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“Are you packing?” Dino asked.
“Yes.”
“Then get it out. I don’t like this.”
Stone took out his .380, pumped a round into the chamber, and set the safety.
Dino put the key into the lock and turned it slowly, then nodded to Stone. He pushed open the door, and Stone went in first, with Dino right behind. They cleared the kitchen and the living room, and Dino went toward the bedroom. “In here!” he shouted, and Stone joined him.
Stone found Dino in the bathroom, kneeling over Vanessa. There was blood on the floor.
“She’s done,” Dino said. “This probably happened while we were loading the luggage.”
Dino picked up the house phone.
“Yes, sir?”
“There may be a man or woman coming down the service stairs. Don’t interfere with them, but watch to see where they go and get a license plate, if you can. The police will be here momentarily.”
Stone called 911 and made a standard report, then they went and sat in the living room to wait for the detectives to arrive.
“This is bad,” Dino said. “We’re consistently underestimating these people.”
44
Stone remained inthe living room to talk to a detective, while Dino went back to the crime scene to talk to the detective’s senior partner.
“Who went through the door first?” the detective asked.
“I did.”
“By how much?”
“By seconds. The commissioner was right on my heels. It was he who found the body, in the bathroom, while I was clearing this room.”
“Were you armed?”
“We both were.”
“Let me see your license.”
Stone gave it to him, along with his detective first class retirement badge. He cleared his pistol and handed it to the detective.
“You didn’t fire it?” the man asked, sniffing at the barrel.
“No, there was nothing to fire at. The perp must have been headed downstairs.”
“Is there a back elevator?”
“Yes,” Stone said, pointing. “And back stairs, too. Dino called the doorman immediately and asked him to look for anyone departing the building.”
“Does the doorman carry, as a matter of routine?”
“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask him. Or Dino. He might know. He lives in the building.”
“Where’s the commissioner’s wife?”
“She was waiting downstairs in my car. She may have come upstairs.”
