Unnatural Acts (27 page)

“Why are you still alive?”

“Because a few minutes before my arrival, unbeknownst to me, the feds had raided the place, disarmed everybody, and taken half the people there away.”

“And that was self-defense?”

“When Stone got through talking to the DA about it, it was self-defense.”

“That’s quite a story.”

“My point is, it’s a true story. Stone once said to me that I have a rat-like instinct for survival. You should remember that, Dink.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

“There’s something else,” Herbie said. “I’ve just spent some time at a facility where people are trained to be expert with firearms and other weapons, and I excelled there.” Herbie picked up a letter opener from a cup next to his chair and turned it over and over in his hand.

“So, when I came in here, you could have killed me with that?”

“With that or a couple of other innocuous objects in this room.”

“Are you threatening me, Herb?”

“Certainly not. I’m advising you on your future behavior. I would not like to think of you as a threat, Dink. You should conduct yourself in such a manner so as not to make me think that of you.”

“I see.”

“I hope you do. You see, your physical size and your past behavior as a bully give you a false sense of confidence when dealing with other people. You should always remember that there are people who are smarter, tougher, and more lethal than you, and you never know who they are until you pick on the wrong person. Last week, I met people who could kill you with a thumb.”

“I’ll try to avoid people like that,” Dink said.

“You can’t avoid them, Dink, so you should make it a point not to be a threat to anyone you meet.”

Dink nodded and tossed off his drink. “Thanks for the refreshment, Herb,” he said, “and for the advice. I’d better run along.”

“And,” Herbie said, “you should give serious consideration to a career in acting. There’s a very good drama school at Yale.”

Dink got up and left. Herbie took another couple of minutes to finish his drink and calm himself.

HE HADN’T
recognized her, Shelley was sure of it. She could take her time now. Carefully, face by face, she checked the room again. Nearly everybody was riveted on the singer; the rest seemed absorbed with each other, including the lesbians at the bar. Dino had started to check the room again.

“Everything all right?” Shelley said to Steve.

“I could use another drink. How about you?” He looked over his shoulder and waved at a waiter.

“I’m fine for the moment,” she replied.

The waiter brought Steve another drink.

“I’ll tell you this,” Rosie was saying to Viv, “even if I could afford it, I wouldn’t wear that designer shit—you know, Armani, Ralph Lauren. It isn’t cut for real women.”

“If I had money, I’d wear nothing else,” Viv replied. She flicked her eyes at the room.

“Don’t do that,” Rosie said. “The boss said not to.”

“I know, but it’s driving me crazy.”

“Look over my shoulder and tell me what the boss is doing,” Rosie said.

Viv looked at Dino for half a second. “He’s leaning on the bar, facing the room. Shelley isn’t here yet.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because he’s still looking for her, and he looks bored.”

“Why would she not show up?”

“Maybe she couldn’t get a table,” Viv said. “The place is jammed.”

“That would be a joke, wouldn’t it? She couldn’t get a table?”

“Wait a minute,” Viv said. “Dino sees something.”

“Stop looking.”

“He didn’t say don’t look at
him
. Something’s happening.”

SHELLEY FIXED
her gaze on Dino now. His eyes were panning the room again, starting from her right. She looked directly into his eyes and flashed a little of her new cosmetic dentistry, which practically glowed in the dark. The eyes came to her and stopped.

Shelley turned back toward Steve. “In just a minute, I’m going to get up and walk toward the bar,” she said.

“What would you like me to do?” he asked.

“If I stop at the bar and talk to a man standing there, pay the check and leave.” She threw a couple of hundreds on the table. “If I keep going and leave the room, follow me upstairs. I’m going to want to fuck you.”

“Anything you want,” Steve said, waving for the waiter again.

DINO’S MOVING
gaze was stopped by half a smile and a pair of eyes. A woman he didn’t recognize was staring directly at him.
Then she turned back toward the man she was with. That couldn’t be Shelley, he thought—or could it? He couldn’t tell how tall she was, but the nose wasn’t right. The hair was dark, though, maybe an auburn red. He continued to watch her. She glanced at him again.

SHELLEY TOOK
her handbag and stood up. Steve stood and pulled the table back for her, and she began picking her way slowly through the tables toward the bar. Then she was aware of another pair of eyes on her, in the mirror behind the bar. One of the two lesbians was watching her.

DINO SLIPPED
off the bar stool and stood, unbuttoning his jacket. She was coming slowly, the tables being 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 past him, their attention ahead of them.

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.

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.

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.