Near Miss

“The one in my office. Who is he?”

She rose and walked ahead of him to his office, strode in and said, “I’m sorry to keep you waiting, sir. Mr. Barrington has just returned from a meeting.”

Stone followed her into the room. “Good afternoon,” he said.

Joan was standing next to the man’s chair, looking down at him. “Sir?” she was saying, then she froze.

Stone stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“I think he’s dead,” she said.

Stone walked to her and looked down at the man. He was Peter Greco, and Joan was right.

“Well,” he said, “at least he has a good excuse for standing Eggers and me up for lunch.”

Carly walked into the room. “Hi,” she said. “Something smells dead.”

“Funny you should mention that,” Joan said. “I guess our air-conditioning isn’t working well enough.”

“Joan,” Stone said, “call 911, then get me Dino.”

“Why don’t we skip a step and just call Dino?” Joan asked.

“Dino doesn’t like skipping that step,” Stone replied. “He likes to be the second to hear.”

Joan made the calls, and yelled, “Dino on one!”

Stone picked up. “I just came back from meeting with Eggers at Woodman & Weld and found a stiff waiting for me in my home office.”

“Which one? I know a lot of stiffs.”

“This one is both stiff and cold and is starting to impair our atmosphere,” Stone said.

“Anybody we know?”

“Peter Greco.”

“Why am I not surprised? Did you call 911?”

“Of course.”

“When the detectives get there, tell them I’m on the way and not to touch anything. Don’t you or yours touch anything, either.” He hung up.

Carly was standing next to the desk, staring at Greco’s corpse. “Why would they kill him somewhere else and leave him here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe their dumpster was full.”

“Right, that makes a lot of sense.”

“Or maybe as a warning.”

“What kind of warning?”

“The ‘this could happen to you’ kind of warning.”

“Oh. You think it could be the Sarge guy?”

“It would be foolish to think otherwise.”

“He sounds like an unpleasant person.”

“He does, at that.”

“I wonder why he thought he had to prove it?” Carly mused.

There was a low moan from a police siren outside, and Joan let in two detectives — as usual, one Stone knew named Kelly, and a younger one.

“Hello, Stone,” Kelly said. “I hear you’ve got some business for us.” He gestured toward the other guy. “This is my partner, Smith.”

“What kind of name is that for a cop?” Stone asked.

“Call me Smitty,” the younger man said.

“Smitty, it is,” Stone said. “Call me Stone, if this is going to be a pleasant meeting.”

“Just a few questions,” Smitty said, taking a seat near the corpse.

“Shoot.”

“Did you kill him?”

“Nope. He was like that when I got home from a meeting at my law firm.”

“How long has he been dead?”

“Beats me.”

“About two hours,” Carly said.

Stone introduced her to the two cops.

“How do you figure?” Smitty asked her.

“I have a nose.”

“A better one than mine,” Stone said.

“Okay, let’s start with where everybody was two hours ago. We gotta do something until the ME gets here and tells us if we got a psychic on our hands.” He nodded at Carly.

“My advice is to take her word for it,” Stone said. “She’s not often wrong.”

“Hardly ever,” Carly added. “I worked in the New Haven morgue nights and weekends as an undergrad at Yale. At the morgue, they called me ‘the Nose.’ ”

“Okay,” Smitty said.

A man wearing scrubs and carrying a satchel entered the room. “I’m Dr. Carson,” he said, looking at Greco and sniffing the air. “About two hours, I’d say.”

“Can you get him out of here before I start smelling him?” Stone asked.

Dino entered the room. “Okay, how long?” he said to the ME.

“About two hours.”

“Carly had already made that estimate,” Stone said. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, I’d appreciate it if he were moved before he stinks up the whole place.”

Dino looked at the ME and jerked a thumb.

“Whatever you say, Commissioner,” the man replied, and made the same gesture to the two men pushing the gurney. The atmosphere began to improve.

The ME reentered the room, ten minutes later. “Preliminary cause of death, a small puncture wound in the neck, near the base of the skull,” he said.

“Ice pick,” Dino said.

“Possibly. Doesn’t appear to be a small-caliber gunshot: no powder burns.”

“Any other news?” Dino asked.

“Not before I’ve got him splayed on a table,” the ME said. “Can you contain yourselves for a few hours?”

“We can,” Dino said. “There’s not going to be much news, anyway.”

“You’re a very nice policeman,” the ME said. “Good day.” He closed his bag and left.

“I’ll bet nobody’s ever called you a ‘very nice policeman,’ before,” Stone said.

“Not outside of the sack,” Dino said. “My wife sometimes calls me that after a bout in the hay.”

“What other affectionate terms does she use?” Carly asked.

“Ask me when I’ve had a couple of drinks,” Dino said to her.

“I wish Rawls were here,” Stone said, looking at his watch. “I can never remember what time it is in England.”

Dino glanced at his watch. “Middle of dinner, I should think.”

Stone’s phone rang. “Yes?”

“It’s Rawls. We had a good flight and Sarah has a pair of shotguns that we’ve cleaned, oiled, and loaded with buckshot.”