Near Miss

Chapter 67

Stone checked himself in his mirror. Dinner was a black-tie affair, so he was wearing a Tom Ford tuxedo.

“Wow,” Carly said from behind him.

He turned. She had just exited her dressing room wearing a dark blue floor-length dress, with a neckline that plunged past her chest and a slit that ran up her right leg to her hip.

“Wow, yourself,” he said.

“You like it?” She slowly twirled around. “It’s a Ramy Brook. I realized I had nothing I wanted to wear, so I picked it up at Bloomie’s yesterday.”

“I approve, but only if you took Fred with you.”

“Even if I had tried to go alone, he wouldn’t have let me.”

“Remind me to give him a little something extra in his paycheck this month.”

There was a knock on the bedroom door.

“Come in,” Stone said.

Helene entered. “The man from Strategic Services is downstairs.”

“Thank you, Helene.” He held out his arm to Carly. “Shall we?”

Waiting for them at the base of the stairs was a man who was at least six and a half feet tall and had the body of a linebacker.

“Mr. Barrington, I’m Richard Ray. I will be in charge of your personal detail tonight.”

Stone shook hands with him. “Nice to meet you, Richard. This is Carly Riggs, a fellow attorney at Woodman & Weld, and my date tonight.”

They exchanged greetings.

“Your Bentley and driver are in the garage, along with one of the vehicles that will be escorting you. I will be riding in the latter. I’ve been briefed on the specs of your car, so I know how difficult it would be to breach, but that does not mean someone won’t try.”

“It’s happened before,” Stone agreed.

“So I’ve heard. My goal is to make it as unattractive as possible for anyone to do so tonight. To that end, there will be three vehicles ahead of us, reconning upcoming intersections. We will not pass through any unless we receive an all clear first. Also, we will be coordinating with the police units set up along your route. If they spot something suspicious, we will immediately return here.”

“It sounds like you have all the bases covered.”

“No one ever has all bases covered, but hopefully we will have done enough to dissuade the enemy.”

“I have every faith in you.”

“Thank you. One last thing.”

“Yes?”

“Mr. Freeman wanted me to ask: Are you carrying?”

Stone patted the bulge under his jacket. “Yes, and I prefer it to stay where it is.”

Fred waited for them in the garage, along with a pair of Strategic Services bodyguards in a sedan.

Once everyone was in their respective vehicle, Fred raised a walkie-talkie to his mouth. “This is Fred Flicker. Ready when you are.”

Ray’s voice came over the speaker. “Proceed, Mr. Flicker.”

They drove out of the garage. Waiting on the street were five additional Strategic Services sedans. Three raced ahead to check the intersections. One of the remaining pair pulled in front of Fred to lead the way, and the other fell into place at the back of the motorcade.

“This is exciting,” Carly said.

Stone looked at her.

“What?” she asked.

Stone shook his head. “Nothing.”

The radio crackled to life. “Barrington’s car just left his garage. There are six vehicles traveling with it. Looks like half of those are advance scouts, checking the route.”

Sarge picked up his mic. “Can you confirm Barrington is inside?”

“Not yet, but they’ll be passing our position in thirty seconds. I should be able to tell then.”

Sarge looked out the window of the van. It was parked in an alley, three blocks from the hotel where the bar association dinner was to take place.

He had four watchers stationed along the presumed route Barrington would take, to track the lawyer’s progress. The rest were waiting at their assigned locations.

Even before Sarge received word through Asimov that the police would be watching the lawyer’s route to the event, he’d discarded the idea of going after Barrington on the streets. There were too many factors the Sarge couldn’t control to make it viable, if he were to honor Asimov’s request to see Barrington before he was killed. Chief among them was Barrington’s armored vehicle.

The voice of the spotter came over the radio again, “They just passed. Barrington’s in the back seat with the same woman we’ve seen going into and out of his place. His normal driver is behind the wheel.”

“Copy,” Sarge said. He switched the radio to the frequency setting used by the rest of the team. “This is the Sarge. The target is en route.”

Immediately after the Sarge’s announcement, one of the guys in the back seat of the Ford crew cab pickup parked behind the van said, “I guess this is really happening.”

The Corporal, who sat in the driver’s seat, shot him a look in the rearview mirror and said, “Can it.” He then nodded at the man in the front passenger seat, the guy called Dial.

Teddy Fay picked up the microphone and said, “Team two, copy.”