“I understand.” Manny hung up, reached into his inside coat pocket, extracted a sheet of paper and handed it to Evan. Evan unfolded the sheet and read: “There’s a gun on you, so don’t say a word or do anything I don’t tell you. The job is done. Open your briefcase on the seat beside you, and hand me the money under the table. Don’t be obvious. Then leave the briefcase there, get up and go to the men’s room, down the hall ahead of you, to your right. Stay there for five minutes, then do anything you like. Nod to tell me you understand.”

Evan nodded, opened the briefcase and handed over the envelope with the money. Manny checked it without lowering his head, then put the sheet of paper back into his pocket and nodded. Evan got up, and went to the men’s room.

As soon as he left, Manny slid out of the booth, walked around the screen behind him, opened the back door to an alley and got into a waiting car, driven by his secretary. “Go,” he said. She drove fast down the alley, made a right, then a left, and stopped.

“Go straight home; you’ve been there all evening. There’ll be people at the offi ce tomorrow. Play dumb, and hang on to the box I gave you.” He took a bundle of cash from the envelope and handed her the rest. “Put this in the box and seal it; I’ll call you in a couple of days on your cell with instructions on where to send it. See you later,” Manny said. He got out of the car and into a dark blue sedan, not his own. Five minutes later he was off the island, headed for Miami International Airport and a flight to Mexico, where he owned a house.

HALF A BLOCK from the Steak Shack, Stone and Dino watched as two carloads of men poured onto the sidewalk and ran inside the restaurant.

“That’s it for Manny,” Dino said.

Stone’s cell phone buzzed, and he opened it. “Yeah?”

“It’s Evan. Manny got the call, I gave him the money and he sent me to the men’s room. What’s going on?”

“The state cops are all over him,” Stone said. “We’ll be there in a minute.” He hung up. “Let’s go,” he said to Dino. They arrived inside the restaurant to see a lot of men standing around, talking on cell phones.

“Look for a gray Toyota,” one of them within earshot was saying.

“Woman driver.”

Stone went over to the booth where Evan was talking with a man in a suit. “What happened?” he asked. “Where’s Manny?”