“Give me the money, Marv,” she said, stopping at a traffic light. She took the envelope, gave Irv a thousand for the hospital bill, and dropped the rest into her bag. “Irv, whatever you do, don’t let a doctor admit you. The police will get around to checking the hospitals, and you don’t want to be there when they arrive. Get some stitches, a bandage, and an antibiotic, and get the hell out of there.”

“Shit,” Irv said.

“Well, yeah,” Maria replied. She drew to a halt. “That’s the door, there, in the middle of the block. Tell the ER nurse that you were working late at a machine shop, and you fell onto a running drill.”

“Oh, yeah,” Irv said, “that’s plausible.”

“Then write your own script, but don’t let the words ‘gunshot wound’ pass your lips. Got it?”

Irv got out and slammed the door, then began limping toward the door. Maria put the van in gear and departed. She drove Curly back to his apartment and stopped out front. “Did you bring the cart with you?”

“No, but I wiped it clean before, so it won’t have any prints.”

“Where did you buy it?”

“At a hardware store uptown.”

“Get out of the car, Marv.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

Sofia drove away, “Sure, the hell you will.” Her packed bag was in the rear of the van. She drove the vehicle to New Jersey, out toward Newark Airport, and stopped at an all-night, self-service car wash, where she used the pressure washer where Irv had bled on the rear seat, then hosed down the rubber mats and the carpet. She drove to the airport, noted the mileage and time on the rental receipt, and handed it in to Hertz. “This wasn’t supposed to be a drop-off,” she told the man in charge. “It just worked out that way. Charge me, if you have to.” She paid him in cash, took the shuttle to the terminal, and looked for a Fort Lauderdale flight. She had to wait only forty minutes before it boarded.

“Well, fuck you permanently, Marv, for bungling the job,” she said aloud to herself. “At least I only lost a thousand bucks.”

—

DINO HUNG UP HIS PHONE. “My detectives missed the guy by ten minutes at Lenox Hill. He’d been shot in the ass and told the ER nurse he fell onto a drill. Can you believe she bought that?”

“Yes,” Stone said. “She was probably at the end of her shift and didn’t want to do the paperwork for a gunshot wound.”

“You guys lead interesting lives,” the beautiful actress said. “Are you married?”

“He is,” Stone said, pointing at Dino. “And she’s standing over there by the piano. The redhead in the blue dress.”

She took Stone’s arm and pulled him toward the bar. “Let’s get another drink, then you can tell me about yourself.”