Collateral Damage

by Stuart Woods

Later, as he and Viv were driven away from police headquarters in Dino’s car, he took off his hat and loosened his tie. “I’m going to have to lose a few pounds before I feel comfortable in this uniform,” he said.

  “You look good in it now,” Viv said, patting his knee.

  “We’ll drop you at your place to change, then I’ll pick you up later.”

  “I’ll get a cab to Stone’s house. I’ll be just a little later than you. It takes girls longer.”

  “It’s just the four of us,” Dino said.

  “Nevertheless.”

  Dino sighed. “Okay, okay, I’ll go on ahead of you.”

  —

  Half an hour later, Dino’s driver, a rookie detective, pulled into a vacant spot across the street from Stone’s house. “Get yourself some dinner,” Dino said to the young man. “I’m going to be here for a while.”

  “Yessir,” the detective replied. He got out of the car, opened the door for Dino, then reached into the front seat and came up with two orange traffic cones. As Dino crossed the street, the detective placed them so as to save his parking spot, then he got back into the car and drove away.

  Dino rapped on the darkened window of the black SUV parked in front of Stone’s house, and the window slid down. He held up his badge. “Lieutenant Bacchetti,” he said. “Detective DeCarlo will be along in a few minutes.”

  “Go right in, Lieutenant,” the young security man said.

  Dino trotted up the front steps and rang the bell.

  “Yes?”

  “It’s Dino.”

  “I’m in the study. I’ll buy you a drink.”

  The door lock clicked open, and Dino let himself into the house.

  —

  Stone was already pouring the drinks as Dino walked into the study. “Hey, there,” Stone said. “Did Viv get decorated?”

  Dino accepted the drink and settled into a chair. “Yep, and the commissioner got all funny with me.”

  “How so?”

  “He insisted I take the captain’s exam, but promised not to make me take the rank. What do you make of that?”

  “I think the commissioner never does anything without a good reason, and you should take his advice.”

  “I’ll have to spend some time with a retired captain, cramming for it.”

  “You were always good at the exams,” Stone said. “You’ll ace it first time.”

  “It makes me nervous,” Dino said.

  “You’re afraid he’ll give you a precinct and cuff you to a desk?”

  “That or make a politician out of me.”

  “The man knows you well, Dino, and he’s always liked you. He’s not going to fuck you.”

  “If you say so.”

  Stone set his drink on the coffee table, went to a cabinet, and opened it, revealing a safe. He punched in the combination, fished out a small velvet box, then locked the safe again. “I have a present for you,” he said, tossing it to Dino.

  Dino opened the box, and found a substantial diamond ring. He gave a low whistle. “Nice rock. You proposing to me?”

  “It’s the ring I bought Arrington all those years ago, when I was about to propose to her. Then, of course, Vance Calder shot me out of the saddle, and life changed. You’re going to need a ring, and I know you well enough to know that you hate that kind of shopping. I want you to have this to give to Viv.”

  “Well, that would stun her,” Dino said.

  “She’ll enjoy the experience,” Stone said. “Women like diamonds, and I have no further use for that one.”

  Dino seemed to have trouble speaking. “Thanks, pal,” he finally managed to say.

  Stone, Dino, and Viv were having a glass of wine in the kitchen while Stone stirred his risotto, adding stock every minute or so. Holly came in and dropped her bag on the floor with a loud thud.

  “I need a real drink,” she said. “Not wine, booze.”

  “Right over there,” Stone said, nodding toward the kitchen bar. “I can’t put down my spoon right now.”

  “What’s in the bag?” Dino asked. “A mortar?”

  “Just my sidearm and three loaded magazines,” Holly said. “It adds up.”

  “Three magazines? You expecting trouble?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Holly replied, splashing bourbon into a glass filled with ice. “One of my people convinced me I might be next on Jasmine’s list of favorite people.”

  “Why are we having dinner with her, Stone?” Dino asked. “Aren’t we in danger?”

  “I’ll chance it,” Stone said. “Anyway, she lives here, we can’t throw her out.”

