Diamond Solitaire

'Check, Lieutenant,' said Stein.

Diamond had an impulse to wrench the radio from him and urge Eastland not to provoke a shootout, but cold reason told him it wouldn't alter anything. This was Easdand's operation, and with half his men looking on he wasn't going to take instructions from a limey detective. It was some reassurance that he'd expressed some intention of separating Lundin from Naomi.

He and Stein returned up the street towards 224. It was much darker by now and the front wasn't well lit. They could barely see their way up the stoop to the door. Stein put a hand in his jacket, evidently feeling for the grip of die gun he wouldn't be without He nodded to Diamond to try the door. It opened easily.

No sound came from upstairs. They were in a wide hallway with stairs facing them. Halfway along, on the right, was the door of the apartment where they were supposed to take up position. Diamond gripped the handle. Was it too much to hope that this door, also, would be unlocked? It was securely fastened. Probably a well-aimed kick would resolve the matter, but only at the risk of disturbing the entire house.

Fortunately Sergeant Stein had come prepared, with the strip of plastic known to housebreakers and policemen as the indispensable aid to easing latches aside. He used it confidently, the door opened inwards and they stepped inside. Warm air wafted over them, reeking of cheap perfume and body odor. Just like a knocking-shop, Diamond found himself thinking-a thought that lingered and lodged more firmly when he heard a female voice murmur sleepily but without alarm, 'Hey, who is it? What time is it?'

A sofa creaked and something stirred. The woman who had been lying mere said, 'Is there one of you, or two?' She got up and moved unsteadily towards a table lamp. 'I'm not taking two-not together. Sorry, guys. One of you has to wait'

Her hand was on the lamp.

'Leave it,' said Stein in a stage whisper.

She started to say, 'What the fuck-' before Diamond moved fast towards her and clapped a hand over her mouth. She struggled, and he had to grab her round the back. She was wearing some kind of silk wrap that made her slippery to hold, because she was obviously naked under it His terse, 'It's all right, we're police officers,' was not a message calculated to reassure a lady of her calling, but it was the first thing to come to mind.

Stein told her more bluntly, 'You make one sound and you're busted. We've come for the guy upstairs. Know him?'

Diamond relaxed his hold on her.

She said, too loudly for comfort, 'You mean Fredrik?'

They both made shushing sounds.

With less voice, she said, 'What's he done now?'

'Is there a kid with him?' Stein asked.

'A kid?'

'A girl.'

She hesitated. 'You mean, like, underage?'

'A small kid, child, this high, Japanese.'

She seemed genuinely shocked. 'Fredrik? He never puts kids to work. I'm damn sure he never uses baby-pros. I wouldn't work for a guy who uses kids.'

Diamond remained quite still and said nothing, but a pulse was hammering in his head and his mouth had suddenly gone dry. Until this moment, child prostitution hadn't crossed his mind as a possible motive for Naomi's abduction. Now it had to be faced as a sickening possibility. Clearly Lundin had an income from pimping. Pray God the woman was right and he drew the line at selling children for sex.

'You heard any sounds from up there?' Stem asked her.

She shook her head.

'Nothing at all?'

'You can't hear anyone talk.'

'But you can hear mem move around.'

'Well, yeah. I hear that sometimes.'

'Last evening?'

'I guess so.'

'More than one?'

'I can't tell.'

'Have you talked to Lundin since yesterday?'

'No.'

'You think he's home right now?'

'How would I know? I was asleep until you arrived. Did someone give you a key?'

'Why don't you go back to sleep?' suggested Stein without much generosity in his tone.

He radioed Eastland and updated him.

'Okay,' came their instruction, 'stay where you are. Send the pavement princess out to us. She can help us.'

'Did you hear that?' Stein asked the call girl just as she was reclining on the sofa. 'Get dressed. Fast.'

'And, Stein…' the voice on the radio went on.

'Lieutenant?'

'When he comes out, leave him to us. You go right in and find the kid.'

Complaining bitterly, first mat she wanted no part in the police operation and then mat she couldn't see to get dressed, the woman stumbled about the apartment picking up clothes. Diamond scarcely noticed; he was still reeling from the suggestion he'd just heard. A minute ago, he'd been ready to urge the police to go easy on Lundin so that he'd be fit to give information; now, if this grotesque scenario was true, they'd have to restrain him from laying into the bastard.

'Jesus, what are you trying to find?' Stein demanded of the woman. He was standing at the open door.

'My face.'

'Your what?'

'The bag with my lipstick and things. It's here somewhere.'

'I don't believe this! Get your ass out of here.'

She went

Eastland would use her as a lure. There was a better chance of Lundin opening his door to the woman who worked for him man to the New York police.

Above their heads the floorboards creaked. Someone was definitely up there. Stein immediately radioed his lieutenant Up to now, this operation couldn't be faulted. No doubt there were men at front and back, waiting for the swoop.

Diamond waited too, striving to apply concentration to the job he and Stein were about to do. He had to believe they would find Naomi unharmed in the apartment upstairs. He kept thinking how small her hand had felt in his. Usually he remembered the eyes of people. He could picture her eyes, but because of the nature of her disability, they weren't so eloquent. It was still the memory of a touch that moved him.

He and Stein took up position with the door fractionally ajar for a view of the hall. They knew this would take time to set up, and they waited at least twenty minutes before anything else happened.

Then there was the sound of the front door opening and footsteps across the tiled hallway. The call girl passed her own door and started climbing the stairs, her leather-soled boots, tokens of her trade, clattering on the wooden treads.

Stein drew his gun.

Two shadowy figures crossed the hallway a short way behind the woman. They made no sound.

She turned on the landing and started to ascend the second flight Her escorts followed.

Down in the hallway, more cops crept across the narrow bar of vision between the doorjamb and the edge of the door.

The woman was out of sight now, but the sound of Lundin's doorbell being pressed was loud and clear and so was her voice saying, 'Fredrik, it's only me, Dixie.'

Diamond heard footsteps cross the room above them, but he didn't hear Lundin's front door being opened. Presumably he was looking out through the peephole.