by Blake Banner
I closed my eyes and returned to the peace and the stillness
* * *
Something disturbed the stillness. My eyes opened of their own accord. There was a lot of glare and the whole world seemed to be churning about me like the waters of a vast river thundering through rapids. In the midst of it, a man peered into my face and shone a light in my eyes. I wanted to ask about Dehan, but I didn’t know how to speak. My mind tried to reach out to him, to seize hold of him and scream at him. What about Dehan?
What about Dehan?
In my mind I saw her staring eyes, the dense blood on her blouse and on my hands. I tried to talk, but no sounds emerged from my mouth.
What about Dehan?
A voice said, “What about his partner?”
Dehan!
“Gone…”
There was a hollowness, a bottomless emptiness. A hurt that was beyond words. I closed my eyes and sank down into it.
* * *
A light that was too bright. Beings in ugly green shrouds with masks over their faces. Cold steel instruments cutting into me. But above all a deep pain, an intolerable pain that wanted to drain away my will to live.
Somebody said, “Jesus! He’s awake!”
But I closed my eyes and embraced the darkness, because only the darkness could take away the appalling ache.
* * *
Black glass.
Black glass, frosted at the corners by the cold night, stained with amber light by the streetlamps outside. Silence. The drapes open, which seemed odd. The sound of a single car, far away in the night. The lights are out. The room is dark. There is an empty chair by my bed.
I close my eyes and sink back into the emptiness.
* * *
The gray light of dawn has washed the amber from the windowpane. The heavy clouds have returned, as though painted in watercolors, bellying low and raining on New York. Drops of rain, trickling in sporadic runs down the glass. Beneath the glass, the radiator. In front of the radiator, the chair that last night had been empty. And in it, deeply asleep, pale and exhausted, Dehan, uninjured, unhurt.
I smiled. I may have wept a little. Deep gratitude seeped through my heart and my aching body, warming my soul like a fine Irish whiskey. I lay watching her for what might have been half an hour or more, as the day stirred and stretched and yawned.
I closed my eyes, not to sleep, but to assimilate the fact that the blood on her blouse had been mine. That the look on her face had been shock. That she was not gone, she was here, alive, beside me. Eventually I heard her stir, sit up and yawn. I opened my eyes and she offered me a tired smile.
“Hey, Sensei. How’ya feeling?”
I offered her a blink and a small sideways twitch of my head. “I’m okay. I’ve had worse hangovers from cheap whiskey. How long have you been here?”
She shrugged. “A while.”
“They said you’d…” I paused, enjoying the sight of her. “They said, when we arrived at the hospital, they said you’d gone. I thought they meant…”
She stared at me a long time, then smiled. “I’d gone for a checkup. They made me. When they said you were out of danger, I went to get a change of clothes.” She paused and looked at the floor. “Stone, they weren’t gunning for me. They were gunning for you. If you’d just ducked instead of…”
She clenched her jaw and looked away. I saw a tear spill from her eye and she wiped it away with the back of her hand.
I managed a small laugh, which caused more pain than you’d think possible. “Hey! Did you think I was trying to protect you?”
She glared at me with wet eyes.
I laughed again and winced. “Nah! I was just trying to draw their fire away from my Jag! Was it damaged, by the way?”
She laughed wetly and blew her nose. “No. It came off better than you and me. I got a bruised ass.”
“That’s a relief.” I paused a moment, then said, “So I’m guessing I took a slug. Did they catch the shooter?”
She shook her head. “You were lucky, Stone. Very lucky. You shouldn’t be here. You took two slugs. One hit your left shoulder. It was through and through and managed to miss anything important. Four inches farther south and it would have gone right through your heart. The other…” She heaved a big sigh and stared at me. “It must have been as you were dragging me down, the way you were moving, it was a miracle…”
I smiled at her. “Did the earth move for you?”
