Carlo located a bunch of circuit breakers, sorted out the wires, and put the camera out of commission, while Ollie stood guard. Standing guard was one of the things Ollie did best, along with breaking heads.
Once the cameras were out of commission, Carlo and Ollie the Ox made their way up the back stairs. Those cameras, Carlo explained, were the least likely for the security guard to notice missing from his screen.
Ollie wasn’t impressed. As far as he was concerned, if they were going to the penthouse, they could damn well take the elevator. It took all of Carlo’s wiles to talk him down from that position.
With a great deal of grumbling, the two thugs started climbing.
Carlo cursed the piece of pie he’d had for lunch, and tried not to count the floors.
41
Herbie was out like a light, and it wasn’t from the lovemaking. Yvette was good, but she wasn’t that good. Donnie’s stuff had done the trick.
“Herbie?” she said tentatively.
There was no response.
Herbie was out cold.
Yvette picked up the phone and called Donnie.
“Okay,” she said.
Donnie was in a quarrelsome mood. “Okay he’s out, or okay you gave it to him, or okay you’re going to give it to him? Give me a little more than that.”
“He’s out cold. Really cold. Are you sure it wasn’t too much?”
“It wasn’t too much,” Donnie said, and broke the connection.
Donnie hoped it wasn’t too much. He’d given Yvette three times the normal dose, just to be sure.
Donnie left a dollar on the counter, paid his check, and swiped the pad. He walked up Lexington Avenue, fished a pizza box out of the garbage can on the corner, and wrote up a takeout order for a large pepperoni pie. He filled in Herbie’s name and address, and a twenty-dollar charge for the pizza. It occurred to him there was no reason not to collect the twenty bucks.
There was a lilt in Donnie’s step not entirely attributable to caffeine as he made his way over to Park Avenue.
The doorman was out front under the awning.
Donnie sauntered up and said, “Pizza delivery.”
“Who’s it for?”
“Let me see.” Donnie referred to the receipt. “Fisher? Herb Fisher?”
The doorman nodded. “Penthouse.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ll have to call up.”
Donnie nodded. “Of course, of course. Classy joint.”
Donnie followed him inside, where the doorman called Herbie’s apartment on the intercom.
Yvette answered. “Yes?”
“Got a pizza delivery for Mr. Fisher.”
“Send him up.”
The doorman put down the phone and pointed. “Go on up. Take the elevator to the penthouse.”
“Which apartment?” Donnie said.
“It’s the whole floor.”
Donnie knew that. He just asked so he could express his contempt for the überwealthy. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. He headed for the elevator, thinking he really should have been an actor.
42
Ollie the Ox reached the top floor. He was pissed, and Carlo was nervous. It was not good to piss off Ollie the Ox.
“Which door?” Ollie said.
“There’s only one,” Carlo said.
“There’s two.”
“One is the front door, one is the kitchen door.”
“Not hungry,” Ollie said. He went to the front door and rang the bell.
Yvette had barely gotten off the phone with the front desk when the doorbell rang. How could Donnie be so fast? The doorman must have sent him up while he was calling. She would have to ask Herbie to speak to him about that. He should wait for approval before sending anyone up.
She flung the door open, stopped, and gasped.
Two goons stood in the doorway. They looked as startled to see her as she was to see them.
The big one just said, “Huh?” but the other one registered recognition.
“Hey, it’s her!” Carlo said.
Ollie the Ox said, “Oh.” It took a few moments for his brain to wrap itself around the concept. He reached under his coat, pulled out a pistol.
Yvette gawked.
The silencer screwed onto the barrel made it look as long as a blowpipe, so at first she didn’t realize what it was. It was only at the last second, before the shot fired, that her face registered fear. Within seconds her eyes rolled back, she sank to the floor, and everything went dark.
43
“Come on, let’s get her boyfriend,” Carlo said.
“What’s he doing?”
“I don’t care, as long as he’s not calling nine-one-one. Come on. Knock him out and set the scene.”
But when the two men walked into the bedroom, they found they didn’t have to knock him out. Herbie was stark naked and dead to the world.
“Excellent. Get the girl.”
Ollie went out to the foyer and came back with Yvette. “Where do you want her?”
“Other side of the bed.”
Ollie flopped her down.
Carlo arranged her on the pillow. “We won’t need this,” he said. He pulled off the negligee and threw it in the corner. “Okay, here she is, hot to trot, and here’s her lover who thinks she’s been with another man.”
“Why does he think that?”
“Guys do. Okay, here we go.” He put the gun in Herbie’s hand. “He popped her, and passed out.”
Ollie frowned. “He shoots a stark naked girl and goes to sleep?”
Carlo wrapped Herbie’s fingers around the gun, pulled the trigger, and fired a shot into the headboard.
“What did you do that for?” Ollie said.
“Framing the guy. That’s what this is all about. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
They went out the front door.
“We got to take the fucking stairs?” Ollie said.
“Down is easy. Come on.”
“Aw, fuck!”
They disappeared down the stairwell just as the elevator arrived on the floor.
44
Donnie stepped out of the elevator and found the front door open. He was not surprised. If the guy was unconscious, there was no need to be careful. Nevertheless, he tapped his knuckles on the door frame to make sure the coast was clear.
There was no answer.
What the hell was Yvette doing?
He wandered through the apartment, made his way into the master bedroom, and stopped dead.
Yvette was spread out on the bed stark naked. Red blood ran down the side of her face. It made a stripe across her breast and ended in a small pool on the sheet.
The guy was stark naked, too, and clutching a gun. A murder-suicide? No, he was out, from the knockout drops. How did that compute? He realized he’d been doped and pulled a gun? But Yvette had called him, said the guy was out. Had he come to after that, just long enough to shoot her to death?
The whole thing was all a bad dream. She was dead, and the cops would be coming...
He had to get out of there, but he wasn’t going to leave empty-handed, not after everything he’d been through.
According to Yvette, Herbie kept his stuff in a walk-in closet opposite the bath.
Donnie poked his head into the master bath, which boasted a large Jacuzzi tub and a glassed shower with multiple sprays, then pushed his way through the double doors to the walk-in closet.
He was greeted by racks of expensive suits. Donnie had no use for suits, even if they weren’t hot. He needed things easily fenced for ready cash. Jewelry, that’s what Yvette had said. The guy had cuff links worth more than a car, several watches, and some rings.