“Yessir.”
“Give his old office to Herbert, and find him a decent secretary. Herbert is our newest senior associate. Send out the memo, and send a release to the papers and the law journals.”
“Yessir.”
“And who is our newest, greenest, most forlorn associate?”
Jane squinted at the ceiling for a moment. “That would be young Bobby Bentley,” she said.
“Tell him he works for Herbert now.”
“Yessir. Anything else?”
“Yes, type up a memo to payroll for my signature, giving Herbert a fifteen percent raise.”
Herbie made a loud coughing noise.
“All right, twenty-five percent.”
“Yessir!” Jane sped back to her desk.
Eggers looked at Herbie. “Why are you still here?”
“Thank you, Bill.” Herbie tried to leave without appearing to hurry.
11
Dino woke from a sound sleep with the sudden knowledge that his penis was in someone’s mouth, and that long, red hair was tickling his belly. He stuffed an extra pillow behind his head and watched, with growing excitement that ended in a veritable explosion. “Oh, God,” he moaned.
Shelley Bach moved up the bed to share his pillow. “Well,” she said, “I do know what you like.”
“I can’t deny that,” Dino said. He took a deep breath and said what he had to say. “Shelley, you can’t be here-it’s too dangerous for both of us.”
“You’re afraid that you’ll lose your job if you’re found consorting with a fugitive, right?”
“More than that, Shelley, I’m afraid that you’ll be in prison soon and that I will be, too. Can’t you understand that that is too high a price to pay for a good blow job?”
“A sublime blow job,” she pointed out.
“I agree, but they won’t put us in the same cell, and I can’t afford the tab when the FBI finally closes in on you.”
“They won’t,” she said. “Would you like to know the steps I’ve taken to prevent that from ever happening?”
“Good God, no! I don’t want to know a thing!”
“Listen, Dino, if it’s war between the FBI and me, it’s a fair fight.”
“I don’t doubt that for a minute, but we have to end this and right now.”
“Oh, Dino,” she breathed, “you wouldn’t want to disappoint me, would you? You know how I behave when people disappoint me.”
Dino got out of bed and reached for a robe. “Shelley, I wish you luck, I really do, but you have to go now.”
“You want me to walk brazenly through your lobby and past the doorman?”
“You can take the elevator to the basement, turn right at the laundry room, and go out the service entrance.”
“Slink out, you mean, as if I’m ashamed of being with you?”
“That’s your call, Shelley, but you have to go.”
“But no one knows about us, Dino.”
“Stone Barrington knows,” Dino replied, regretting immediately having said so.
Shelley sat up in bed, exposing a magnificent pair of breasts. “You told Stone?”
Dino fumbled for a way out. “He saw you come into the building,” he said, “and he recognized you. I didn’t have to tell him.”
“Well now,” she said, looking thoughtful. “I’m going to have to see that he doesn’t drop any hints to law enforcement.”
“Shelley, don’t talk like that. Stone would never do that-he would want to protect me.”
“I suppose,” she said, getting out of bed and taking some underwear from her suitcase.
“I’ve got to get to the precinct, so I’m going to shave and shower,” Dino said, “and I’d appreciate it very much if you would be gone when I’m done. I wish you well, Shelley.”
“Yeah, sure,” Shelley said, turning her back and stepping into a pair of panties.
Dino went into his bathroom, showered and shaved, then he walked back into his bedroom, looking carefully around. Shelley’s suitcase was gone, and his bed was neatly made. He had to search the rest of the apartment before he could feel relieved.
Dino arrived at the precinct and went to his office. A pile of mail on his desk greeted him.
“Morning, Lieutenant,” a voice said, and he looked up to find his newest detective, an attractive brunette named Viv DeCarlo, standing in his doorway.
“Morning, DeCarlo,” he said brusquely. “What do you need?”
“The DNA came back in the Bronson murder,” she said. “It’s a match for the boyfriend. I need an APB.”
“Have you been to his house?” Dino asked. “It would save a lot of departmental bother if you could make the collar without the trouble of an APB.”
“No, sir, I haven’t,” she said. “I’ll need an arrest warrant and a SWAT team for that. Would that be less trouble than an APB?”
“It’s a toss-up,” Dino said, “but call the DA and get the warrant. Type up an authorization for the SWAT team, and I’ll sign it.” Dino opened the top piece of mail on his desk, a large brown envelope with an FBI return address. He shook it, and a wanted poster featuring a becoming photograph of Shelley Bach spilled onto his desktop.
“Hey,” DeCarlo said, “that’s the chick from D.C. who offed all those people, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Dino said. “Is there anything else preventing you from getting back to work?”
“No, no, Lieutenant. Thanks for your help.”
Dino sat down and looked at the poster, then he called Stone.
“You’re up early today,” Stone said.
“I’m up early every day, unlike you.”
“I don’t have to get in early to make the morning shift think I work for a living,” Stone replied.
“Well, there is that,” Dino said. “Listen, pal, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.”
“Give me the good news first.”
“Okay, I threw what’s-her-name out first thing this morning.”
“Right after you screwed her, right?”
“The point is, she’s gone and out of my life.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“She’s not necessarily out of your life.”
There was a long silence. “Dino,” Stone said, “I’m failing to figure out what that means.”
“It means she knows you know.”
“You told her you told me?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. I told her you saw her coming into my building and recognized her.”
“So, you managed to convey my knowledge of her presence in New York while covering your own ass?”
“Well, yeah, I thought that was best.”
“Best for you.”
“Listen, Stone, it was an accident. We were arguing, and I spilled that you knew, but I couldn’t let her think I told you. She might have offed me on the spot.”