“Stop it, you big dummkopf. The slug caught you at an angle and lodged between your ribs. A fraction of a second earlier, it would have punctured your heart.”
I shrugged. “Lucky me. How bad is the damage?”
“There was no major, invasive surgery. Doc said you’ll probably be home in a couple of days.”
I grunted. I thought about it for a moment. “It’s pretty cool.”
She made a long-suffering face. “What is?”
“Getting shot in a tux while saving a beautiful woman just before climbing into your classic Jaguar. How many kids dream about doing that?”
She didn’t smile. “John, I think you need to take this seriously.”
“Okay, I’ll take it seriously, but I need you to do something for me, Dehan.”
“Of course, anything. Just name it.”
“Find me some coffee and a couple of croissants, will you?”
She left and while she was gone I practiced moving my shoulder. The damage the slugs had caused was minimal, but the pain was intense. Fortunately it was my left shoulder. Using my right arm, I eased myself up into a sitting position and thought about getting out of bed. However, the thought of Dehan coming back and seeing my bare ass stopped me. I figured I’d give it a try after breakfast.
She returned fifteen minutes later with a bag of croissants and a large paper cup of black coffee. She also brought Newman with her and a woman in a white coat who smiled at me and said, “I’m Doctor Stadler. I operated on you last night. My advice to you is do the lottery today. If your luck holds, you’ll hit the jackpot.”
“That’s a nice thought. That close, huh?”
She nodded. “We are talking microseconds and millimeters. That was a lethal shot. As it is, the damage it did was minimal.”
“How about the other one, in my shoulder?”
“Ironically, that one did more damage, but neither of them has caused any kind of serious harm. We’ll keep you in overnight to monitor you. Then I recommend a couple of weeks of dolce fa niente, preferably in bed.” She pointed at my shoulder. “It’s going to hurt, so I’ll prescribe some powerful painkillers. It’ll be a few weeks before you are back to normal.”
I nodded. “Okay, thanks, Doc.”
“I’ll drop in and check on you later.”
Newman opened the door for her and when she’d gone, he came and sat next to the bed in Dehan’s chair.
“We’re checking CCTV footage in the area, John. Detective Dehan gave us a fair description of the vehicle. With a bit of luck we may be able to trace the car.”
I shook my head. “It will be stolen.”
He nodded. “In all probability. Now, listen to me, I want you to consider taking a couple of weeks off, John. More if you need it. Dehan can take care of things…”
“Not going to happen, sir.”
“Now, John, be reasonable and think this through.”
“I don’t need to think it through. I rattled her cage and she tried to kill me. Now is not the time to take a couple of weeks off. Now is the time for me to go in for the kill. What does it say about the NYPD, about the 43rd, about you, if we let this woman send killers after our officers, and our only response is to back down? What message do we send to these parasites who believe themselves above the law? No, sir. You can order me off the case if you want, and that is your call. But I am telling you right here and now, sir, with or without the blessing of the department, I am going after that woman and I am going to take her down.”
“John…”
“Her and
her goddamn empire!”
“John…”
“What?”
“I want you to take a few days at least, and I want you to do some thinking.”
I scowled at him. “What about?”
“You’re too old to be running around getting shot.”
I felt a hot pellet of anger well up in my gut. “What are you saying?”
“I want you to think about early retirement, John, or at the very least taking a desk job.”
“You have got to be kidding!” I looked at Dehan. She was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed and a sullen look on her face. “Dehan? Are you a part of this?”
She shook her head.
Newman had both hands raised. “Now take it easy, John. I don’t want you to get upset.”
I sat forward and scowled at him, pointing my finger at him like a pistol. “No! You listen to me, Newman, and you listen good! If you want me off this investigation then you are going to have to fire me. And then you will achieve three things.” I held up three fingers. “One, you will send a clear message to Hennessy and all her associates that the 43rd will roll over and spread its legs any time somebody waves a gun at us. Two, I will continue my investigation unofficially and I will tear down the Hennessy empire with my bare hands if I have to—and I will bring her and all her goddamn associates to justice! Three!” I was almost shouting. “You will embarrass the whole damned department because where the 43rd rolled over, the cop who got shot manned up and took on corporate and political crime and corruption, where the 43rd was too damned chicken!”
