Стюарт Вудс - Standup Guy

“You want me to send an armored car?”

“Do it any way you like.”

“Stone, do you need some backup?”

“I don’t think so, but I may reconsider. I’ll let you know when I call back.”

“Is Dino in on this?”

“I’m in his car right now.”

“Good, that makes me feel better.”

“There’ll also be a SWAT team from the Connecticut State Police.”

“I feel even better.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.”

“Am I beginning to sense the outlines of a plan?” Dino asked.

“If you are, then you’re a gifted seer, because I don’t have one.”

38

New Fairfield was an actual wide place in the road, not a metaphor. A large, unmarked black truck and an unmarked black sedan were parked next to each other outside a small market. Men in black uniforms were leaning on the truck and sitting on the car, as if waiting for something terrible to happen. Dino’s driver parked next to the unmarked car, and a man in a dark suit came over. Dino got out, and Stone followed.

“Hello, Dan,” Dino said, offering his hand. “Thanks for turning out. This is my friend and former partner, Stone Barrington. Stone, Dan Sparks.”

Stone shook his hand, too; his paw was large, his grip iron. “Hi, Dan.”

“We’ve got a little problem,” Sparks said.

“I would be surprised if you didn’t,” Dino replied.

“I can’t find the owner of the land and the lake, and there are ten cabins.”

“Uh-oh.”

“I don’t think we can go knocking on doors.”

“No, you can’t.”

Stone spoke up. “He can.” He was pointing at a Federal Express delivery truck. The driver was taking a package into the market. “Dan?”

“Right.” Sparks walked over to the truck in time to intercept the driver on his way out of the market. A badge was flashed, a conversation conducted. The driver produced an envelope and filled out a waybill according to Sparks’s instructions.

“Stone?” Sparks called.

“Yes, Dan?”

“Any message?”

“Tell him I’m not going to give him any money.”

“Right.” Sparks wrote that on a sheet of paper, stuffed it into the envelope, sealed it, and handed it to the driver. More conversation, then he returned to the group. “All right, everybody, saddle up. We’re going to follow the truck to where the entry road joins a loop around the lake. We’ll wait there until the driver returns, then I’ll have further orders. Dino, Stone, you’re with me.”

The men got into their body armor and helmets, then into the truck. Dino and Stone piled into the backseat of Sparks’s car, while Dino’s driver followed in his car.

“Just follow the truck,” Sparks said to his driver.

The little caravan followed the truck half a mile down the highway, then turned off onto a gravel road. They entered the woods, and another half a mile down the road they stopped, while the delivery truck turned right. They could see water fifty yards ahead, through the trees.

“Now we wait,” Sparks said. “He’ll go house to house, asking for Buono. If this works, he’ll deliver the envelope, then come back here. If it doesn’t work, he’ll still come back here.”

They sat quietly for a minute. “How’s the new job going, Dino?” Sparks asked.

“Better than I expected,” Dino replied. “I’m actually enjoying it.”

“Next, you’ll be the commissioner.”

“God forbid.”

They went quiet again. Half an hour passed. The truck reappeared and pulled up next to Sparks’s car.

“Turn left, first house on your right,” the driver said.

“Did Buono sign for it?”

“I didn’t see a man. A woman signed.” He handed over a receipt.

“H. Cromwell,” Sparks read aloud.

“There was no car there, either,” the truck driver said.

Sparks got out of the car and rapped on the rear door of the police truck; it opened. “Okay, we’re going on foot from here,” he said to the men, and they began to file out, shouldering weapons.

Stone got out of the car and walked over to Sparks. Dino followed. “Dan, let me drive down there in Dino’s car.”

“What’s your point?” Sparks asked.

“She knows me.”

“What about Buono? Does he know you?”

“Yes, we’ve met.”

“Are you armed?”

“Yes, but Buono won’t shoot me—he wants the money.”

“You okay with this, Dino?”

“Why not? It’s Stone’s ass.”

“I’ll give you five minutes, Stone, then we’re going in.”

“Five minutes it is.”

Dino’s driver got out of the SUV, and Stone got in. He started the car and glanced at his watch. He turned left and drove slowly down the road until he came to a mailbox emblazoned with a large B. He turned into the drive and continued downhill another thirty yards, until it opened into a clearing, with the lake behind. It was dusk, and there was a porch light on. No car in sight.

Stone got out of the car and walked slowly to the house, looking carefully around. He climbed a few steps onto the porch and walked to the door. Closed. He opened the screen, took a deep breath, and knocked. Not hammered, like the cops, just a polite knock. Nothing happened. He knocked again.

The door opened, and Hank stood there, wearing a bathrobe. Her eyes widened, then she rushed into his arms. “Oh, Jesus,” she said. “I knew you’d come, but not this fast.”

“Are you alone?”

“Yes, Onofrio went to the grocery store.”

“In New Fairfield?”

“I don’t know, he said it was nearby.”

“Get some clothes on. We’re getting out of here, and there’s a SWAT team three minutes behind me, so hurry!”

She ran into another room, and Stone had a look around. There was a bedroom to his right with twin beds, bare of linens.

He walked farther into the small living room; a woodstove was on his right. On his left he could see into another bedroom, where Hank was getting dressed. She was too far along for him to know whether she had been naked under the robe. There was a double bed in the room, neatly made up.

Hank came back. “Let’s go,” she said.

Stone put her into the SUV, turned around, and started up the road. A cop stepped into the road and put a hand up. Sparks and Dino came out of the woods.

“I’ve got her,” Stone said. “Buono is at the grocery store we just left.”

“Shit,” Sparks said. “Everybody back in the vehicles!”

Dino got into the rear seat of the SUV. “You know this guy by sight, don’t you, Stone?”

“Yes, but I didn’t see him.” He turned to Hank. “What’s he driving?”

“A silver Mercedes, the big sedan,” she said.

“Do you know the plate number?”

“No.”

Stone shouted to Sparks: “Silver Mercedes S Class!” He followed the police car and truck back to New Fairfield, and everybody spilled out of the vehicles again. He looked around the parking lot. No Mercedes. He couldn’t remember if there had been one before. “Dino, do you remember seeing a Mercedes when we got here?”

“No,” Dino replied, “but I didn’t not see one, either.”

“All right, Hank,” Stone said. “Start from the beginning.”

39

Stone watched Hank take a deep breath.

“You put me into that car, and they drove away. Before I could say anything I was on the floor with somebody’s foot on my neck. We drove for, I don’t know, twenty minutes, half an hour. I was disoriented, I don’t know where we went.

“Then we were in a garage, and Onofrio was there. I was blindfolded, my hands tied behind my back, and stuffed into the trunk of a car. We drove for a long time, first stop and start, then obviously on the open road, probably an interstate. I made myself as comfortable as I could and dozed for a while.