“He had a clean sheet, good grades in high school, and finished a couple of years of community college. And his family connection didn’t emerge in his background check. Parisi is a common enough Italian name. How do you suppose Ryan and Parisi chose this Perado guy to beat up on?”

“It looked to me like they were looking to roll him,” Stone said. “Maybe they’re riding around town, pretending to still be cops, looking for likely victims on the street.”

“I guess that makes some kind of sense,” Dino said. “Was there anything else that connected them to Perado?”

“No, not according to him.”

“This is very weird,” Dino said.

“You just said it makes some kind of sense.”

“I take that back—it doesn’t make any sense at all.”

“Okay, I’ll grant you that.”

“What are you doing for lunch?”

“Eating your chateaubriand from last night.”

“Then I won’t come between you and your beef. Let me know if some other connection comes up between Ryan/Parisi and Perado.”

“Okay.” They hung up.

Chapter 4

Stone met Pepe Perado in the lobby at Kelly & Kelly, where they rode up together in the elevator.

“Stone,” Pepe said, “something happened on the way over here.”

“Tell me.”

“I saw those two cops again. I was coming out of the Waldorf—the Park Avenue entrance—and they were double-parked outside the hotel. I know they saw me, and they drove away. I tried to get their tag number, but a taxi pulled between us and blocked my view.”

They arrived at their floor, Stone gave their names to the receptionist, and they were asked to wait for a moment. “Pepe, something’s wrong here. How would they know you were staying at the Waldorf? They didn’t follow us when we left Patroon that evening, Fred was careful about that.”

“I can’t figure it out,” Pepe replied.

“Who have you seen since you arrived in New York?”

Pepe thought about it. “Just our current distributors,” he said. “They’re called Bowsprit Beverages.”

“Tell me about them.”

“Well, I told you they weren’t doing a very good job for us, and I told them that, too. They didn’t take it too well.”

“Who did you talk to?”

“Jerry Brubeck, and his partner, Gino Parisi.”

“Ah, now this is making sense. My friend at the NYPD told me that the man with Ryan is probably an ex-cop named Parisi. You said they didn’t take your criticism well. What did you say to them?”

“I told them I was unhappy with the job they were doing, and I was going to end our relationship. I gave them a letter giving them the notice that our contract required.”

“And how did they respond?”

“They didn’t seem too upset. After all, I’m a pretty small client to them. But Gino said he would see to it that I’d never find another distributor in New York.”