Dehan spoke quietly. “And you’ll have to fire me too, and I’ll back him every step of the way. What Hennessy has done flies in the face of everything we stand for. We cannot show weakness and we cannot back down. Stone is right, sir. She has as much as admitted her guilt. Now we go in for the kill. When the job is done, then we rest and heal.”
He sighed and flopped back in his chair.
“I am not rolling over, John. But we need to put this in the hands of a younger…”
“Less experienced cop? So he can get shot too? I have her running scared and panicking. I have her making rash mistakes. I have the experience. Goddamit, John! This is our case!”
He nodded and raised his hands again. “All right, all right. Tell me at least you’ll take a couple of days to heal.”
“I will if you stop upsetting me!”
He smiled reluctantly. “Fine. Just, be careful, you’re both fine officers and, well, I have come to consider you both friends. I don’t want to lose you. Now, if you feel strong enough, put me up to speed. Where are you in the investigation, and how the hell did this happen?”
I gave them both a detailed account of my evening at the fundraiser, and then between us Dehan and I filled him in on what she had discovered about Lee’s directorships. He listened with a deep frown furrowing his brow. When we had finished, he grunted.
“I see why you feel so strongly. I don’t mind telling you I have received a couple of telephone calls from the highest levels over the last couple of days asking me what you are playing at. I don’t have to tell you that we are facing a very formidable opponent, and a political conspiracy that has very far reaching tendrils.”
I nodded. “David was not exaggerating when he said that it was not dynamite, it was a nuclear bomb.”
Dehan spoke suddenly, and there was bitterness in her voice.
“It’s a cancer. If we leave it, it will spread and it will end up corrupting everything. It has to be cut out and destroyed before it goes any further.”
He studied her a moment, then nodded. “Whatever it costs, detectives. You have my full support.” He smiled at me. “I agree with you. Time to show what we are made of.”
He stood and left, and Dehan took his chair. “So what now?”
I took the lid off my coffee, tore a chunk off one of the croissants and dunked it in the hot black brew, then stuffed it in my mouth.
“What now?” I said with my mouth full. “Now we have an appointment at three PM with Carol Hennessy, and I mean to be there and scare the living bejaysus out of her.”
“You are going to the meeting? Today?”
I nodded as I dunked again. “Yup.”
She shook her head. “You are one hard motherfucker, Stone!”
I grinned, wolfishly. “I know. And soon Carol Hennessy will know it, too.”
SEVENTEEN
Dehan drove because my left arm was in a sling. In a right-hand drive manual like my Jag, you need your left hand to shift the gears, and between the two of us we only had one functioning left hand. While she drove, I called my friend Bernie at the Bureau Field HQ on Broadway.
“Stone, how’s it hanging, pal?”
“At the moment it’s hanging in a sling.”
He roared laughter down the phone. “I’m sorry to hear that, my friend. That’s a great loss to womankind, hahaha!”
“Yeah, if only they knew that. But it’s my left arm that’s in a sling, Bernie, so no great loss to anybody. Listen, we need to talk.”
“Oh, sure, any time. Nothing serious, I hope.”
“I was shot last night. And that’s kind of what I want to talk to you about. I’d like to meet somewhere private. I’ll pick you up on Broadway in an hour and a half. And Bernie, don’t mention this call to anybody. I really mean that. Nobody. And don’t tell anybody where you’re going.”
“Sounds serious.”
“It is. I am particularly interested, Bernie, in assassins. World class assassins. Operating between 1999 and 2008.”
