“I didn’t see a damn thing, but it was Ryan. I’ve got a feeling.”

“You’ve got a feeling.”

“It was a guy on a motorcycle—that’s how he made the attempt on your car.”

“A swimmer found a motorcycle registered to him in the East River.”

“So he bought another motorcycle.”

“Did Bobby see anything?”

“The shooter and the motorcycle, said they were both all black. He didn’t see a tag or a number, but he heard it roar off.”

“I’ll pass that on to Dan Harrigan,” Stone said.

“You do that—he could use some prodding.” “Prodding” came out mangled, but the meaning was clear.

“Dr. Gordon,” Dino said, “can you get me out of here and into my room? I want a TV.”

“Is right now good for you?” Gordon asked.

“Right now is just fine.”

Gordon corralled a couple of nurses, and in five minutes Dino was down the hall in his suite and on the bed. His IV was hung on a stand and checked, and the remote controls for the bed and the TV were put at his hand. Dino got the bed just right, then turned on the TV. “Nothing,” he said after a minute.

“I expect they’ve been holding this tight, until they could make a complete statement.”

“I believe that’s happening right now,” Gordon said, looking at his watch. “I’d better get out there and lend some authority to the occasion.”

“Don’t leave it to the cops,” Stone said. “They can mangle any simple statement into unintelligibility.”

The doctor left, and the three of them sat and looked at each other.

“Okay, what now?” Dino asked.

“Now you get better,” Viv said. “Take a few days, get it right. I don’t want you to go back to work too early, then faint at your desk.”

“No police commissioner of New York City, not since Teddy Roosevelt, at least, has ever fainted at his desk.”

“Then let’s not start now,” she said.

“Listen to the woman, Dino,” Stone said.

“I always do.”

“Anything I can do for you?”

“Yeah, tell Dan Harrigan to find Gene Ryan, and I don’t care if they shoot him on sight.”

“Got it,” Stone said, getting up. “I’m going to leave you two to whatever married people say to each other when one of them has a swollen head.”

“Thanks for being here, Stone,” Viv said, standing up and kissing him.

“Yeah, sure,” Dino said, “but I’m not kissing you.”

Stone left and went downstairs. To his surprise, Fred was sitting in the car, sipping coffee from a cardboard cup. Stone had forgotten to tell him to go home. He got into the car.

“I wish I’d told you to go home to bed,” Stone said.