“Well, if that’s what you want to do,” Dino said, “I’d advise against throwing caution to the wind.”

“You mean I should plan the perfect murder?”

“It doesn’t have to be perfect,” Dino pointed out, “at least, not if you do it in my precinct. A friend on the force is better than a perfect plan. You know, witness statements get changed, evidence gets lost. Like that.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Sure. I’d even work the case myself, to make sure it gets done right.”

“And risk your career?”

“I don’t care about promotion, and, thanks to my divorce settlement, I don’t need my pension anymore.”

“The pension comes in handy, believe me. There are times when I would have gone belly up without mine.” Stone, having been involuntarily retired from the NYPD for medical reasons after taking a bullet in the knee, got seventy-five percent of his detective’s salary, tax free.

Dino shrugged. “I’ll do whatever you want. What do you really want?”

Stone thought about that for a minute, while wolfing down half a dozen fries. “What I really want is to see him caught, convicted and imprisoned forever.”

“Then let’s do that,” Dino said. “You call Charley Sample and get him to call me and make a formal request for NYPD assistance. That’ll give me an excuse to put some people on Daltry. We’ll see what we come up with.”

“I like that, Dino,” Stone said, brightening.

“You know what the best possible thing would be?”

“What?”

“If you could get Daltry to make a serious pass at killing you. Then we could catch him in the act and send him up for ten-to-twenty while we keep working on Celia’s death.”

“You mean, like, if I just go stand in the street he might try to run me down again?”

“Yeah, like that. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Daltry would like to kill you; let’s just give the guy a chance.”

“And hope he misses?”

“Preferably. After all, we’d need you as a witness.”

“Well, Dino, as appealing as your idea is, I have a better one.”

“Stone, it’s been a long, long time since you had a better idea than I did. Maybe never.”

“How’s this? Let’s find out who the accomplice is, then we can bust him and turn him and fry Daltry.”

Dino nodded. “Well, it’s not a very original idea, but it has its points.”

“It keeps me out of the traffic, for one.”

“There is that.”

“I’ve got an idea about how to go about it, too.”

“I’m all ears.”

“I’ll bet Daltry already has another girlfriend. Get your people to find out who she is, then let’s turn her.”