“I owe you a great debt,” Stone said.
Bianchi waved a hand. “I do not wish to have my friends indebted to me; if I am able to do a friend a service, then that is its own reward. It should be enough for any man. Besides,” he said, “I am not the sort of person to whom you should owe a debt. You must maintain your independence from all men, especially me.”
Stone didn’t know what to make of this.
“Bill Eggers told me many things about you,” Bianchi said, “and from those things I was able to answer many questions for myself, to create a more complete picture of you as a man. I must say that what I heard fully agreed with my instinctive judgment of you.”
Stone didn’t speak.
“It pleases me to learn that you are an honest man, a loyal friend, and that you have a finely developed sense of justice. I believe that I can use a man like you in many of my business dealings.”
“Eduardo,” Stone said, “I’m grateful for your confidence, but I believe I would rather be your friend than your employee.”
Bianchi smiled broadly, the first time Stone had seen him do so. “Then you continue to justify my confidence,” he said. “You must know how important Dolce is to me.”
“I can understand that,” Stone said, wondering why the conversation was turning to Dolce.
“Her happiness, her stability are as important to me as anything else in my life. Other things – my grandson, for instance – are equally important, but Dolce holds a special place in my heart. She is so very like me; she understands so many things-the moral ambiguities of a rich life, the necessity of justice to success, the proper use of resources. I want very much for her to be a complete woman. Of course, for some time that has been impossible. Now…”
Stone’s cell phone rang. Embarrassed, he dug into his pocket for the instrument. “Eduardo, I apologize, but only a couple of people have this number, and I should answer it.”
“Of course,” Bianchi said. “Please do so.”
“Hello?”
“It’s Dino; are you with Eduardo?”
“Yes.”
“Good thing I called.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ll explain in a minute; that’s how long it will take me to get to his front door. Meet me out front; you’re going to miss dinner.”
“Dino, what the hell is going on?”
“Mitteldorfer has surfaced.”
“I’ll be right there.” Stone closed the phone and stood up. “Eduardo, I’m very sorry, but I’m not going to be able to stay for dinner. That was Dino, and the man we’ve been looking for, the one who threatened Mary Ann and Ben, has turned up. Dino is coming for me now.”
Bianchi stood up. “I understand, Stone. I’m very sorry our conversation was interrupted. I hope we can resume it very soon.”
“Please make my apologies to Dolce and Mary Ann.”
“Of course.”
The two men shook hands, and Stone hurried toward the front door. As Pietro opened it, he heard the police siren growing closer.
62
THE CAR BARELY STOPPED MOVING FOR Stone to get in. He grappled with his seat belt as Dino spun the car to the left out of the driveway, spraying gravel. “Tell me about it, Dino,” he said, when the car was stable again.
“A doorman at an apartment house on Park Avenue called,” Dino said, roaring around another car, lights flashing, siren wailing. “He recognized Peter Hausman from the sketch in the papers, but it took him some time to get up the nerve to call. Mitteldorfer has been living in his building, under the name of Howard Menzies.”
“He’s sticking with his initials, then.”
“Yeah; maybe he has monogrammed hankies. Anyway, Hausman showed up at the building after we busted his brother. Then, this evening, Mitteldorfer sells his brand-new Mercedes back to the dealer at a big loss, packs up, and heads for Kennedy. Said he was taking his wife’s ashes back to her ’homeland.’”
“And the ashes would be Eloise Enzberg?”
“You guessed it. The doorman recognized her photograph when Andy Anderson showed it to him.”
“So he’s headed for Germany?”
“I’m not counting on it; there are flights leaving for London, Paris, Rome, and half a dozen other cities, in addition to four destinations in Germany, and they’re all going within the next hour. All the passenger lists are being checked for Menzies and Hausman. Andy’s meeting us at the airport; well know more then.” Dino swung right onto the shoulder to get around a truck.
“If we live that long,” Stone said, gritting his teeth. Dino was a fast driver at the most relaxed of times, but an emergency brought out the Fanzio in him. “Did you crack Deacon?”
“Nope; couldn’t get a word out of him; he’s too smart for that.”
“Shit!”
Dino grinned. “But I cracked Mick Kelly like an egg; cut him a deal.”
“Can Kelly hang it on him?”
“You bet he can. Deacon had blood on his shirt cuffs when Kelly saw him after the murder. He blackmailed Deacon for a spot in the DA’s Office. He’s lucky Deacon didn’t cut his throat.”
“Good going, Dino! What about Brougham?”
“He had to know about the doctored tape, but we won’t get him unless Deacon testifies against him. He’s already resigned, though.” Dino was cutting cross-country, avoiding the Long Island Expressway, cutting through residential neighborhoods and commercial districts.
Stone noted that their speed had never dropped below sixty, and at times was more than eighty. It was as fast as he’d ever traveled in an urban area.
“How did your conversation with Eduardo go?” Dino asked.
“Don’t talk, drive,” Stone said.
“I drive better when I talk,” Dino said, jumping the curb and cutting across the lawn of a corner house to avoid a delivery truck. “What did he have to say?”
“He said he thought that Brougham would never be a problem again.”
“Yeah, he would be happy about that, wouldn’t he? Now Dante will get a new trial, and Eduardo can take credit for it with the goombahs.”
“We couldn’t have broken this without him,” Stone said. “You might remember that.”
“Yeah, it sort of takes the thrill away, you know?” Dino hit the six-lane approach to Kennedy, driving down the shoulder past heavy traffic. “Did Eduardo propose?”
“Propose what?”
“Marriage.”
“What are you talking about, Dino?” Stone asked, closing his eyes tightly as they veered around a disabled car on the shoulder.
“You know what he’s doing, don’t you? He’s arranging a marriage for Dolce.”
“Dino, Dolce is already married.”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? Somebody capped Johnny Donato this afternoon.”
Stone froze. “You’re kidding; tell me you’re kidding.”
“I’m not kidding.”
“Who did it?”
“We’ll probably never know, but I wouldn’t have a heart attack if somebody told me it was Dolce herself. It was a straight mob hit, two rounds to the back of the head.” Dino chuckled.
“It’s not funny.”
“Sure, it is,” Dino said. He swung onto the drive to the international terminal and screeched to a halt. Andy Anderson came running to meet them.
“I’ve alerted airport security,” he said. “Here comes their chief, now.”
A man in a dark suit approached. “Lieutenant Bacchetti? I’m Sam Warren, head of airport security. Tell me what I can do to help.”
“You’ve seen the pictures?”
Warren nodded. “They’re being distributed to my people now, but from what I’ve heard of the timing, these two guys are already past security and into the departure area. We’re talking about twenty-five gates, and there’s at least one flight leaving from every one of them between now and midnight.”
“Shut them down,” Dino said.
“Beg pardon?”
“No flight leaves until we’ve searched it.”
“Jesus, Lieutenant, I can’t put a hold on twenty-five flights. Do you have any idea what that would do the system? People will be missing connecting flights all over Europe. It can’t be done.”