Hit List (Stone Barrington #53)(55)

“Well,” Dino said, “this is all living room. Let’s turn it over very carefully. I don’t want my people to be greeted with a mess when they show up.” He went to a desk on one side of the room, switched on the computer that sat on it, and while it booted up, began opening drawers.

Ed just walked around the room slowly, looking at things, while Stone walked to the rear windows and looked out to the rear of the house. It was well lit by a bright moon. “There’s a fire escape,” Stone said, “going up to the top floor and leading down to a nicely planted garden. Shall I go out there and look around?”

“Let’s finish in here, first,” Dino said. “And we’ll have a look at the top floor, then we’ll go outside.”

Stone was looking out one of the two windows; he withdrew and walked to the other window, where a table with a lamp sat. He pulled the table out of the way and was about to walk around it to the window, when the glass exploded inward and noise filled the room. “Shotgun!” he yelled. “Hit the deck!”

Everybody did before the second shot was fired, then there was the noise of feet ringing on the steel fire escape, then nothing. A moment later, what sounded like a garden gate slammed.

Dino sat up and reached for his handheld radio. “Shots fired!” He said into it, “Nobody’s down. Assailant went down a rear fire escape and left through a garden gate. Flood a three-block area with uniforms, and proceed with caution. He has a shotgun, at the very least.” He got to his feet. “Everybody okay?”

“I’m fine,” Stone said.

“I’m not,” Eagle replied. He was sitting up and holding his left shoulder with his right hand. “I caught a couple of pellets, I think.”

Stone and Dino helped him to his feet, sat him down in a chair, and pulled his jacket off his shoulders.

“You caught three pellets,” Stone said, taking a handkerchief from his pocket, rolling it, making a tourniquet and applying it to Eagle’s arm. “Hold that,” he said. “And once in a while, let it bleed a little. We’ll get you to Lenox Hill Hospital and get you patched up.”

There were many feet on the stairs now, and policemen flooded into the room.

“Stone,” Dino said, “you take the car and drive up to Lenox Hill. I’ll stay here and go through the place with my people.

“Right,” Stone said, taking Eagle’s good arm as they walked out.

“No need to steer me,” Eagle said. “I’m okay.” Then he collapsed onto his knees.

“Just a little shock,” Stone said. “Let’s try again.”





44


Stone stood at the foot of an examination table in the Lenox Hill ER and watched as the resident on duty cut away Ed Eagle’s shirtsleeve at the shoulder seam.

“Fucking Turnbull & Asser shirt,” Ed grumbled.

“Send it back to them, and they’ll make a new sleeve for you,” Stone said.

Eagle winced as the doctor probed.

“Not too bad,” the young man said.

“For you,” Ed replied sulkily.

Stone thought the doctor looked like a college freshman, but his ID read “MD.”

“Let’s get some lidocaine in there,” the doctor said to the nurse on duty.

“What dosage?” she asked.

“Whatever you think best,” he replied. “There are three wounds.”

She handed him a syringe, half full, and he injected each wound twice. “It’ll stop hurting in a minute,” he said.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Eagle replied.

The doctor used a probe to examine each wound. “Not in very deep,” he said. “Your coat and shirtsleeve probably absorbed some of the velocity.”

“Shit, I forgot about my coat sleeve,” Eagle said.

“I know a good reweaver,” Stone said. “The repair will be invisible.”

“It’s stopped hurting,” Eagle said, heaving a deep sigh.

“Good,” the doctor said. He selected a tool from a tray and went to work. Shortly, the clink of pellet on metal tray was heard three times. “There we go. Now I’ll clean and suture, and you’ll live to fight another day.”

“Great,” Eagle said.

The resident went to work, cleansing and closing the wounds and suturing them, then the nurse stepped in, cleaning the area and applying a bandage. “We’ll give you some extra bandages, so you can apply a fresh one every day.”

Eagle took Stone’s outstretched hand with his own good one and pulled himself into a sitting position.

“Do you want a sling?” the nurse asked.

For a second, Eagle smiled. “Oh, I thought you said ‘fling.’ I think it will be okay as is.”

“Not when the lidocaine wears off,” she said, tucking a sling into the bag with the bandages. “There’s a prescription for a painkiller, too.”

“You have a point,” Eagle said.

Stone helped Ed’s right arm into his jacket, but left the other arm unsleeved and a bit bloody.

They made Ed get into a wheelchair.

“I’ll push him,” Stone said. He took hold of the chair and rolled it down the hall to the outside doors. Dino’s car awaited them, and Dino was inside.