“What about it?” Benji asked.
Anger flared in Simon’s eyes. He pointed at the roll-up door. “Open it.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.”
Benji jogged over and pulled on the chain that controlled the door until there was enough room for the sedan to pass through.
Simon raced out of the building and drove off without another glance.
“Your brother’s kind of a dick,” Devin said.
“He was just in a hurry.”
“If you say so.”
Chapter 6
That night, Stone was sound asleep when the alarm control panel on his bedroom wall began beeping.
His house was equipped with a state-of-the-art security system that included bulletproof windows, steel-reinforced doors, motion sensors, cameras, and the most advanced door locks available. Beeping in the night wasn’t common, but with such an advanced system, small glitches weren’t unheard of.
He went to the panel. On the screen was the message INPUT CODE, and below this a countdown that had just changed from 17 to 16. This particular message only appeared when the security system was armed and an exterior door had been opened, giving a person thirty seconds to turn it off after entering the house.
Stone switched on the camera feed that covered the area around the downstairs control panel.
A dark shape huddled in front of the panel, with three other figures standing a few feet away, shining flashlights on the keypad.
Stone jammed the button that would immediately set off the alarm, then retrieved his pistol from the nightstand and rushed out of the room to the top of the stairs.
The whoop-whoop-whoop of the alarm filled the house, and from below he heard someone swear.
He hurried down until he was on the landing above the floor the intruders were on.
“We should split,” one of them said.
“If we do, none of us makes a dime,” another argued.
“Look,” a more authoritative voice said. “We have at least three minutes until the police show up. Let’s do as much as we can before we go.”
“You go ahead,” the first voice said. “I’m out.”
“Me, too,” a new voice said.
Stone heard the front door fly open and then slam shut again, and for a beat thought all four men had left.
But then the authoritative voice said, “Come on. What we’re looking for is upstairs.”
Stone pointed his gun at the lower landing, hoping the sight of it would be enough to scare the remaining intruders into giving up.
The beam of a flashlight hit the bottom step, then one of the remaining black-clad men stepped into view, followed immediately by the other.
“Freeze,” Stone barked, channeling his NYPD days.
Both men’s heads snapped up. One of their flashlights mirrored the motion, and its beam hit Stone in the eyes.
“Gun!” one of them yelled.
“Oh, shit,” the other said.
Nearly half blind, Stone almost missed the guy closest to him starting to raise his own weapon. Stone pulled his trigger.
The shot thundered down the stairs, and the light jerked sideways. Stone couldn’t see much, but he could hear steps running, followed by the front door opening again, and then more steps that soon faded to nothing.
He slapped the wall until he found the switch and flipped on the light.
A body lay on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, a gun on the floor nearby.
Stone crept down to him, alert for anything that would signal that the other intruder was still around, but the house was silent.
There was another light switch near the bottom of the stairs. He flipped it on and lit up the area beyond. Carefully, he peeked around the corner.
He could see all the way to the open front door, and there wasn’t a soul in sight.
He crouched next to the body. The man’s shirt was drenched in blood. Though he was sure it was too late, Stone checked the man for a pulse. There was none.
Stepping lightly, he moved toward the entrance, clearing each space he passed to ensure no one was lying in wait. When he reached the door, he peered outside and confirmed that the immediate area was clear.
From a few blocks away, he could hear a siren heading in his direction. He ducked back inside, shut the door, and went to the nearest phone.
“Why are you calling me in the middle of the night?” Dino answered. “Did someone die?”
“So says the corpse in my hallway.”
“No joke?”
“No joke.”
“How did he die?”
“Painfully, I would think.” As briefly as possible, Stone told him what happened.
“You actually hit him?”
Stone was deadly with a rifle, not so much with handguns.
“I’ve been practicing.”
“Have you called nine-one-one?”
“There’s a siren pulling up out front, so I’d say the NYPD has responded to my alarm.”
“Try not to kill anyone else before I get there.”
Chapter 7
“You’re sure there were four of them?” Detective Morris asked.
They were in Stone’s kitchen, out of the way of the crime scene techs. This was the third time Stone was going through what happened.
“I only saw four. There could have been more.”
Morris frowned, unconvinced. He was young and, based on his aggressive questioning, newly promoted.
“And you’re still saying the dead guy intended to shoot you, so you shot first?”
“I can’t tell you what was going on in his head, but when someone points a weapon at you, Detective, what do you do?”
“This isn’t about me, Mr. Barrington. This is about—”
“He would have done exactly what you did,” Detective Brennan said calmly. He was Morris’s partner and a veteran detective Stone knew. “I think we’ve heard enough, don’t you, Jimmy?”
“I think he’s hiding something,” Morris said.
Brennan snorted. “You think everyone’s hiding something.”
Dino walked into the room. “Who’s hiding something?”
“Morning, Commissioner,” Brennan said.
Morris’s eyes widened in surprise. “Commissioner Bacchetti.”
“I was beginning to wonder if you fell back asleep,” Stone said. It had been more than thirty minutes since Stone had called him.
“Trust me. I thought about it. What’s going on here?”
“I’ve been explaining what happened to Detectives Brennan and Morris.”
Dino jutted his chin toward Morris. “How many times has he made you go through it?”
“Two and a half so far.”
“Not too bad. I remember you making suspects go through their story five or six times, when you were still green.”
“Yes, but they were all guilty.”
“And you’re not? Correct me if I’m wrong, but you did shoot that guy I saw the coroner wheeling out.”
“True. But as I was explaining—”
“For the third time,” Dino clarified.
“For the third time, I shot him in self-defense.”
“I buy it.” Dino looked at the two detectives. “Any reason to think otherwise?”
“Nope,” Brennan said.
“Sir, I would like to question Mr. Barrington further,” Morris said.
“You mean retired NYPD Detective Barrington?” Dino said.
“Detective?” Morris shot a look at Brennan. “You didn’t tell me that.”
Brennan put a hand on his partner’s back and said, “That’ll be all, Stone. Thank you for your cooperation.”
He guided Morris out of the kitchen.
“What does a guy have to do to get some coffee around here?” Dino asked.
“Allow me, Commissioner.” Stone made Dino a coffee, then asked, “I don’t suppose there’s any news on the ones who got away?”