Стюарт Вудс - Wild Card

“Was she hurt?”

“Fortunately, she had already left the hotel.”

“I’m glad to hear it. I’ll call the Atlanta cops.”

“I’m sure Viv or the St. Regis has already done that,” Stone said.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Dino, I know you’d like to take the time to sew this case up seven ways, but I think we’re all out of time. The Thomases are just going to keep going until Jamie, Sherry, and Elise are all dead. Maybe me, too.”

“You have a point.”

“I think it’s time to go to the D.A. with what you’ve got.”

“Well, let’s take a look at that,” Dino said. “Sherry has a dark story to tell, but nothing that would get a conviction in court. Whatever Jamie knows, the world knows already, so there’s no point in trying to kill her. So all we’ve got is Elise. If the D.A. will get us a warrant based on her story, we’ll go with Bob Cantor’s idea and use his new equipment to bug everything they say. Then maybe we can get a conviction on some attempted murder charges.”

“Back up there a minute,” Stone said. “They’ve already shot Sherry in the head and show no inclination to stop trying. A couple of hours ago they were still trying to kill Jamie, and sending a rank amateur like Elise in there to bug the place could get her killed, too.”

“We could wire her up, so that what she overhears can be recorded.”

“And if they search her, she’ll never leave the building alive. What you’ve already got, though, is the conversation Elise heard about them trying to kill all of us, and that, combined with whatever she might have heard before, might be enough to get a conviction.”

“Well, she’d be a damned fine witness,” Dino said.

“Then go see Ken Burrows.”

“All right,” Dino said. “I’ll try to get in there this afternoon.”

“Good idea.”

“Oh, I almost forgot. The hospital detail just called, and Sherry can be released today. They want to know where to send her on a stretcher.”

“To my house,” Stone said. “We can make her comfortable here, and I’ll hire a nurse to administer her medications and to be here in the event of an emergency.”

“Okay. You’d better get the place ready for her.” Dino hung up.

Stone called in Joan. “We’re going to have a visitor today, and she’ll be staying with us for a week or two. She’ll be arriving on a stretcher.”

“This is Sherry, then?”

“Right. Ask the housekeepers to get Peter’s old suite ready for her and to make room for a hospital bed. Then ask my doctor to recommend a private nursing service and a place to rent a hospital bed.”

“Is she going to need a lot of monitoring devices?”

“If she does, we’ll hear about it before she arrives.”

“Okay, I’ll get right on it,” she said.

Rance Damien, out of an abundance of caution, was reviewing the personnel files of the five secretaries who worked on the executive floor. He stopped when he came to a name: D’Orio. That was the maiden name of Elise Grant’s mother. He buzzed Elise, and she came in.

“Have a seat, Elise,” he said pleasantly. She did so. “I was just reviewing everybody’s files for vaccinations, and I see that your mother’s maiden name is D’Orio.”

“Yes, sir, that’s right.”

“Where was she born?”

“In Italy, but she came to this country when she was only three years old.”

“Did she speak any Italian?”

“She once told me that her mother and father wanted the family to be American, so they had a rule of speaking only English at home. Both my grandparents already spoke English, and they didn’t want my mother to be at a disadvantage when she started school.”

“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.

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.”