“Did your mother retain any of her Italian?”
“No, we only spoke English at home. My father was British, and I was sometimes accused by schoolmates of having an English accent.”
“Did you ever study foreign languages?”
“I took French in high school, but I was never really conversant. When I went to Paris, I could ask questions in French, but I couldn’t understand the answers.”
“Have you ever visited Italy?”
“I spent a week in Rome on a tour when I was in college.”
Damien suddenly switched to Sicilian. “If you’re lying to me, I’ll have your tongue cut out,” he said, with a small smile.
“Sir?”
“Didn’t you understand me?” he asked in English.
“No, sir.”
“It’s not important, Elise. Thanks for coming in.”
“Any time, sir. When are we getting vaccinations?”
“That’s in the planning stages. We’ll let you know.”
Elise returned to her desk and sat down. She made a point of going on with her work, as if nothing had happened, but she was having a hard time controlling her shaking. Something had happened. Damien was now suspicious of her. She hoped Bob had overheard her conversation with him through his bug.
When she got home she was about to call Bob Cantor when her new cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Don’t say anything,” Bob said, “until I sweep your apartment. Say I got the wrong number, then hang up.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’ve got the wrong number. That’s all right, goodbye.” She hung up and switched on the TV news. A few minutes later there was a soft rap on her door. When she opened it, Bob Cantor came in with a toolbox and a finger to his lips. He motioned for her to sit down and say nothing.
She watched the news but retained none of it. A few minutes later Bob came back and motioned her to follow him outside into the hall.
“What did you find?” she asked.
“Bugs in every room,” he whispered. “I heard your conversation with Damien and thought something might be up.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Go back inside, fix yourself some dinner, watch TV for a while, then pack a couple of suitcases. We’re going to get you out of here tonight.”
Elise did as she was told.
40
The nurse arrived first, reminding Stone of Mrs. Doubtfire, save the Scottish accent. She took charge and began issuing rapid instructions to Joan.
Joan came into Stone’s office with a list. “This is what that woman wants me to get!” she nearly shouted.
“Joan,” Stone said soothingly, “don’t argue with her, just get what she wants. Do we need monitoring equipment?”
“No. And she doesn’t want Bob Cantor sleeping in the same room.”
“By the way, Bob called, and we’re going to have to put up Elise Grant for a while, so please ask Helene to get a room ready for her right away.”
“Who’s next? The cast of Cats?”
“She’ll be here any minute.”
“There’s always a room ready,” Joan said. “We’ll put her next to Sherry. They can keep each other company.”
Dino turned up next, and Stone took him up to the study and gave him a stiff drink, which he seemed to need.
“Tell me,” Stone said, suspecting bad news.
“Bad news,” Dino said. “Ken Burrows is holding us back. He might as well have an anchor out.”
“What’s his problem?”
“He says that Elise’s story is not enough to get a judge to issue a warrant for the executive offices of a major investment bank.”
“Does that translate into a major campaign donation?”
“I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that,” Dino said. “The Thomases are in half of the hip pockets in the city.”
“Bob Cantor is going to be here any minute with Elise, and we can’t let her go back to work at H. Thomas.”
“She seemed to be doing pretty well.”
“She’s not an undercover cop, Dino, or a CIA operative. She’s a twenty-four-year-old woman — a brave one, I’ll grant you — but with no tradecraft. She’ll get nervous, make a mistake, and there goes your witness.”
Bob and Elise entered the study as if on cue. Stone made them each a drink. “Now what’s going on?” Stone asked.
“I think Rance Damien is onto me,” Elise said. “He went through my personnel file and found that my mother’s maiden name is D’Orio, and he questioned me closely about both her knowledge of Italian and mine. I think I held him off, but...”
“But suddenly, her apartment is bugged,” Bob said.
“Since when?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t like coincidences.”
“Who does?” Dino asked.
“Oh, God,” Elise said suddenly.
“What’s wrong?”
“I forgot to turn off the answering machine that my mother gave me. If my mother calls, she’ll leave a message in Sicilian.”
“And the bugs will pick it up,” Bob said. “Give me your keys.”
Elise handed them over.
“I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” Bob said. He took a swig of his drink and left.
“Did you hear anything new today, Elise?” Dino asked.
“No, not a word.”
“I had a talk with the district attorney today,” Dino said, “and he doesn’t think we have enough to get a warrant for bugging the H. Thomas offices.”
“If I don’t show up for work tomorrow, Damien will know something’s wrong,” she said.
“We don’t think you should go back to work in any case,” Stone said. “It’s getting too dangerous for you.”
“That’s a relief,” she replied.
They drank and chatted for a few minutes, then Bob Cantor returned.
“Well?” Dino asked.
“There was a message on the machine: in Sicilian. They’ll have a voice-activated recorder picking up any sound. Elise is blown.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Stone said. “We were going to assume that she was, anyway.”
The doorbell rang, and Fred came into the study. “The lady on the stretcher is here,” he said. “Mrs. Doubtfire has taken charge upstairs.”
“I believe her actual name is Miss Hartley,” Stone said. “We’d all better get used to calling her that, or we’ll slip up, and I don’t want to be there when that happens.”
“Nor do I, sir,” Fred said.
“I’d better go up and see her,” Bob said.
“Don’t stay too long, Bob,” Stone interjected. “Mrs. Dou... ah, Miss Hartley has nixed your sleeping in Sherry’s room.”
“What is she, a nun?” Bob asked. He didn’t wait for an answer.
Stone called Dino into the living room for a moment, leaving Elise alone. “It occurs to me that we’d better get Elise’s mother out of her apartment. She’ll be in trouble the minute they hear her message in Sicilian.”
“Do you have room here for anyone else?” Dino asked.
“She can bunk in with her daughter, but now that you mention it, the traffic is getting a little heavy around here.”
“I’ll see what I can do about moving them into a safe house,” Dino said. “We keep a few places for witness protection, and I did hire her as a confidential informant.”
“Good idea.” They went back into the study. “Elise, we think we should bring your mother here tonight. I can send you and Fred downtown in my car to pick her up. Will you call her and explain everything?”
“Sure,” Elise said, “and thanks for thinking of that.” She picked up the study phone and dialed a number. “No answer,” Elise said. “I’ll try her cell.” She dialed another number. “Mom?” she said, then lapsed into Sicilian. She stopped and covered the receiver. “Should she go back to her apartment?” she asked.