  “Not for long,” Holly said, gulping down some bourbon. “I’m moving into our New York station after dinner. You’ll all be safe then.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Dino said. “I want witnesses, and Stone isn’t enough.”

  “Witnesses?” Viv asked.

  Dino set the velvet box on the table and opened it. “Will you marry me?”

  Viv stared at the ring. “I notice that you put the ring on the table before you asked. Are you trying to buy me?”

  “Whatever works,” Dino said. “I can’t live without you, and Stone and Holly are witnesses that I said that, because we both know I might try to weasel out of it later.”

  Viv removed the ring from the box and slipped it on. “It fits,” she said.

  “Of course it fits,” Dino replied. “It’s yours. Now answer me, please.”

  “I forgot the question.”

  “Love, marriage, death do us part?”

  “Yeah, okay, that works for me.”

  Dino put a hand on her face and kissed her. “Thank God we got that out of the way,” he said. “Now we can eat.”

  “Five minutes,” Stone said, stirring in a fistful of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, then prying open a carton of crème fraîche and spooning half of it into the pan. He added more of the cheese, then raked in a plate of shrimp and a bowl of asparagus tips.

  “That looks good,” Holly said, polishing off her bourbon, then pouring herself a glass of wine.

  “I’ve had it before,” Dino said. “You won’t die from eating it.”

  “High praise, Dino,” Stone said, putting a trivet on the table and setting the pan on it. He slid into the banquette beside Holly and raised his wineglass. “Dino and Viv,” he said. “May they not kill each other the first year.”

  They all drank.

  —

  Across town Habib sat at the kitchen table with a block of C4 explosive, a detonator, some wire, and a throwaway cell phone. He used a soldering iron to make the connections, then plugged one end of the wire into the cell phone and the end with the detonator into the soft C4.

  “There you are,” he said, “one bomb.”

  “You’re sure this will set off the rest?”

  “My bombs go off when they’re told to,” Habib said. “The other forty-nine kilos are already in the van. All I have to do is place this block with the others, then you can have the honor of detonating.” He pushed another cell phone across the table. “It’s already programmed. All you have to do is press one, and it will autodial the correct number. The detonator will fire on the first ring: then poof! No more Ms. Barker or Mr. Barrington.”

  “Do we know they’re there now?”

  “We assume Barrington is there. Two other people, a man and a woman, arrived earlier and checked in with the guards in the SUV. Holly Barker arrived twenty minutes ago. I told our observer to get out of there.”

  “Then we’re all set?”

  “We are. The van and the Toyota you wanted for our trip are parked outside, and our luggage is in the trunk. You blow it after leaving Barrington’s street—on Forty-second Street, headed for the tunnel. Fifteen minutes after that we’ll be in New Jersey, headed west.”

  “Why can’t we blow it from New Jersey? I’d feel safer.”

  “We can’t leave the van there untended any longer than absolutely necessary. Some traffic cop might take exception and s
crew things up. Don’t worry, Forty-second Street is plenty far away, and it won’t take long to get there. Once we turn onto Second Avenue the traffic signals are programmed to change as we drive downtown. We have only two turns to make, so it will go smoothly.”

  “All right,” Jasmine said. “Let’s do it.”

  They were on their second helpings of risotto and their second bottle of Far Niente Chardonnay. Stone looked at his friends and felt good. He had never seen Dino happier.

  “Okay,” Stone said, “when’s the wedding?”

  “Don’t rush me,” Dino said.

  “Who’s rushing you?” Stone asked.

  “Yeah, who’s rushing you?” Viv echoed. “How about a week from tomorrow in the police chapel?”

  “That sounds wonderful,” Holly chipped in.

  “What’s the hurry?” Dino asked. “I haven’t even gotten used to being engaged yet.”

  “You’re not supposed to get used to it,” Holly said. “That way lies delay after delay.”

  “She has a point, Dino,” Stone said, patting him on the shoulder in a fatherly manner.

  “But where are we going to live?” Dino asked plaintively.

