Night Fall

Clearly Mrs. Winslow was having some fun.

She asked me, “Was that all right?”

“Perfect.”

On the other hand, if Nash had gotten around to putting two and two together, he’d be at the Winslow house now, soon, or later, and Mr. Winslow would be hearing another story, and he’d be asked to help the authorities find his wayward wife. But I couldn’t worry about that now. I said to Jill, “Please turn off your cell phone and don’t forget to turn it off every time you use it.”

She turned it off and put it in her bag.

Mrs. Winslow went to her bedroom to freshen up.

The doorbell rang, and I let the room service guy in and signed the check.

I walked to the windows and looked out over Central Park.

I felt like a man on the run, which wasn’t surprising, since I was on the run. Ironically, my whole professional life had consisted of me chasing other people who were on the run, though most of them were so stupid that I never really learned much from them about how not to get caught.

But I learnedsomething, and I wasn’t stupid, so the odds of Messrs. Nash and Griffith or anyone finding me soon were in my favor for a while.

Jill came into the living room, looking like she’d done a powder-and-paint job, and we sat at the dining table and had coffee and pastry. I was actually hungry, but I didn’t hog the whole plate of sweets.

She asked me, “Your wife is arriving tomorrow?”

“That’s the plan. About fourP.M. ”

“Will you meet her at the airport?”

“No. I can’t show up at a pre-arranged place.”

She didn’t ask why not, and I could tell she was getting it. I said, “I’ll have her met and taken here. Neither she nor I can go back to our apartment.”

She nodded, looked at me, and finally said, “John, I’m frightened.”

“Don’t be.”

“Do you have a gun?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

I explained, then added, “I don’t need a gun.”

We made small talk awhile, and then I said to her, “Take the cassette tape I gave you, and have it locked in the hotel safe.”

“All right. What are you going to do with A Man and a Woman?”

“I’ll take care of it.”

She nodded, then said to me, “I’d like to go to church. Then take a walk. Is that all right?”

I said to her, “To be honest with you, if these other people somehow discover where we are, then it doesn’t matter what you do.”

I put her cell phone number into my cell and she put mine into hers. I said, “Remember, don’t keep it on more than five minutes.”

Actually, in Manhattan, with a few hundred thousand cell phone signals bouncing around, it could take fifteen minutes or more to triangulate a cell phone location, but better safe than busted. I continued, “And don’t use your credit cards or an ATM machine. Do you have cash?”

She nodded, and asked me, “Would you like to come with me?”

I stood and said, “I need to stay here and make some calls. I’ll call you a few times, so check for my messages every half hour and call me back as soon as you get my message.”

She said, “You’re worse than my husband.”

I smiled and said, “If you need to call here, call the room phone. But if I don’t answer the room phone, then try my cell. And don’t come back to the room if I don’t answer the phone. Understand?”

She nodded.

I said, “On your way out, don’t forget to have that video cassette put in the hotel safe. Then, put the receipt in a hotel envelope and have it sent up to this room.”

Again, she nodded.

I said to her, “Plan to be back here no later than fiveP.M. ”

“I think I’m going back to Mark.”

I smiled. “See you later.”

I went into the bedroom, sat on the bed, and dialed Dom Fanelli’s cell phone. He answered, and I said, “Sorry to interrupt your Sunday.”

“Hey. You’re calling from the Plaza?”

“I am. Where are you?”

“I’m at the Waldorf. What are you doing at the Plaza?”

“Can you talk?”

“Yeah. I’m at a family barbeque. Get me out of here.”

I asked him, “Do you have a drink in your hand?”

“Does the Pope eat kielbasa? What’s up?”

“You wanted to know what this was about. Right?”

“Right.”

“It’s a big, hungry, fire-breathing dragon, and it can eat you.”

There was a short silence on the phone, then he said, “Shoot.”

“Okay. It’s about TWA 800, which you know, and it’s about a videotape of the crash. And it’s about Jill Winslow, the lady you found for me.” I gave him a full, fifteen-minute briefing. He stayed uncharacteristically quiet the whole time, and I had to ask him a few times if he was still there.

After I finished, he said, “Jesus Christ Almighty. Jesus Christ.” Then he asked, “Are you shitting me?”

“No.”

“Holy shit.”

“You want in?”

I could hear loud people in the background now, and loud music, so he must have been moving his location. I waited, then it got quiet, and he said, “I’m in the toilet now. Shit, I need another drink.”

“Flush first. Dom, I need your help.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Anything. What do you need?”

“I need you with a patrol car and at least two uniformed officers to go with me to pick up Kate at the airport tomorrow.”

“Yeah? Why?”

“Someone may be waiting there for her.”

“Who?”

“The Feds. Okay, so pick me up here at the Plaza-”

“Hold on. If someone may be waiting for her, then they’re definitely waiting for you, too, sport.”

“I know, but I’ve got to be there when she-”

“No, you don’t. You stay where you are. You’ve got a witness to protect.”

“You can send someone here to protect-”

“Hey, paisano, be brave and stupid on your own time. We’ll do this my way.”

I thought about that. Being a man of action, I didn’t like the idea of waiting around while someone else did the dangerous stuff for me. Dom was right, of course, but I said, “I’m not going to sit here while you go to JFK-”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll call you if I need you. End of discussion. What else?”

“All right… well, be prepared for some Federal bullying and bullshit. You’ve got to show some force. Okay? I don’t care if the whole fucking New York FBI field office shows up. You’re a New York cop, and this isyour town, not theirs.”

“Yeah. No problem.”

“Make sure you’re not followed from the airport-”

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

“And when you get to the Plaza, have a cop escort Kate to the Winslow suite.” I gave him the suite number and asked, “Are you okay with this?”

“Yeah… this is a fucking mind-blower.”

“Okay, here’s Kate’s flight info.” I gave it to him and made him repeat it, then asked him, “Are you happy now that I confided in you?”

“Oh, yeah. Fucking thrilled.”

“You asked.”

“Yeah, thanks for sharing.” He stayed silent a moment, then said, “Well, hey, congratulations. I always said you were a genius, even when Lieutenant Wolfe said you were an idiot.”

“Thank you. Anything else you need to know?”

“Yeah… like, who exactly is after you?”

“Well, this CIA guy Ted Nash for sure. Maybe Liam Griffith from the FBI. I have no idea who else is involved in this cover-up, so I don’t know who I can go to inside my office, or outside my office. So, I called the cops.”

He didn’t speak for a few seconds, then said, “And Kate… you can trust her. Right?”

“I can, Dom. She put me on to this.”

“Okay. Just checking.”

I didn’t reply.

He said, “Meanwhile, do you need any backup at the Plaza?”

“I’m okay here for a day or so. I’ll let you know.”

“Okay. If these guys come to get you, put a few caps in their ass, then call Detective Fanelli at Homicide. I’ll send a meat wagon to take them to the morgue.”

I said, “Sounds like a plan, but my piece is in a diplomatic pouch somewhere.”

“What? You’re not armed?”

“No, but-”

“I’m going to your apartment to get your off-duty piece and bring it-”