“Lieutenant Doyle.”
“Brian, it’s Stone Barrington.”
“Hello, Stone.”
“I’m returning your call.”
“I had a meeting with Mitzi earlier this afternoon, and she told me how well things are going. She said you have been a big help. ‘Invaluable,’ was how she put it.”
“I’m glad to have helped.”
“We’re getting to the point where we can set up a purchase and a bust,” Brian said.
“Brian…”
“We don’t think it will have to be too big to get a conviction: A pound of grass and half a kilo of coke should do it-plenty to charge him with distributing.”
“Brian, listen to me.”
“Okay, pal, I’m listening. What’s up?”
“I have some new information that you’re going to have to take into consideration before you decide whether to continue.”
“What sort of information?”
“I have it from a very reliable source that Sharpe has stepped on the toes of some pros who take a very proprietary view of their business operations.”
“And which pros are these?”
“I don’t know, but they are pissed off at having what they consider to be an amateur dipping into their exclusive territories, and they are planning to do something about it.”
“And where does this information come from?”
“I’m sorry, but that’s completely confidential.”
“That’s not good enough, pal.”
“Then I’m going to have to invoke attorney-client privilege.”
“Stone, if you want me to believe you, you’re going to have to give me something more than your word.”
“Listen, you started this operation on nothing more than my word.”
“That’s not quite so,” Brian said. “There had been rumblings from other quarters.”
“What quarters are those, Brian?”
“Sorry, that’s confidential-official police business.”
“I’m sorry, Brian, but that’s not good enough,” Stone said.
“That’s how it works, Stone: You have to tell me; I don’t have to tell you.”
“I’m telling you that very soon somebody is going to remove Derek Sharpe from your precinct in a decisive way, and when that occurs anybody who happens to be standing near him is going to be removed, too. That includes Mitzi and, not least of all, Hildy Parsons, on whose behalf I initiated this whole thing.”
“I’ll worry about Mitzi,” Brian said, “but you’re going to have to deal with your little rich bitch who got into the sack with the wrong boyfriend.”
“I have a responsibility to Mitzi, too,” Stone said, “and I’m telling you she is not well enough protected with just Tom watching her back. He’s usually waiting in the car while she’s dealing with Sharpe and, incidentally, with somebody called Sig Larsen, a financial advisor who’s running a Ponzi scheme.”