  “Last time I checked,” Viv said, “and that was this morning, you have an apartment, I have an apartment. Take your pick.”

  “Well, you know I’m not going to pick yours,” Dino said.

  “Good, that leaves yours.”

  “It’s not big enough—it’s a bachelor apartment, for God’s sake.”

  “It’s plenty big,” Viv said.

  “There’s not enough closet space for your underwear, let alone everything else.”

  “I don’t intend to wear much underwear for a while,” Viv said. “That will leave room for my other stuff.”

  “You could get rid of some of those old suits that are moldering away in your closets,” Stone said. “You’ve had some of them since high school.”

  “Those are perfectly good clothes that I’ll wear again,” Dino protested.

  “Not as long as the trousers won’t button,” Stone pointed out.

  “There’s another alternative,” Viv said. “We could sell both our apartments and buy a bigger one.”

  Dino seemed struck dumb.

  “Aha, you’ve got him,” Holly said, giggling.

  “I’m thinking it over,” Dino said.

  The others stared at him, determined to wait him out. Dino squirmed.

  —

  Jasmine turned into the street and spotted the black SUV immediately. She took the 9mm silenced pistol from her handbag and shoved it between her legs. Habib would shortly be behind her.

  She coasted to a stop inches from the SUV’s blackened windows, rolled her own window down, and yelled, “Excuse me!” Nothing happened. It must be very thick, armored glass, she thought. She reached out the window and rapped very hard on it with her ring. A moment later, the window slid halfway down.

  “Yes?” a wary voice asked.

  “Excuse me, could you direct me—” Then she took the silenced 9mm from between her legs and shot them both in the head.

  —

  Junior Detective Sean Leary turned back into the block, a sandwich on the seat beside him, and saw twin flashes emanating from between the black CIA SUV and a white car pulled up close to it, but heard nothing. “Gunshots fired,” he said aloud to himself. “Silencer.” He accelerated and rammed the white car from behind, shoving it down the street. He saw its brake lights come on, and a woman was suddenly running toward him, a gun in her hand. He was digging at his waist for his own weapon as she reached his car, holding out the silenced pistol.

  Then, as she fired, his own car was rammed from behind, shoving him forward into the Toyota for a second time. Leary opened his door and rolled into the street, in a prone firing position. He felt something strike him hard in the back, and he put his head down and began firing wildly in her general direction.

  —

  “Well, Dino?” Stone asked.

  Dino’s mouth was working, but nothing was coming out.

  Then they heard an unmistakable sound: a gunshot, followed by five more.

  “Thirty-eight,” Viv said.

  One second after the final gunshot, Stone’s security system went off, and loudly.

  “They’re shooting at the house,” Stone said as they all scrambled out of the banquette.

  Stone ran through the lower level of the house from the kitchen, through his exercise room to his office, then down the hall toward the front door. He ducked into Joan’s office and retrieved her .45 from her desk drawer, and as he did, Dino blew past him in the hallway, weapon in hand, and out the office door into the street. Stone followed on his heels, just ahead of Viv and Holly, who were also armed.

  —

  Habib grabbed Jasmine’s arm. “We’ve got to go!” he yelled. He half dragged her to the car and shoved her into the passenger side, then ran around the car. As he opened the driver’s door he saw people spilling out of the house behind him, and they were armed. The engine was still running, and he floored the car. He was just feeling lucky that it was still running when he had to slam on brakes to stop from running into a truck stopped in front of him. He leaned on the horn.

  “White car, down the block!” Holly yelled, then ran in that direction, followed closely by Viv.

  But Dino wasn’t looking at the car, he was looking through a window of the van with the damaged front end, stopped in the middle of the street. He tried to open both doors: locked. He banged on the glass with the butt of his pistol, to no avail. He looked to his left and saw Leary, lying on his belly, with blood on his back, then he turned toward Stone, who was standing beside him. “Get something to break this glass!” he yelled.

  “Who do you think is in there?” Stone yelled back.

  “Nobody. It’s gotta be a bomb!”

  Stone turned and ran up the front steps and into the house.

