“I hope to God you’re right.” Sir Edward crossed Forty-second Street, walked another few yards, then turned into Bryant Park. He counted off ten paces and stopped. His cell phone vibrated. “Yes?”
“Very good, Sir Edward. Do you see the line of park benches to your right? The ones in the center of the park?”
“Yes.”
“Go and sit on the fourth bench, at the end closest to Sixth Avenue.”
Sir Edward looked at the benches: They were strung out in a line with a few feet between them. He counted, then went and sat on the bench as he had been instructed. He looked around.
“What’s happening?” Carpenter asked.
“She told me to sit on this bench.”
“Nothing else?”
“No.”
“Then let’s wait for something to happen.”
“I don’t see any alternative,” Sir Edward said, “unless she’s drawing a bead on me now.” Someone sat down beside him on the bench.
“Who is that? The man in the hat?” Carpenter asked.
“Good afternoon, Sir Edward,” the man said.
“Barrington? What are you doing here? The meeting was to have been with Miss du Bois.”
“Stone Barrington is there?” Carpenter asked.
“Yes,” Sir Edward replied.
“Yes, what?” Stone asked.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Sir Edward said.
“Who were you talking to?”
“Ah, myself. Where is Ms. du Bois?”
“She will arrive in due course,” Stone replied.
Sir Edward looked around him. The park was fairly crowded with all sorts of people. Which one could be the woman? The bag lady pushing a shopping cart? The woman in a business suit with a briefcase? The girl on Rollerblades?
“Where is she?”
“Relax, Sir Edward,” Stone replied.
On the sidewalk behind the benches, a man in a suit and hat pushed a wheelchair bearing an old woman, who was hunched over, a large handbag in her lap. Sir Edward kept looking, trying to identify La Biche.
The wheelchair came to a halt between Sir Edward’s bench and the next. The man bent over the woman, apparently his mother. “There, dear, is that comfortable for you?” he asked her.
“Very comfortable,” she replied in an old lady’s voice. She reached over and plucked the tiny receiver from Sir Edward’s ear. “Good afternoon, Sir Edward,” she said. Her voice was no longer old, and her accent was as British as Sir Edward’s. “I am Marie-Thérèse du Bois. May I introduce Lieutenant Dino Bacchetti of the New York Police Department.”
“How do you do, Sir Edward?” Dino said. He was still bending over the wheelchair. His head close to that of Marie-Thérèse.
45
Sir Edward looked around himself. “I’m surrounded,” he said, lowering his head to be closer to the microphone behind his lapel.
It took Marie-Thérèse only a moment to locate it and pull it free. “Sir Edward is quite safe,” she said into the microphone. “And I wish to point out that an attempt on me is very likely to hit either Lieutenant Bacchetti or Mr. Barrington. If that should happen, The New York Times will have the story before the ambulances arrive.” She picked up Sir Edward’s earpiece, which was resting on his shoulder, and put it into her own ear. “Did you read that loud and clear?” she asked.
Sir Edward removed his hat, ran his fingers through his hair, and put the hat back on.
Carpenter, in the helicopter, looked at Mason, who shook his head. “No shot,” he said. “And we don’t want to knock off one of the local constabulary, do we? Never mind your mate.”
“I read you loud and clear,” Carpenter said into her own microphone.
“Then kindly go and park that chopper over the East River,” Marie-Thérèse responded. “You’ll still be able to read our transmissions, but you don’t want to make me nervous by hovering, do you?”
Mason switched off his headset. “How soon can we have men in the park?”
“I estimate four minutes, if they run,” Carpenter replied.
“Looks like we’re stuck with the situation, doesn’t it?”
Carpenter switched on her headset again. “Pilot, head for the East River and hover there,” she said, so that La Biche could read her. She switched to her channel two. “Everybody converge on Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library. Subject is seated next to Architect. Use extreme caution, and don’t fire unless certain of success without collateral damage.”
“Thank you so much,” Marie-Thérèse replied. She watched as the helicopter moved east, along Forty-second Street, then she leaned forward in her wheelchair so that she could see Stone. “Let’s get on with it,” she said. “We won’t have long before Sir Edward’s cavalry arrives.”
“Sir Edward,” Stone said, “did you bring the letter?”
Sir Edward reached into an inside pocket, produced an envelope, and handed it to Stone.
Stone read the letter and handed it to Marie-Thérèse. “It’s as advertised.”
She looked over the letter. “And the money?”
Sir Edward produced another envelope. “Here is a deposit receipt from Manhattan Trust. Call the number at the top of the page, use the code word ‘structure,’ and the bank will wire the funds to any account in the world. The transaction is irrevocable from my end.”
“I certainly hope so, for your sake, Sir Edward, because if there is any problem with the transfer, you will be in violation of our agreement.”
“I believe I’m due a signed document from you,” Sir Edward said.
Stone handed him a letter. He looked at it and put it into a pocket. “It is satisfactory,” he said.
“All right, let’s go,” Marie-Thérèse said. “Sir Edward, you will push my wheelchair.”
“What? I’m not going anywhere.”
“We’re all going into the library. It’s a lovely building, you’ll be impressed.”
“We’ll be done in a couple of minutes, Sir Edward,” Stone said. “Please don’t make a fuss.”
The four set off together, Sir Edward pushing the wheelchair, Stone and Dino walking on either side of Marie-Thérèse. They entered the library through a side door and took an elevator to the main floor.
“Stop here,” Marie-Thérèse said. “Sir Edward, you will accompany these gentlemen to the main entrance of the library, then you will be free to go.” Grabbing the wheels, she maneuvered the wheelchair through a rest room door bearing a handicapped-use sign.
“Let’s go,” Stone said, indicating the way for Sir Edward.
Marie-Thérèse locked the door, shed some clothes, and produced others and a wig from her large handbag. A quick check in the mirror, and she left the rest room, abandoning the wheelchair and her other clothes. She returned to Bryant Park and headed toward Sixth Avenue. As she reached the sidewalk, half a dozen men ran past her as she hailed a cab.
Stone paused at the top of the library’s front steps. “That concludes our transaction, Sir Edward.”
“I should bloody well hope so,” Sir Edward replied.
“You couldn’t just play it straight, could you? So much for the word of an English gentleman.”
“Oh, go roger yourself,” Sir Edward said, sweat rolling down his face.
“You should get out of that body armor before you have a heart attack,” Dino said. “Let’s go, Stone.” He led the way down the front steps, and they got into Dino’s car, which was waiting at the curb. “Where to?”
“Home, I guess.” The car moved off.