“Let me call you later in the day. Do you still have people on me?”

“I’ve got two cars on your block right now; one of them doesn’t look like a cop car,” Dino said. “If you’re followed, that one will follow the follower.”

“Thanks, Dino,” Stone said. “I appreciate that. I don’t want to get Sarah hurt. Can you have one of them stick with her for a few days?”

“Sure. After all, he seems to be going after people close to us, not you and me. I’ll have Anderson and Kelly stick with her.”

“Thanks.”

“I gotta go. Call me later about dinner.”

“Will do.” Stone got up and dragged himself into a shower, while Sarah slept on. He shaved, got dressed, and went down to the kitchen. He made himself some coffee, toasted a bagel, and opened the Times. It was too soon for them to report the events of the night before, but there were accurate, if incomplete articles on the killings of Susan Bean and his neighbor, Miranda Hirsch. There were obituaries on both, as well.

The doorbell rang, and Stone punched the intercom. “Yes?”

“This is Thomas Deacon. Is it late enough for you now?”

“Walk around the railing to my office entrance,” Stone said. “I’ll meet you there.” He hung up, grabbed his coffee, and headed downstairs, wondering what the hell the man wanted.

16

STONE LET DEACON AND ANOTHER MAN IN through the street-level entrance, led them to his office, and pointed at two chairs. “Okay,” he said, sitting down. “What do you want?”

“This is Detective Simmons,” Deacon said. “We’re investigating the murder of Susan Bean.”

“I believe that’s being handled at the Nineteenth Precinct,” Stone said.

“Our investigation supersedes theirs,” Deacon replied.

“Lieutenant Bacchetti will be very surprised to hear that.”

“I don’t much care what surprises Bacchetti,” Deacon said. “I have some questions for you, and you’d better give me straight answers.”

“Listen, Deacon,” Stone said. “If you want my cooperation, you’re going about it in the wrong way. First, you wake me up at the crack of dawn, then you come into my house and encroach on a police investigation while behaving like the Gestapo. If you want to talk to me about anything, you’d better start acquiring some social graces.”

The two men stared at each other across the desk for a long moment. Finally, Deacon spoke.

“Mr. Barrington, I apologize for our intrusion at such an early hour this morning. An important official in the District Attorney’s Office has been murdered, and we would be very grateful if you would answer some questions for us in order to give us a clearer idea of what happened that evening.”

Stone threw a leg over the saddle and climbed down from his high horse. “I’d be happy to help in any way I can,” he said.