  Dino went to Leary. “Kid, talk to me!”

  “I’m okay, I think,” Leary said, struggling to a knee.

  “Stay right there!” Dino jumped through the open car door, one knee on the driver’s seat, and reached across to open the glove compartment. He began grabbing stuff and throwing it onto the floor, until he found what he was looking for.

  —

  Habib gave up blowing the horn, stepped out of the car with one foot and aimed his gun at the truck driver, who was coming toward him. “Get that truck out of here, or I’ll kill you,” Habib yelled, firing a shot into a nearby car for emphasis. The man ran for his truck, and it began to roll toward Second Avenue.

  Holly ran toward the white car and waved for Viv to take the passenger side, but when they were nearly there, the car shot forward, mounted the curb and began bulldozing its way toward Second Avenue.

  Dino got back to the van just after Stone broke the rear window with a golf club. “Get outta the way!” he yelled at Stone, then he reached inside for the door lock. The seats had been removed from the rear of the van, and there was a large object on the floor, hidden by a raincoat thrown over it. He snatched away the coat and found a neat cube of gray bricks with a cell phone taped to the stack. “Oh, shit,” he said. “Get back!”

  Stone looked inside and reached for the cell phone, but Dino shoved him out of the way and onto his ass in the street. “It’s gonna be booby-trapped!” he yelled. He held up the black object in his hand and pressed a button. A green light came on, and Dino set it on top of the pile of explosives. “Stay away from it!” he yelled at Stone, who was getting to his feet.

  Dino ran back to Leary and dug the handheld radio out of the man’s inside coat pocket. “Just relax, Leary,” he said. “Help is on the way.” Dino took a deep breath and hoped for the best. He pressed the button on the side of the radio and said, “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Lieutenant Dino Bacchetti, code red, code red!” He gave the address. “I’ve got a very large bomb in a van and an officer down. I need ambulances and the bomb squad. Code red
on Second Avenue in the Forties!”

  Stone ran up to him. “We’ve got to get out of here, Dino!” he said.

  “It’s too late to run,” Dino replied.

  —

  Habib was knocking down garbage cans and scattering pedestrians.

  “I’m going to blow it!” Jasmine yelled.

  “Not yet! You’ll kill us, too!” He made it to Second Avenue and turned right.

  —

  Holly and Viv were running as hard as they could toward the car when it turned onto Second Avenue and started to move faster. Then, suddenly, the car stopped, as did all the traffic on Second Avenue. She looked down the street and saw red traffic lights as far as the eye could see. “We’ve got to kill both those people now!” she yelled at Viv. They both stopped running. “I’ll take the driver!” Holly raised her weapon and fired two shots. The rear window of the Toyota turned white, and she started running toward the driver’s door, her weapon held ready in front of her.

  Viv ran for the passenger door, and when she was ten yards away, it opened and a woman rolled out of the car and into the street, ending up on one knee, her hands out, holding a silenced pistol. Viv heard a little whir, and her hair blew back on her left side. She didn’t bother aiming, just started firing, aiming at the center of the woman. She knew she had hit her at least once, but the woman didn’t fall. Instead, with her free hand, she flipped open a cell phone and with a thumb, pressed a button.

  “NOOO!” Viv yelled, then emptied her magazine into the crouching figure. Viv hit the street and waited for the explosion.

  Nothing happened. Viv lifted her head and looked at the woman she had just shot several times. She was smiling. Viv reached over, grabbed the silencer, and pulled the weapon from her grasp.

  Jasmine was trying to say something. Viv leaned closer and listened. “They will all die,” Jasmine whispered.

  Viv picked up the cell phone lying near her hand and looked at it. The word “CALLING” was on the screen, then it changed to “CALL FAILED.” She held the phone in front of Jasmine’s face. “Not today, sweetheart,” she said. “Just you.”

  Jasmine frowned, then her face relaxed and her pupils dilated.

  “The driver is dead,” Holly said from behind her.

  Viv placed two fingers on the left side of Jasmine’s throat and felt for a pulse. “So is this one,” she said.