Near Miss

Chapter 51

Stone received a call from Ed first thing the next morning.

“I thought you’d like to know, everything went as planned,” Ed said.

“Glad to hear it.”

Ed then filled Stone in on the details.

After breakfast, Stone and Dino took the Hinckley picnic boat out into the bay for a little fishing, though neither of them was a fisherman and both despised fish, except steaming on a plate.

Dino took a small device from his jacket pocket and fished for bugs of the electric kind on the boat, finding none. “I take it our friend operated successfully last night,” he said.

“Twice,” Stone replied.

“Is two all the opposition?”

“Let’s hope so. I feel a little safer already, don’t you?”

“If you say so,” Dino replied. “You know, being a sworn police officer and all, I feel an odd satisfaction for the way this was handled. I’ve always had a suspect or two now and then that I wanted to just pop in the head and put them out with the trash. Didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Stone said. “I always felt something between satisfaction and guilt when it was that way. It helps a lot that someone else is doing the dirty work.”

“I think Ed enjoys the work,” Dino said.

“It would be tough to train all your life for something, then have your skills wane over the years. This way, he gets to stay sharp.”

“Do you think he has anything like a conscience?”

“I think,” Stone said, “that his conscience gets at him when he sees someone he knows to be a bad, even evil, guy, walking around loose. That seems wrong to him, and he has a cure for it, called marksmanship.”

“As long as he doesn’t employ the cure in my jurisdiction,” Dino said.

“You didn’t seem offended when someone we know assisted an even more evil person into that awful cemetery in Queens.”

“True. Have you had enough of non-fishing, yet?”

“Just about. I’d enjoy the boat ride more if it were a sunny day.”

“Oh, that’s right, you promised me some of those.”

“I did, and you’ll get them.”

“I see Viv helped you into bed with Carly.”

“She did?”

“Who do you think suggested to Carly to go outside and check on you? I hope you appreciate the effort.”

“I do. I had just about put the idea out of my mind, until Carly brought it up.”

“Bringing things up doesn’t seem to be a problem for her.”

“Definitely not. She sees things differently than most. It’s the way she’s wired. For instance, I know she really enjoyed watching Billy take out Alexei Gromyko.”

“I hope getting laid was fun for her, too.”

“I’ve been assured it was.”