“Now, that is the first hard word I’ve heard you say about him. He slithers, does he?”

“Oh, I guess I’m just mad because he didn’t tell me about Sasha’s moving into the building.”

“Was Barron fucking Sasha?”

She turned and looked at him. “Are you on the job, Stone, or is this a personal conversation?”

He didn’t blink. “Every cop is always on the job. There are times when I can’t separate my work from my personal life. This is one of them.”

She didn’t blink either. “If you want to interrogate me about my boss, see me at my office. And I might lie to you.”

“You should never lie to a policeman,” he said.

“I will if I feel like it,” she replied evenly.

The evening suddenly turned cool.

Later, when her black car stopped in front of the Turtle Bay house, she declined to come in with him.

Before he got out, he turned to face her. “I’m sorry. I apologize. I stepped over the line, and I’ll try not to do it again.”

She nodded, but didn’t say anything.

He kissed her on the cheek, got out of the car, and closed the door.

She rolled down the window. “Stone,” she called after him.

He turned and walked back to the car, leaned down close to her.

“Barron was fucking Sasha,” she said. “Secretly, regularly, and for a long time. And I think I’m falling in love with you.” She rapped on the back of the front seat and the car drove away, leaving Stone standing in the street.

Chapter

15

When Stone arrived at the precinct, a well-dressed, obviously irritated man was sitting next to Dino’s desk. Dino, unaccountably in the station house early, was interviewing him.

“Look, I’ve already explained,” he said, looking uncomfortably around him. A very dirty, handcuffed black man was sitting at the next desk, admiring the man’s clothes.

“Mr. Duncan, this is my partner, Stone Barrington. Stone, this is Mr. Evan Duncan, who has something interesting to tell us.”

“How do you do, Mr. Duncan,” Stone said, extending his hand. He stepped between Duncan and the black man.

“Would you please tell Detective Barrington what you saw, Mr. Duncan?” Dino asked politely.