Pure mature
Who? Mason smiled.The district attorney pointed her out to you? Then lets get out of here, Stone said. He got into the car in the garage and placed the shotgun on his lap, then Fred rolled out onto the street. Two men on motorcycles, who had been waiting at the curb, followed the car. As they turned onto Park Avenue, Stone noticed a motorcyclist sitting on an idling machine, talking on a cell phone. See that, Fred? And where was he? The headhunter, Slick said. The price is not right — not for a cops wallet, anyway. She knew all the local people and all the local venues so shed make suggestions, and if we both agreed shed place the calls. We wanted sites an assassin couldnt penetrate, knowing that no such site existed. Just because he’d used a powerful rifle last night didn’t mean that he couldn’t sneak in a handgun today. I called our final choices into Showalter’s office and his administrative assistant said he’d call us back after he’d looked them over. He threw his cards down on the table and shook his head with real disgust. And then, as if wed connected telepathically, his eyes raised and met mine. I dont know what happened to Max. When I met him he was a sweet, big-eyed kid who was going to help change the whole world. You introduced us. We even talked about joining the Peace Corps together. What a fucking laugh. The only thing that Max ever changed was himself. He quit being a sweet, big-eyed kid and made himself hard and cynical and tough-minded. That was one of his favorite words. Tough-minded. He found out he liked to manipulate people. He was good at it. He manipulated me. I didnt mind. I knew what he was doing. But other people didnt like it and after a while they didn’t like Max. I think they were afraid of him. He didn’t seem to care. Politics suited him. It gave him a chance to manipulate people. After a while, that was about all he cared about. He didn’t even care who he worked for. He even talked about working for Wallace once, but then Wallace got shot, and that fell through. He thought working for Wallace would be a joke. When I asked him who the joke would be on he said it would be on him. Max, I mean. Then he started going into these funny deals. I don’t know what they were. He never told me. But one time he brought home ten thousand dollars in a paper sack and dumped it in my lap. He wouldn’t tell me where he got it. He said it was just a deal he’d pulled off. He was always going to pull off a big deal. He was talking about it just before he got killed. It was going to be the biggest deal of all. He was going to retire at thirty-eight and we were going to take the kids and go to Europe. He seemed excited about it. We even went to bed together, which we hadn’t done in God knows when. It was going to be a big, big deal. He was going to make two hundred thousand dollars, maybe more. Then he got killed and there wasn’t anybig deal. There was just Max dead and six hundred and fifty-three dollars and thirty-two cents in the bank. I’m going to kill myself, Harvey, I really am. Slick came in smoothly. He looked at his watch and said,Now that we all understand each other I think Harvey and I had best be on our way. He rose and looked at me, as though waiting for me to join him. He left her there and rode out into the night on his motorcycle for his appointment with Brad Cowl. Whats irregular is your people barging into her office without a search warrant, breaking into her safe, and taking her money.Thats highly irregular. Refunding it is highly regular. Heres what I know, Dino said. Hes murdered a bunch of innocent people in less than two weeks, and hes made multiple attempts at Stone, but Stone is the luckiest guy I know. And we cant cover the shop, because there must be fifty of them in midtown, even more downtown and in the boroughs. Okay. Fair enough. She said frankly,I feel naked. One doesnt wear much under these dresses, and it certainly clings, doesnt it? He reversed course and drove all the way to Harlem before leaving the highway and starting down Second Avenue. By now, the machine was practically an extension of his body, and he drove with more confidence than was probably good for him. He eventually turned onto his street, stopped at the garage door and, having no remote control, phoned Joan. Im Larkin, the man replied. Jennifer Stamos. It makes you look a little like him except for those clothes of yours. Whatre you supposed to be?..