BooksBarbecue
Back Dirty Work
Chapters (62)
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  62. AUTHOR’S NOTE

The meeting in the presidential suite was just breaking up, when an FBI agent walked quickly into the room and whispered something in the director’s ear.

The director’s eyebrows went up. “You cannot be serious,” he said.

“I am perfectly serious,” the man replied.

The director turned to Carpenter. “Your man, Mason, has just been found dead in the elevator, shot twice.”

Carpenter stood up; she wasn’t sure why. Before she could say anything, her cell phone rang. Automatically, she answered it. “Yes?”

“It’s Stone. Dino and I have just arrived at the Waldorf. We’d like to meet with you and the director.”

“Stone, she’s in the hotel.”

“Who’s in the hotel?”

“La Biche. She just shot Mason in the elevator.”

“Don’t leave the suite, and tell the director not to, as well. I’ll call you back.” He broke the connection.

“What is it?” Dino asked, as they walked up the steps from the drive-through under the hotel, headed for the Tower elevators.

“Marie-Thérèse is in the building,” Stone replied. “She’s just killed Mason in an elevator.”

Dino ran back to his car and retrieved a handheld radio. “This is Bacchetti,” he said into it. “La Biche is at the Waldorf. Pull everybody off the Brits’ offices and get them over here. Call hotel security, too, and get every available patrol car to the hotel. I want every woman alone stopped and ID’ed, then held if there’s the slightest suspicion.”

Marie-Thérèse waited impatiently for an elevator to stop, but none did. Then she realized what had happened. She had been on an express elevator to the Towers, one that stopped only because she had pressed the emergency button. The elevator to this floor was not an express, but stopped at any floor that had requested it, and at this hour of the day, it was receiving many requests. She had planned to reach the lobby while there was a commotion over the discovery of Mason’s body, before anyone had time to begin searching for his killer, but now her time was running out while she waited for an elevator. And at this moment, the security guard on the Tower floor was giving her description to her hunters. She looked around for an exit, a stairway, and found it. The door was plainly marked, sixteenth floor. If she took the elevator, someone would very likely be waiting at the bottom. How long would it take her to walk down sixteen flights of stairs?