,” Stone demanded.

“I promise,” Carly said.

“One more thing,” Stone said to Billy. “I’d like a box seat for the performance.”

“I’m sorry, Stone,” Billy said, “but you’re too likely to be spotted as the pain-in-the-ass uptown lawyer you are. Remember, some of those people on the street will have already attended briefings on how to ‘rub you out,’ as they used to put it. Would a hi-def video feed of the action do it for you?”

“As long as Carly doesn’t star in it,” Stone said. “I don’t want the Greek’s buddies to come looking for her.”

“Hey,” Carly interjected, “me, neither.”

“Nor I, either,” Billy said.

“Sorry. I sometimes forget that Billy is my new high-school English teacher.”

“We all learn from Billy,” Stone said. “When does the curtain go up on this little drama?”

“This afternoon at five, more-or-less, sharp. I have it on good authority Gromyko will be having an early dinner only a couple blocks from where he is staying.”

Stone threw up his hands. “I surrender, Billy. You always best me.”

Billy excused himself and left, but Carly held back for a moment.

“What?” Stone asked.

“Any advice?”

“Any advice I give you would run along the lines of taking the next bus out of town, and I sense that’s not what you have in mind.”

“Nope,” she said, confirming his judgment. Then she was out of there.

Stone sat in his study alone, trying to picture how this thing could work without getting both Billy and Carly killed, instead of the guy who was supposed to get killed. It didn’t work.