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“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.”
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sp; “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.
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.”
