“Come on, we’ll take my car,” Dino said.

AT LENOX HILL they found Herbie in an ER cubicle, being attended by a young female resident. Dino made the introductions. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s still out. We’ve sent blood and urine to the lab, but we may not have results for a while.”

“He was drinking brandy, heavily laced with Ambien,” Dino said.

“Are you sure about that?”

“We can run that test on the scene these days.”

“In that case, I know what to give him. I’ll be right back.” She left the cubicle.

Dino peered at Herbie. “Sleeping like a baby,” he said.

“Drooling like one, too,” Stone said. He picked up a tissue from a box at bedside and wiped Herbie’s mouth.

The resident returned with a hypodermic. She unbuttoned Herbie’s sleeve, swabbed a vein, uncapped the hypo, and injected it. “Watch this,” she said, recapping the hypo and tossing it into a disposal unit.

Herbie’s eyelids began to flutter, and in a moment he opened his eyes and looked around. “Holy shit,” he said. “This looks like a hospital.”

“That’s because it is,” the resident said. “You’re in the ER at Lenox Hill.”

“How are you feeling, Herbie?” Dino asked.

“A little fuzzy around the edges,” he said. “Last thing I remember, a beautiful girl had her face in my lap.”

Even the resident had to laugh.

33

HERBIE SAT in the backseat of Dino’s car. “Okay,” he said, “what the hell happened? How’d I go from getting a blow job to the ER?”

“The girl drugged you,” Stone said. “She put more than one Ambien in your brandy glass, then she went to the ER and said she’d been raped.” Stone told him the rest of the story. “Who is Carson Cullers?”

“She’s Dink Brennan’s girlfriend,” Herbie said. He told Stone and Dino how she came to be in his apartment.

“Dink had to have sent her,” Stone said. He explained to Dino who Dink was.

They parked in Herbie’s garage and went upstairs.

“There was an ounce or so of cocaine on the coffee table,” Dino said. “My tech took it into evidence.”

“I don’t remember anything about cocaine,” Herbie said. “I never touch the stuff.”

“You were set up, pure and simple,” Stone said.

“Listen, Herbie,” Dino said, “you get some sleep. Stone and I are going to the precinct and see what the girl is saying.”

Herbie showed them out. He was starting to undress for bed when he remembered something. He got dressed again.

STONE AND DINO were sitting in an observation room, watching through a one-way mirror while Viv DeCarlo questioned Carson Cullers.

“I told you, he hit me in the mouth, and he ripped off my panties and raped me.”

“Let me tell you the problems I have with your story,” Viv said. “First of all, there isn’t a mark on you anywhere, including your mouth. There was no semen inside you. Fisher was drugged with Ambien. Nobody believes you, Carson, not the doctor who examined you, not my boss, and not me. Now, you’re looking at some serious charges here, and if you want to walk away from this without doing time, you’d better start telling me the truth. Let’s take it from the top: why did you go to Herbert Fisher’s apartment?”