She stood up, and she was taller than he had expected. Quite beautiful, too. Stone got out of his chair. “Did you have a coat?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go find it.”

He took her arm, and, just for a moment, he thought the pain had gone away. Not quite, but a little. He steered her toward the front door, avoiding their hosts. Dino gave him a surreptitious wink, and a moment later, they were on the sidewalk.

“It’s nearly eleven,” Stone said, glancing at his watch. “I wonder if anyplace is still serving around here.”

“My apartment is only a couple of blocks away,” she said, “and there’s a good Chinese place that delivers.”

“Perfect,” he said.

“It’s not perfect, but it delivers.”

“I wasn’t talking about Chinese food.”

2

THEY WALKED AT A LEISURELY PACE, CHATTING idly. Her voice was low and musical, and Stone enjoyed listening.

“I recall that you are a lawyer, but I forget with whom,” she said.

“I’m in private practice.”

She laughed. “At Yale law we were taught to believe that ‘private practice’ meant you couldn’t get a job with a good firm.”

“That’s probably a fair characterization, but my excuse is that I was a cop for fourteen years and came to the practice of law, as opposed to the upholding of it, late in life. I’m of counsel to Woodman and Weld, but I work out of a home office.”

She wrinkled her brow. “That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is, I guess.”

“Oh, I get it; you do the dirty work, the stuff they don’t want to be seen to handle.”

“You’re very quick.”

“That’s what they say about me down at the DA’s Office,” she said. “‘Susan Bean is very quick.’ Of course, that’s not all they say about me.”

They stopped for a traffic light. “What else do they say?”

“Some call me the conscience of the office; others call me a pain in the ass. I guess it’s pretty much the same thing.”

“What are you working on now?”

“I was second chair to Martin Brougham on the Dante case,” she said.

“Congratulations,” Stone replied. “That was a big win.”

“I guess so.”

“You don’t sound very happy about it.”

“Oh, I’m glad we won,” she said. “I’m just not very happy about how we won.”

He was about to ask her what she meant when they arrived at her apartment building. She dug for a key and let them in; they took the elevator to the top floor, which was marked PH on the button.

“The penthouse?” Stone said. “Pretty fancy for an ADA.”

“It’s the top floor, the twelfth. That’s its only qualification as a penthouse.”