“If you weren’t in here every night, maybe she’d cook for you more often,” Stone said.
“All right, you two,” Holly interjected. “Cool it; let’s order dinner.”
“You have any idea what a pain in the ass Stone can be?” Dino asked.
“Dino, I am not going to spend the evening refereeing, so if you and Stone can’t just remember what good friends you are and talk pleasantly to each other, then I’m having dinner elsewhere.” She put down her menu.
“All right, all right,” Dino said, patting her arm. “I’ll be nice if he will.”
“Stone?”
Stone nodded.
The waiter came back. “Is there any osso bucco left over from last night?” Holly asked. Wednesday was osso bucco night.
“I’ll check,” the waiter said. He left and returned. “Yep.”
“I’ll have that, too,” Stone said, and Dino joined the movement.
“Sorry, there’s only one order left,” the waiter said, “and the lady gets it.”
The two men grumbled and ordered something else.
MUCH LATER, as they finished their coffee, Dino stood up, “Well,” he said, “I guess I’d better go home and face the music.”
“You make home sound like a horrible place, Dino,” Holly said.
“Sometimes it is,” he replied. He gave her a kiss, put on his coat, gave Stone a wave and walked out.
“Well, now,” Stone said. “We’re finally rid of him; what are we going to do now?”
Holly laughed. “I take it you have a suggestion?”
“I have several suggestions,” Stone said.
"And what are they?"
“They are better transmitted by nonverbal communication,” Stone said. “Can we communicate at my house?”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Holly said. “Why don’t we talk about it at my house?”
“You have a house?”
“I have an apartment, thank you. Anyway, I have to walk Daisy.”
“How is Daisy?” Stone asked, getting up and retrieving their coats.
“You’ll see shortly,” Holly said, slipping into her coat and buttoning up.
THE CAB PULLED UP in front of Holly’s building, and they got out.
“You’re moving up in the world,” Stone said.
“Onward and upward.”
They took the elevator to the twelfth floor, and Holly opened her front door.
“You don’t lock your door?” Stone asked.
“The security is good here,” Holly said, “and here it comes.”
Daisy made a fool of herself over Stone.
“We’ll be right back,” Holly said, reaching for Daisy’s leash. “Don’t go away.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
MUCH LATER, Holly rolled over in bed and encountered the sleeping Stone. This was much better than sleeping alone, she thought, even better than sleeping with Daisy.
FORTY-FIVE
TEDDY WAS HALF A BLOCK from Holly’s building when he saw a man come out with a Doberman on a leash. The two stopped when the dog wanted to inspect a street lamp.
Teddy continued past but spoke. “Good morning, Daisy,” he said. Daisy interrupted her business and came over to say hello. Teddy scratched her behind the ear and talked to her for a moment. “She’s very popular in the neighborhood,” he said to the man.
“I’m not surprised,” the man replied.
Teddy gave him a quick once-over: six-two, a hundred and ninety, blond hair, stubble. He had the look of a man who had just gotten out of bed and hadn’t had his coffee yet. Teddy felt a pang of something he recognized as jealousy. “Bye-bye, Daisy,” he said. “Good morning to you,” he said to the man, then continued down the street. Jealousy? That was something he hadn’t felt for many, many years, but it was real, and it was disturbing.
HOLLY WAS PUTTING breakfast on the table when Stone and Daisy returned. “Thanks for taking her out,” she said.
“Glad to. Daisy seems to be very popular in the neighborhood.”
Holly turned and looked at him. “Why do you say that?”
“Oh, a passerby stopped and chatted with her, knew her name. She reacted as if they’d met before.”
“What did he look like?”
“I don’t know,” Stone said. “Maybe six feet, slender, graying, mid-fifties. He looked sort of like Larry David.”
“Holy shit,” Holly said, rushing to her windows overlooking Park Avenue and opening the blinds. She looked up and down the street. “Only one neighbor has made friends with Daisy. Come over here, Stone.” Stone came. “Do you see him anywhere?”
Stone looked up and down Park. “Nope.”
“Which way was he headed?”
“North to south. He may have turned a comer toward Madison a block down. I wasn’t really paying attention. Why are you interested in him?”
“Because I think you just met Teddy Fay.”
Stone blinked. “You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not.” Holly was on the phone. “It’s Holly Barker; just had a Teddy sighting in front of my building; he was headed south on Park, west side of the street. Right.” She hung up the phone. “Damn,” she said, “and I had the team pulled last night.”
“Team?”
“The team that’s been following me, trying to get a shot at Teddy.”
“You’re planning to shoot him?”
“No, I mean a shot at capturing him. We think he may live or work in the neighborhood. What was he wearing?”
“A tweed overcoat and one of those Irish tweed hats with the brim turned down all the way around; sunglasses.”
“Did he speak to you?”
“After he spoke to Daisy and petted her, he said she was very popular in the neighborhood. Then he said good morning and continued on his way.”
Holly waved Stone to a seat and sat down in front of her bacon and eggs. She stared into the plate. “He said Daisy was very popular in the neighborhood?”
“Yes.”
“Then he must live in the neighborhood.”
LANCE LISTENED TO HER REPORT quietly and waited until she had finished before he spoke. “Someone else was walking Daisy this morning?”
“A friend,” she said.
Lance nodded. “And you pulled the team last night. Of course.”
“Of course, what?”
“Of course Teddy would turn up just when the team wasn’t there. He knows Daisy?”
“Yes, the first time I saw him outside the building, he petted her and asked her name.”
“Maybe Teddy is following you,” Lance said. “Why else would he be camped outside your building?”
“I don’t think he was camped,” Holly said. “I really think he lives in the neighborhood.”
“Or works in the neighborhood.”
“There aren’t any workshops on Park Avenue,” she said.
“Holly, I want you to put some people on visiting all the fealty firms in the neighborhoods that handle rentals, especially short-term rentals, a year or less. Find out if anyone answering Teddy’s description has rented something on Park Avenue or in the immediate environs during the past month. Don’t go yourself; I don’t want Teddy to see you in a real estate office. And tell them to go singly, not in pairs, and use FBI agents. They have a more instant authority with the general public than we do.”
“I’ll get right on it,” Holly said, and returned to her office.
____________________
EDITH TIMMONS, a sixty-year-old realtor who managed the Crown and Palmer office at Madison and 60th Street was at her desk when a young man came into the office. Through her open door she could see him flash some sort of I.D. at the receptionist, and she got up and went to the door. “May I help you?” she said to the young man.
“Mrs. Timmons,” the receptionist said, “this gentleman is from the FBI; perhaps you should speak to him.”
“Yes, please come into my office,” she said. Edith turned back to her desk and began to take deep breaths, composing herself. She sat down at her desk and clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking. “Yes, come in,” she said.