“So what happened? Did John and his pal try to show off
by taking Baker for you?”
“They did not seek out Baker. I'm convinced of that.”
“You talked to the kid?”
“To the extent that John was lucid. It seems that they
knew Jared Baker was in town and that a denouement might
be at hand. John, you'll recall, was a sometime friend of
young Andrew Bellafonte, who suffered a similar fate at Baker's hand. He and Warren decided they'd come to town
and watch the excitement.”
Stanley frowned. “How did they know about Baker?”
Tortora gestured toward the rear window with his head.
“Cuneo?” Stanley asked.
“Your associate was apparently in the habit of telling
them campfire stories dealing with his own thuggery. John's
own pathetic standards were such that he was impressed.
Most recently, he took to regaling them with tales of Jared
Baker and of an imminent clash of titans, specifically Baker
and Cuneo. The idiot even showed them Baker's picture.”
“And they found Baker. But you said they didn't seek him
out.”
“They didn't. They might have, but something distracted them.” Tortora grimaced. Stanley saw that whatever was
coming was especially distasteful to him. “It seems that an
opportunity for forcible rape presented itself in the person of
a visiting actress named Tanner Burke. They seized her
when her evening stroll took her too near the park entrance
for her own safety. They tormented her, I'm sure, just as
John liked to torment birds and cats as a boy.”
“Except then Baker shows up,” Stanley offered.
Tortora didn't answer. He sat back, waiting. It became
clear to Stanley that he was expected to draw some pene
trating conclusion.
“Am I supposed to call this?” he asked.
“If you have a thought, I'd like to hear it.”
“You say Baker and the kids really didn't know each
other?”
“Baker knew nothing of John's presence in New York and
probably not even of his existence.”
Levy turned up his hands. “That only leaves two ways,”
he answered. “One, Baker just happened to be taking a walk
himself and he heard the action where Domenic Tortora's
son just happened to drag this new bird he found. You don't
like that answer because it's a million-to-one shot. Two,
Baker knew the girl and it's her he was tailing. It's still long odds that the son of a man who's been on his ass shows up
out of nowhere, but at least you've got a reason for Baker to
be there. Those odds I'd make maybe a half-million to one. If you have to bet, the way to go is, Baker knew the girl.”
“How much of your own money would you bet?”
“Not a dime.”
“Where does that leave us?”
“It leaves us that you were wrong about Baker not know
ing the kids would be there. He was looking for them. Girl or no girl, he was going to dust them in order to get at you.
Look how Baker marked him. It sounds like he took his
time. Maybe Baker wanted to leave you something to look
at for the next twenty years. If this is true, you still want to
find out how he found them, because the way you talk, the kids were in the park on impulse. What that leaves is that
they were set up. If so, the finger would point to Cuneo, ex
cept he couldn't set up a pup tent.”
Tortora nodded. “I'll expect you to do something about him, by the way.”
Levy returned the nod. “Or that Fed, what's his name ... Harrigan. Maybe Harrigan put Baker on to—”
“Impossible.”
“Which leaves us right back where we started.”
“No,” Tortora corrected, “it leads us to choose a direc
tion. There can be no action without an assumption. And the
assumption I choose is that Baker knew my son was in the
park, that Baker hurt him in order to provoke me.”
“So,” shrugged Stanley Levy, not bothering to point out the obvious flaws in the theory, “what action do you have in
mind?”
Tortora was deep in thought for several moments. ”I want
Baker's daughter. Please take Vinnie Cuneo to the house in
Greenwich where she now lives with a woman named Jane
Carey. Do not harm Mrs. Carey, but take custody of the daughter. Can you manage that without undue violence,
Stanley?”
Uh-oh, he thought. “But what if one of Harrigan's people
is watching the place?”
“Incapacitate him if you must,” Tortora sighed, “but I want the girl. Is there a place where you might hold her in
comfort, Stanley?”
“My mother's place, over by Yorkville.”
Tortora studied Stanley, looking deep into his eyes. There
was a brooding hesitation that Stanley noticed.
“My mother can read to her,” Stanley offered. Although
he sensed Tortora’s reluctance, he did not understand it.
“She can do the kid some good. If you're worried the
kid
will finger my mother, I can keep her eyes covered.”
Tortora nodded slowly. “It will only be until this evening,
Stanley. Please have the girl on this spot promptly at nine o'clock tonight.”
“You got it.” Stanley Levy relaxed. ‘Then what hap
pens?”
Tortora wiped some haze from the window and pointed toward the American Wing of the museum. “We'll wait in there, Stanley. Mr. Baker will doubtless want to pay us a
visit.”
“So will about six museum guards and their dogs.”
“I'll attend to that, Stanley. And to my personal security as well.” Tortora met Stanley's curious stare. In truth, the
arrangements would not be difficult, but he would not take
time now to explain. “Speaking of intrusions, however, this
man Harrigan is likely to be a nuisance. Can something be done about him?”
“I'll handle it.”
“Who, by the way, was the woman you killed earlier this
morning?”
