“Lieutenant? This is Stone Barrington. I’ve got two deadbeat cops here who are moonlighting as muscle for a probable felon, and…” He stopped. The two men were back in their car, backing up very fast, then spinning a hundred and eighty degrees and heading the wrong way up the park drive. “Never mind, Dino,” Stone said.

“What the hell is going on?”

“I was being followed by two off-duty cops who’re working for a former friend of Celia’s trying to give her a hard time.”

“Did you get their names?”

“No, but I will next time.”

“You all right?”

“I’m fine. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Stone hung up, got back in the cab and gave the driver Celia’s temporary Park Avenue address.

“Are they gone for good?” Celia asked.

“I doubt it, but they’re gone for now.” They made their way back to Park Avenue, and the cab stopped. “I want you to go pack enough stuff for a week, jeans and like that; you won’t need a cocktail dress. I’m going to go get my car, and I’ll be back here in half an hour. I want you downstairs with your luggage, waiting, all right?”

“Where are we going?”

“I’ll explain when we’re on the way.”

“All right.” She got out of the cab and ran for the door.

“You did good,” Stone said to the cabbie, then gave him his address.

“That was kind of fun,” the cabbie said. “Who were the two guys?”

“A couple of bad cops working for a bad guy.”

“I hope they didn’t get my cab number.”

“Don’t worry, they weren’t interested in you.”

Stone left Joan a note, saying he’d be back in a day or two, and not to tell anyone but Dino where he’d gone, then he got into his car, drove out of the garage and uptown. He didn’t need to pack a bag. He watched for tails all the way.

The doorman at Celia’s building walked her out of the building and put her luggage in the trunk. She got into the passenger seat. “All right, where are we going?”

“You can’t call anybody,” Stone said.

“I’ll have some appointments to break in the morning.”

“I have a little house in Washington, Connecticut, where you’ll be safe. It’ll take us an hour and forty-five minutes to get there.”

“How long am I going to have to stay there?”

“Until I can get your TRO and do some assessing of the threat.”

“I know the threat; you don’t have to assess it.”

“Have you ever had any help in dealing with Devlin?”

“No, I’ve managed it myself up until now.”

“Then we don’t know how Devlin will react to opposition, do we? The very fact that the law will be involved may be enough to ward him off.”