A doctor in scrubs walked over and examined Dino. “You are one lucky son of a bitch,” he said. “Whoever shot you was firing hardball ammo, and it went straight through and out, along a path that avoided the heart, the lung, and the shoulder. Nicked the collarbone, but that’s okay. You’re lucky it wasn’t a hollow-point slug, or we’d still be in the OR, trying to sort out the mess. You’ve also got the constitution of an ox. I’ve never seen anybody skate through gunshot surgery like that. You’ll be back at work in a week, ten days, if we can keep you from getting an infection.”
“Don’t give me an infection,” Dino said. “I don’t need one.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” the doctor said. “Detective DeCarlo, there’s a guy out there wants to see your lieutenant, name of Barrington. Only one at a time in here, so you go out and send him in.”
“Right,” Viv said. “I’ll be back, boss.”
STONE STOOD up when he saw Viv coming; so did Rosie.
Viv gave them a thumbs-up. “He’s good and going to get better. You can go in, Stone.”
Stone pushed through the door and saw Dino, his bed sitting him up. He went over and pulled up a stool. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” he said.
“It’s been a long time since we met like this,” Dino said, “and last time, it was you here and me there.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know exactly. Shelley was walking toward me, something spooked her, and she came up with a handgun. Mine never cleared the holster. Viv took her out.”
“Did the denizens of Bemelmans Bar enjoy the experience?”
“You never heard such an uproar,” Dino said, smiling weakly.
“You get some sleep, pal. There’s no rush-you’ll be telling me the gory details for years.”
“You don’t have any scotch on you, do you?”
“I’ll buy you your first when you’re out of here. Sleep tight.”
Stone walked back to the waiting room and took a couple of deep breaths.
“You all right?” Viv asked.
“I’m not used to seeing him like that,” Stone said. “I feel almost as if I took the bullet.”
“I know how you feel,” Viv said.
“He’s got the hots for you, you know.”
Her eyebrows went up. “What are you talking about?”
“You may have to take a transfer to deal with it. Dino will want to do the right thing.”
“Whatever it takes,” Viv said.
Stone gave her a hug. “You go home and get some sleep. That’s what Dino is doing.”
57
Stone was at his desk the following morning when Joan buzzed him. “FBI Deputy Director Kerry Smith to see you,” she said.
“All right,” Stone sighed, “send him in, and you’d better get him some coffee, too.” He stood up and waited for Kerry to enter his office, then shook his hand and sat him down. “Good to see you, Kerry. What brings you to New York?”
“Was that supposed to be funny?” Kerry asked.
“It was funny,” Stone replied. “To anybody but a DD of the Bureau.”
“I’m going to see Dino, at the hospital, but first, I want to know what happened, and I’m sure you know.”
“You didn’t read the Times this morning?”
“Wasn’t much in the Times.”
“Well, it was right at their deadline, I guess. The Post will have a fuller account this afternoon.”
“It won’t have what I want to know.”
“You mean, you want to know why Dino didn’t call the Bureau before he met Shelley.”
“A good place to start,” Kerry said.
Joan brought in a small tray with a china coffeepot and a mug and set it on the coffee table, then left.
“He didn’t call your people because they’d have had big black vans with flashing lights in the street and a SWAT team in the Carlyle lobby.”
“Oh, come on!”
“You know that’s true. The Bureau is incapable of doing anything small, even when the situation demands it. Also, Shelley probably knew three-quarters of the New York field office by sight.”
“You have a point there,” Kerry admitted.
“Dino was smart enough to take only two detectives with him-both of them women.”
“I heard, and it was smart, I’ll give Dino that.”
“That’s mighty white of you.”
“I saw photos of Shelley’s body. She was unrecognizable-nose job, hair color, lots of new dental work. I swear, I wouldn’t have known her if I had been there, and I spent a couple of years in bed with her.”
“Nobody ever said Shelley was stupid,” Stone said.
“She was smart as a whip, and if she hadn’t been a woman, she’d have been in my job, and I in hers.”
“I expect that’s what made her so hard to nail,” Stone said. “I think her weakness was Dino.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Nope. The whole time we were in D.C. last year, she spent every night with Dino.”
“Well, of course, she was crazy, or she couldn’t have done what she did.”
“You mean Dino?”
“I mean half a dozen murders.”
“I’m sure the Bureau shrinks have had a wonderful time trying to figure that out.”
“You should see the reports-you can’t see the forest for the psychobabble.”
“Yeah, I’ve read a few of those.”
“Tell me about the DeCarlo girl.”
“For a start, you’d better not call her a girl around Dino-or around her, for that matter.”
“I guess not.”
“She’s probably a lot like a young Shelley,” Stone said.
“Is Dino putting her in for the Medal of Honor?”
“That would be a little over the top, but my guess is, he’ll get her the Police Combat Cross, because it fits her conduct, and he’ll probably get her kicked up to detective second class. Dino won’t sign the orders himself, but he knows whose shell-like ear to whisper into.”
“I expect he does.”
“My advice to you, Kerry, is, when you see Dino, don’t bring up your field office’s noninvolvement, and I wouldn’t mention it to anybody else in the department, either.”
“I suppose that would be resented.”
“All the way up to the commissioner. If you can’t see Dino without avoiding that, then don’t see him at all- just write him a nice note on your best stationery and copy the commissioner.”
“I’ll do both,” Kerry said. “Now, tell me what happened in that bar.”
“The girls went in first and established themselves at the bar. Dino came in a few minutes later and looked at every face in the room. He didn’t spot her.”
“I can understand why.”
“Shelley must have felt comfortable with the situation, because she got up and started toward Dino. Something startled her-nobody knows what-and she started shooting, hit Dino with her first round. By that time, Viv DeCarlo was on her feet and firing. Put one into her chest and knocked her backward. Shelley played possum for a few seconds, and then tried to shoot again, so Viv fired a second time. Both her shots were expert quality. Then it was over, except to transport Dino and take witness statements. There’ll be a hearing on the shooting, and if the Bureau is asked to send somebody, you might have a word with him about not making an ass of himself.