Levy made a face. How the hell did he know about that
already? “I'm not sure. Could have been Harrigan's. Could also have been a vice cop out to set up a solicitation bust. It
could even have been a straight conventioneer rip because
she was about to shpritz me with this tear gas shooter here.”
He produced a metal cylinder resembling a pocket flash
light. “Anyway, I left a message for whoever it was.”
“Could you not have otherwise neutralized her, Stanley?”
Levy shrugged and turned his index fingers toward his
chest, inviting Tortora to consider his physique. He knew
how Tortora felt about killing. Tortora didn't even like to use
the word. “I'm just not built for any John Wayne stuff,” he
said respectfully. ”I mean, I can probably handle Baker's
daughter as long as she only has one leg working good, but anyone else, I can't fool around.”
“Connor Harrigan will be more difficult, Stanley. Try not
to do anything irreversible, but you must on no account en
danger yourself. Connor Harrigan is to his trade what you
are to yours. Be respectful, Stanley, or it is you who will be
handled.”
“I'll be respectful, Mr. Tortora.” Stanley placed his hand
upon the door latch and awaited Tortora's dismissal. When the nod came, he hesitated. “Where can I reach you if some
thing happens?”
“I'll be considering Dr. Sonnenberg's role in tonight's events. And his point of view,” he added.
Confusion clouded Stanley's face, but he remembered
something far away and nodded. Still he hesitated. “This di
rection you picked. Do you mind me asking why you went
for the long odds?”
“Remember your Sherlock Holmes, Stanley,” Tortora replied, his hand moving to the ignition key. “If you've read
of the man and not just the man's stories, you'll know that
he made an observation that I've often found useful. He said,
‘It is an old maxim of mine that whenever you have ex
cluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improba
ble, must be the truth.’ ”
From the curb, Stanley Levy watched Tortora's taillights
melt into the blackness of the park.
‘That's wrong,” he whispered distantly. “That was in a
story also.
The Sign of Four
is what it was in.”
Stanley had no idea how he knew that. It was enough that
he knew it.
The Plaza's night manager was a prissy little man with the
suitably prissy name of Wilton Pinchot. Sixty years earlier,
he would have been dressed in black tie, a pencil mustache across a rigid upper lip, and hair gleaming with pomade. Now he wore a Dacron blazer and regimental tie, but still
surviving were the brisk, flitting hand movements, the smile
that employed only the mouth, and the hint of cologne
dabbed at the hairline of his neck.
Mr. Pinchot had already been discomfited once that night
by the appearance of a uniformed policeman in the Plaza lobby. The general manager, Mr. Bouvier, would certainly
remind the police commissioner that the Plaza was neither a
school crossing nor Madison Square Garden. An appalling
gaucherie. Still worse, potential embarrassment to the
Plaza
now took another quantum leap with the appearance of this
unshaven dreadful who looked for all the world as if he'd
been sleeping in the park. What he was asking was impossi
ble. Quite in violation of the sanctity of the Plaza guest
rooms.
“Have you looked carefully at my credentials, Mr. Pin
chot?” asked Harrigan patiently. He pulled an ID from its plastic sleeve and placed it face up on the desk. “Now.” He
took a weary breath. “Way down there at the bottom you see
a phone number. It's there to be used by people like yourself
who reject the evidence of their senses. And the act of call
ing that number, don't you see, occasionally keeps officious
little men from being cited for impeding a federal investiga
tion.”
Pinchot read the name on Ha
rri
gan's card. “Mr. Fenton.” He drew himself up. “When a guest books accommodations
with us, he or she has every right to expect confidentiality
..
”
The desk man stopped when Connor Harrigan held up his
hand.
“Ah, but I have no interest in Miss Burke, don't you see!”
Harrigan leaned closer to Wilton Pinchot, who tried not to
back away or grimace but failed on both counts. “My sole
interest is in the safety of the fellow I believe to be with her.
The lad has a certain task to perform. The task is in the in
terest of your government, Mr. Pinchot, and he is not to be
compromised. Not by you, sir, and not by me. And definitely
not by an inquisitive street cop who had no business
strolling through such a grand establishment as this.”
The last part seemed to hit a nerve, and the night man
softened by several degrees. He tilted forward, hands behind
him. “However, Mr. Fenton, the policeman never asked
about a man. You did. Nor did the policeman even ask for
Miss Burke's room number, which naturally I would
never—”
“Naturally,” Harrigan whispered. “What was it the fellow
asked, Mr. Pinchot?”
”I can assure you that the policeman was no threat to any
one who might or might not have been with Miss—”
“Mr. Pinchot, what was it he asked?”
“F
or an autograph.” The night man straightened and offered
his best don't-you-feel-silly-now look to Connor Harrigan.
“An autograph, you say?”
“Actually, he was quite shy about it. He said he'd been
trying to muster his courage for hours even though it was
really for his niece. He simply left a sheet of his notepaper
and requested that I ask Miss Burke to write ‘To Sandra’ and
sign it.”
Harrigan's eyes drifted past Pinchot toward a digital mes
sage console set into the marble wall behind him. Several
room numbers blinked in red. “And upon accepting his notepaper, Mr. Pinchot, you then pushed one of those little
red lights, didn't you!”