Shoot First(Stone Barrington #45)(44)
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THE ELEVATOR DOOR opened; Stone stepped into the car and began looking for the correct number. Finally, he found G and pressed it, then slipped on his shoes and tucked the gun into his waistband. The door slid silently shut, but the car did not move.
Stone was about to reach for the button again, but the door slid open and two men stood there. Beria was maybe six feet and 190 pounds; the other man was taller and a gorilla by any measure, maybe three hundred pounds. They stared at Stone.
“Good morning,” Stone said, backing up until he was leaning against the rear wall. “Going down?”
“Thank you, yes,” Beria said, stepping onto the elevator, followed by the gorilla. The door slid shut again, and after another pause the car started down.
Beria, who was leaning against the wall on Stone’s left, said, “You live upstairs?”
“No, just visiting,” Stone replied. The elevator seemed to inch down.
“Quite a building, eh?” Beria asked.
“Spectacular views,” Stone replied.
“Who lives upstairs?” Beria asked.
“A woman of my acquaintance,” Stone replied.
“And her husband?” Beria asked slyly.
“I’m afraid so. Fortunately, he’s out of town.”
Beria gave a short laugh, and the elevator stopped. The door slid open, and the two men got off. “Be careful,” Beria said.
“Don’t worry,” Stone said, following them out of the elevator, but more slowly, hoping to put more distance between them.
The two went through the outside door and turned right, toward Park Avenue. Stone turned left, got out his phone and called Fred, who was waiting on Park.
“Yessir?” Fred said.
“Meet me on the corner of Fifty-ninth and Lex.”
“Yessir.”
Stone put away the phone and continued walking. As he did, a black S-Class Mercedes drove past him, and Beria waved from the rear seat. As Stone approached Lexington Avenue, the light changed and the Mercedes stopped. The rear window slid down, and Beria said, “Can I give you a lift somewhere?”
“Thank you, but my car is just around the corner,” Stone replied with a little smile. He turned left, just as Fred drew up. The light changed, the Mercedes turned right and drove down Lex. Stone got into the Bentley. “Fred,” Stone said, “follow the Mercedes, but keep well back.”
“Which Mercedes, sir?”
“The black S-Class.”
“Which black S-Class?” Fred asked.
Stone looked ahead of them and saw two Black Mercedeses driving a block down Lex ahead of them.
“Shit,” Stone muttered.
“Let me know when you decide,” Fred said
“Do you know which one entered Lex from the direction I came?”
“I’m not sure,” Fred replied.
“Be sure to keep up with the changing lights,” Stone said. “We don’t want to get stuck. If we get a red light, run it.”
“As you wish, sir.”
As Stone watched, the Mercedes in the left lane turned left on East Forty-ninth Street, and the other continued straight ahead. “Follow the one that turned,” Stone said, taking a flier.
“Yessir.”
The Mercedes continued east, stopping for a couple of lights, then, as it approached First Avenue, it pulled over and stopped.
“Stop,” Stone said.
Fred pulled over. “The car has diplomatic plates,” he said.
From half a block back, Stone watched as Beria and the gorilla got out of the Mercedes and went up the front stairs into a building. The Mercedes drove away.
“Continue,” Stone said, “but I want to see what that building is, so go very slowly.”
As they passed the building Stone saw two brass plaques, one on each side of the large doors. The one on the left was unintelligible to him, since it was in the Cyrillic alphabet; the other, in English, read: PERMANENT MISSION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION TO THE UNITED NATIONS.
“Okay,” Stone said, “home.” He waited until he was at his desk before he called Dino.
“Bacchetti.”
“It’s Stone.”
“I figured.”
“How did you figure?”
“I don’t know. I get a creepy feeling sometimes when the phone rings, which means it’s you.”
“I want to report a double murder.”
“Then call the police,” Dino said.
“Has the mayor fired you?”
“Not yet.”
“Then you are the police.”
“Yeah, but all I’m going to do is call Homicide and tell them to get on it, so why don’t you just call nine-one-one?”
“Because I don’t want to have to explain why I was where the murders took place.”
“You’re going to have to explain that to me,” Dino pointed out.
“I have no problem with that. You’re taking the call, then?”
“Yeah, okay, let me get a pencil.”
Stone heard drawers opening and closing, then Dino came back on the line.
“Okay, go.”
Stone gave him the address and floor number of the building.
“Okay, who got offed?”