close together, but she was coming. He remembered he was supposed to give Viv and Rosie some sort of sign. He tilted his head back and let go with a loud sneeze.
Shelley saw the two women turn and look at Dino, but half the room was looking at him; he had sneezed in the middle of “Someone to Watch Over Me.” Then she saw something that got her attention. As the women turned to look at Dino, Shelley looked in the mirror and saw something that looked like the butt of a pistol under one of the women’s jackets. At the same time, she saw Dino unbutton his jacket. She reached into her purse and found her own weapon.
Viv hopped off the bar stool and put her hand under her jacket. Dino had sneezed, and he couldn’t do that and watch the woman at the same time. She saw the woman’s hand go into her purse and come out with what looked like a compact Glock. “Dino!” she yelled. “Gun!”
Shelley saw the woman’s hand go under her jacket, heard her shout, then saw Dino’s hand go under his jacket. She didn’t have time to aim; she snapped a shot off at the woman, then turned to see Dino’s hand coming up with a gun in it. Everything was in slow motion. She saw the woman duck, but she didn’t think her shot had hit her. The other woman was turning, and she was coming up with a gun, but Dino was faster. Shelley got a shot off at Dino and saw him stagger, then she turned to her right and ran for the door.
Viv got back on her feet and elbowed Rosie. “Out of the way!” The woman had turned and was sprinting toward the door, her back to Viv. Viv fired once and saw, simultaneously, the woman struck and propelled forward and the shattering of the heavy glass door. Up until that moment she had heard nothing, but now there was the sound of a couple of women screaming and men shouting, and people all over the room were hitting the floor. “Police!” Viv shouted. “Everybody stay down!” She started toward the door, with her gun held out in front of her, trained on the woman ahead of her. Rosie was right behind her.
Dino had been knocked back against the bar by the round, and his feet had slid from under him. Now he heard a shot from the direction of Viv and Rosie. Both women were walking
Viv had another eight feet to go, when the woman suddenly spun onto her back and got off another round. Viv fired, striking her full in the chest, and she didn’t move again. “Rosie, check on Dino,” she said, then continued toward the woman on the floor, her gun beside her. Viv kicked the weapon out of her reach, then got a hand on the woman’s throat. Nothing. Her chest was a mess, and the floor was slippery with her blood. The screaming continued.
Rosie turned toward Dino. “Boss, are you hit?”
“Yes, goddammit!” Dino replied, taking a hand from under his jacket and holding it up, bloody. “Call this in and get these people quieted down!”
Rosie reached for her cell phone. “All right, everybody,” she screamed at the crowd. “Police! Everybody sit down and shut up.” To her surprise, they did.
56
Viv insisted on riding in the wagon with Dino. The EMTs had stripped off his jacket and shirt and were applying pressure to his wounds.
“You’ve got an entry wound and an exit wound,” an EMT said to Dino.
“Fucking Armani suit!” Dino said. “Eighteen hundred bucks. I’m going to have to have it rewoven.”
“Rinse it in cold water to get the blood out before you have it dry-cleaned,” the EMT said.
“Everybody’s an expert,” Dino muttered. He looked up at Viv. “What are you doing here? You should be helping Rosie lock down Bemelmans.”
“I’m where I need to be,” Viv said. “Rosie’s doing fine. The cavalry arrived as we were leaving.”
“I hope she knows to get as many statements as she can,” Dino said. “There’s going to have to be a hearing before we’re cleared.”
“We did the right thing,” Viv said.
“We didn’t call the FBI,” Dino pointed out.
“That was the right thing.”
“We got Shelley off the street, anyway,” Dino said. Then he threw up all over himself and passed out.
“Shock,” the EMT said, elevating Dino’s feet and starting an IV.
“Is he going to make it?” Viv asked.
“He’ll be in surgery in ten minutes,” the EMT replied. “We’ve already called it in. A team is standing by. We’ll pass up the ER and go straight to the OR. Are you his girlfriend?”
“I’m a detective. I work for him.”
“Oh, sorry, you look so concerned.”
“I want to keep on working for him.”
STONE WAS just getting into bed with Marla, and looking forward to it, when his phone rang. “Hello?”
“It’s Rosie. I work for Dino.”
“Hi, Rosie. Congratulations on the Ed Abney thing.”
“Dino’s been shot.”
“Tell me.”
“Dino, Viv, and I were in the bar at the Carlyle Hotel, a setup to take down Shelley Bach.”
“Go on.”
“It was going fine, until it wasn’t. Bach went into her handbag and came up with a Glock. She shot Dino, then Viv shot her. Twice. She’s dead.”
“Tell me about Dino.”
“He took a round in the upper left chest-might have nicked a lung, I don’t know. He was bleeding pretty good.”
“Where did they take him?”
“Lenox Hill. He’s in surgery. Viv is with him; I’m just finishing up at the Carlyle.”
“Congratulations on taking down Shelley Bach. I know Dino didn’t want to do it, but somebody had to.”
“There’s going to be hell to pay, because Dino didn’t call the FBI.”
“Dino knew what he was doing. They’d have had fifty agents there and the block cordoned off. Shelley would never have walked into the place. Any civilians hurt?”
“No, just Dino and Bach.”
“That’s going to make the hearing easier. The papers are going to like this, you watch. That’ll help with the departmental brass.”
“I’d better go,” Rosie said. “I want to get to the hospital.”
“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” Stone said. “Thanks for the call.” He hung up.
“Something wrong?” Marla asked.
“I’ll give you the background later,” Stone said, pulling on his pants, “but Dino’s been shot and is in surgery. I’m going over to Lenox Hill.”
“Is it bad?”
“Bad enough.”
“Want company?”
“I’ll want company when I get back,” Stone said. “You get some sleep.” He finished dressing and ran for a cab.
VIV SAT in the recovery room and watched Dino as if she were afraid he’d flee. His color was good, she thought, and he was breathing normally. His eyelids fluttered, and he opened them and stared at her.
“Am I alive?” he asked.
“And kicking,” she replied.