“Holy smoke…”
“Is right. Okay. I’m going to get off the line. Catch you later.” I hung up. “Have we picked up a tail?”
She shook her head. “It’s hard to tell with all this traffic, but I don’t think so.”
I grunted and flinched as I put my phone in my pocket. “So far, the two times that Hennessy has jumped, it has been after we made direct contact, either with her, or with D’Angelo and Lee. So far we haven’t been in touch with any of them, and there is no reason to believe she has ears or eyes inside the 43rd. So chances are she doesn’t know yet that we are still alive. Why would she? So, it’s going to be interesting to see if she’s cancelled the meeting.”
Dehan nodded. “Right. If she thinks we’re dead, she won’t bother to show.” She was silent for a moment. “If she’s not there, how do you want to play it?”
I thought about it. “I’ll tell you what I’d like to do. I’d like to arrest D’Angelo and haul his ass in for questioning, and do the same to Lee. And play the bastards against each other.”
She glanced at me and her eyes were sparkling. “You want to do that?”
“I’d love to. But it’s premature. Let’s build up the tension a little more before we drag anyone in.”
She parked just outside the main entrance to the Rockford Building on 6th Avenue and we rode the elevator to the 32nd floor. The same prefab-pretty receptionist was at the desk and looked at me unhappily. I leaned close to her and said, “Yes, I have an appointment with Senator Carol Hennessy at three PM. Let her know I’m here, will you?”
She took a deep breath. “Senator Hennessy is not here. She is out for lunch.”
“How about D’Angelo? Is he here?”
She shook her head slowly. “No…”
“Is that true? You can get into a lot of trouble for lying to the cops. You know that, right?”
She nodded. “He is with her. He goes just about everywhere with her.”
“Okay, so you are going to deliver a message for me. You are going to deliver it personally to Senator Hennessy, understood?” She nodded. “Tell her that the next time I see her, she is going to be in cuffs at the 43rd Precinct, and I am going to put her away for the rest of her sorry life. You got that?”
She nodded. “Yes, sir.”
We rode the elevator down in silence, climbed back in the Jag and took West 52nd east to Park Avenue, then followed that south to
Union Square and Broadway. I called Bernie and told him we were on our way, He said he’d meet us outside the pet crematorium on Worth Street.
He was there in the doorway when we arrived. Dehan pulled up with her hazards on and Bernie ran and climbed in the back. We pulled away and headed north up Church Street. Then Dehan took a roundabout route, turning back on herself several times, till we came to Central Park South. There we left the Jag in a parking garage and took a walk by the pond as far as the Gapstow Bridge. There, Bernie squinted at me and said, “Are you going to tell me what this is all about?”
I scanned the path around the water, then glanced at Dehan. “Did you see anything?”
She shook her head. “I think we’re OK.”
He frowned uneasily. “You’re getting a little paranoid in your old age. What the hell is going on?”
“Somebody tried to kill me last night, Bernie. They very nearly succeeded. It was a hit, and we have solid reasons to believe that it was ordered by Senator Hennessy.”
“Holy shit.” He sighed. “You’ve always been smart, Stone, but you’ve never been wise, have you?”
“I don’t want to get you involved, not yet anyway. The fewer people involved the better. But there is one thing you can help me with.”
“Of course, anything.”
Dusk was already turning the air grainy and the cold blue sky was touched with burnished light from the dying sun. The ducks on the pond squawked and made wet flapping sounds and the birds in the trees fluttered sporadically, like they were closing up for the evening. While Dehan kept a watch over the quiet scene, I explained to Bernie everything that had happened, and everything we had learned so far. Dehan clapped her hands and stamped her feet, moving this way and that, and Bernie listened with a deepening frown.
When I’d finished, he puffed out his cheeks and blew a big cloud of condensation that drifted away like cigar smoke.
“We’ve been after her, and her husband, for a long time. But they have their operation stitched up tighter than a nun’s chastity belt. If what you say is true…”