“I’m sorry it took so long; you need this information.”

“Now that I have it I don’t feel any better.”

“That’s because you haven’t eaten anything. Have a bacon cheeseburger; that always improves your morale.” Dino waved at a waiter. “Bring my friend a bacon cheeseburger, medium, and tell the chef if it arrives well done I’ll take it back there and make him eat it; I don’t care about his product liability policy.” The waiter left. “Have you noticed that you can’t get a burger anything but well done these days? It’s not like Clarke’s ever gave anybody food poisoning. Drives me nuts.” He waved at the waiter again. “Bring him some fries, too; he needs the grease.”

“I had a thought,” Stone said.

“Well, that’s an improvement.”

“I thought I might go and see Eduardo.” Eduardo Bianco was Dino’s former father-in-law, before his divorce from Eduardo’s daughter, Mary Ann. Although a distinguished elder statesman of the city, he retained discreet connections to his Mafia past.

“Why? You want somebody capped?” Dino chuckled.

Stone said nothing.

Dino looked more serious. “Oh, I get it: You want to get Eduardo to get somebody to get somebody else to knock off Devlin Daltry, right?”

“It crossed my mind.”

“Would that solve all your problems?”

“Pretty much.”

“That would never work, Stone.”

“Why not?”

“Because you have a conscience, and you take lawyering seriously. You believe in the system, and you won’t violate that.”

“I’ve violated it before; so have you.”

“My ethical system is based on something older than the law,” Dino said, “and besides, maybe I’ve done some things, but all you did was watch and keep your mouth shut.”

“That’s abetting, isn’t it?”

“Sure. You’re not above abetting if you don’t have to get your hands dirty. That’s why you want Eduardo to get somebody to get somebody else to whack Daltry, instead of doing it yourself. Of course, you’d be just as legally guilty and as morally reprehensible if you did that, instead of actually doing it yourself.”

“I guess.” The bacon cheeseburger arrived, and Stone took a big bite and chewed thoughtfully.

Dino inspected the burger and found it properly cooked. “Look, if you really want him dead, it would be a lot more fun to do it yourself.”

Stone swallowed and took a sip of his beer. “I grant you that, but there’s always the messy part about getting caught and arrested and tried and imprisoned and spending the rest of my life appealing a death sentence. It’s funny, but Celia told me once that she wanted Daltry dead, and I lectured her about the personal dangers involved in doing that, and now here I am giving myself the same lecture, instead of throwing caution to the wind and hunting the guy down and blowing his head off.”