“I did, for a very long time,” Stone said. “Did you lose her?”

“Yeah, and I don’t understand it.”

Then, from not too great a distance, they heard three rapid reports.

“Gun!” Dino said, and started running toward the noise.

Stone followed, and the two of them turned a corner and ran toward a parking lot behind Worth Avenue. Stone could see the trunk of the red Cadillac protruding into the street.

Dino got there first. Women were screaming, and people in cars were trying desperately to get out of the parking lot. The Cadillac sat, blocking the entrance, three of its four doors open, with three bullet holes in the windshield. It was empty.

Dino flashed his badge at a parking attendant, who was crouching in a booth at the entrance. “What happened?” he asked the trembling man.

“I don’t know, exactly,” he said. “I was about to give the man in the Cadillac his parking check when the windshield seemed to explode.”

“Anybody hit?”

“I don’t know. I dove in here in about half a second.”

“Call nine-one-one,” Dino said, then he turned to Stone. “Let’s get out of here.”

As they walked quickly away, Stone looked around the lot and the street for a familiar face, but Dolce was gone, and so were Guido and his two goombahs.

Chapter 54

54

THEY GOT BACK TO THE YACHT WITHOUT SIGHTING Dolce, and Stone was in his cabin, putting away his wedding gift, when Juanito knocked on the door.

“Yes?” Stone called.

“Mr. Barrington, there’s somebody to see you on the afterdeck.”

“Be right there,” Stone said. He retrieved the 9mm automatic from under his pillow and tucked it into his waistband in the small of his back. He wasn’t expecting visitors.

His visitor turned out to be Dan Griggs, and Stone was relieved until Griggs started to talk. He looked very serious. “Stone, there was an attempted shooting in a parking lot downtown, and one of my people saw you leaving the scene. You want to tell me about that?”

“Don’t worry, Dan. They weren’t shooting at me.”

Griggs didn’t smile. “I thought maybe it was you doing the shooting.”

Stone shook his head. “No, Dino and I were shopping on Worth Avenue, when we heard gunfire. Dino was armed, and we ran around the corner and saw the car with the bullet holes in it. That’s all we saw. We told the parking lot attendant to dial nine-one-one, then left.”

“Did you see the occupants of the car?”

“No.”

“Did you see the shooter?”

“No.”

“Witnesses said there were three men in the car, out-of-towners, by the look of them, and the shooter was a good-looking woman.”

Stone said nothing.

“Why did you leave the scene?” Griggs asked.