“Come back after nine o’clock,” Stone said. He looked over at the sleeping Sarah, lying naked, her breasts exposed. “Make that after ten o’clock.” He punched off the intercom.

The doorbell sounded again.

“What?” Stone growled.

“I want to talk to you right now, Barrington.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Stone said, switching off the intercom. He rolled over, gathered Sarah in his arms, and fell asleep again.

Next, it was the phone, and this time it was after nine.

“Hello?”

“It’s Dino.”

“Hi. Any luck catching our perp last night?”

“None,” Dino said. “My people scoured the park half the night; he must have found some hole to crawl into. They’re still watching all the exits; he might try to walk out this morning.”

“Did you find out what happened to Andy Anderson last night?”

“He had locked the elevator and gone to the staff john. When he heard the shots he got himself together as quickly as he could and went into the lobby with his weapon drawn. There was an exchange of shots; Andy thought he might have nicked the guy, but he was out of the building and into the traffic and over the wall, and Andy couldn’t fire again for fear of hitting somebody else. My guess is that Kelly was cooping in the car and was slow to react, then didn’t call for backup. Good thing you thought of that.”

“I hope this experience has rattled the perp,” Stone said. “Maybe he’ll think twice before trying it again.”

“Especially if Andy put a bullet in him; that’s twice he’d have been shot, after Mary Ann fired at him. It’s a shame nobody got him in the center of the chest.”

“You remember that guy Deacon you pointed out to me at Martin Brougham’s house?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, he rang my doorbell at the crack of dawn this morning.”

“What did he want?”

“I don’t know; I told him to get stuffed.”

“Must be something about the Susan Bean killing.”

“If so, he’s a little slow on the uptake, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“Has he called you?”

“No.”

“I think I’ll just refer him to the precinct.”

“No need to piss him off unnecessarily, Stone.”

“Why not? He’s pissed me off. You and I never pounded on people’s doors at seven o’clock in the morning, did we?”

“Not unless we were arresting them. He’ll probably come back with a SWAT team. By the way, Martin Brougham is the new chief deputy DA.”

“I hadn’t heard.”

“It’s being announced this afternoon. Rumor is, the old man is going to retire and is giving Brougham a head start on the election.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Stone said. “Only death will get the old man out of office. Maybe not even that.”

“You want some dinner tonight?”