Night Fall

Dom Fanelli said, “Hey, did I catch you in the saddle?”

“No. What’s up?”

“Well, for one thing there’s some fallout from my snatch job this afternoon. It’s like I pissed on a hornets’ nest or something. These guys got some friends high up.”

“Not for much longer.”

“Right. If you can’t beat ’em, and you can’t join ’em, I say kill ’em. Right? Anyway, here’s for tomorrow-I got three PDs each with two uniformed cops, including a patrol sergeant. I could get detectives and plainclothes guys, but I’m thinking the uniforms are the way to go. Right?”

“Right.”

“You got an eight-thirty at WTC North, so these guys are coming on duty at eight and they can get to you maybe eight-fifteen, and will meet you at the hotel entrance on the Central Park South side. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“You pick how you want to go-separate cars, all in one with a lead, or backup car-whatever. Your call. If it was me, and I got three cars, I’d split it up. You don’t want all your ca

I glanced at Jill and Kate and said to Dom, “Right.”

“Okay, tomorrow is primary day. Second Tuesday of September. Did you know that? Don’t forget to vote. So, the traffic patterns in theA.M. may be a little different with people coming in a little late after they do their civic thing. But if you all get there a little late, you know they’re not starting without you.”

“Right.”

“Okay, so you want these guys to stay with you all the way up to the 107thfloor. Correct?”

“Correct.”

“You want them to take you someplace afterward. Right?”

“Yeah. Probably back to the Plaza, and I’ll need people at the elevator here all through tomorrow and tomorrow night until we see how this plays out.”

“That could be a problem. I’ll tell you why-someone from the commissioner’s office gave me a call tonight, and he inquired politely about what the fuck I was doing. I, of course, said I didn’t know what this guy was talking about. So, we seem to have this problem, and it’s coming from Washington, according to this guy, who was totally clueless about why he got a call from some guy in D.C. who he wouldn’t ID for me. Bottom line, partner, I don’t know how long I can supply you with city cops for what they’re telling me is a Federal witness protection thing. Capisce?”

“Capisco.”

“I mean, we don’t want to step on Federal toes or anything, and I’m just providing you a courtesy, but the Feds are saying they are happy to provide people to take care of your witness.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“So, you deal with that at your meeting. But for tomorrowA.M., we’ll be there, take you to WTC North, get you out of there, then back to the hotel. That’s all I can promise you, John. After that, I don’t know. You gotta get this straightened out at your meeting.”

Again, I glanced at Kate and Jill, and they were looking at me closely. I said to Dom, “Just get us back here without a tail, or to someplace else that I’ll think of. I’ll take care of the rest.”

He said to me, “Maybe you should go to the newspapers. Like, we can take you right from WTC to the Times. I’ll call ahead and have nosy investigative reporters waiting for you.”

“I’ll think about it.”

“Don’t think about it too long. I gotta tell ya, buddy, these bastards are going to play hardball. If I was them, I’d hit the lady with a material witness warrant as soon as I saw her.”

I glanced at Jill and said to Dom, “Serving a warrant is one thing-trying to enforce it is another.”

“I know. We’ll have the muscle there. But why get into it?”

I didn’t reply.

He said, “Look, you gotta get to the right people with this, and I’m not sure the people at WTC are the right people. Understand?”

“I understand. But it’s a good place to start.” In fact, it had more to do with a personal confrontation between me, Nash, Griffith, and maybe Koenig. If you want to confront the lion, you go to the lion’s den. I said, “It’s a public place, Dom. Windows on the World. You can’t get much more public. I want to see who shows, and what they have to say.”

“Okay. That’s your call, partner. If it was me, I’d talk to a dozen reporters before I saw the first guy from the government. But that’s not you. Maybe you should talk to Kate.”

“She feels the same as I do.”

“Okay.” He said, “I’ll be at Windows about eight, having breakfast with a few guys at another table. Okay?”

“Thanks.”

“It’s expensive.”

“I’ll buy.”

“No shit. Is Kate taking care of my gun? I want it returned clean. No makeup crap from her handbag.”

I smiled. “You can tell her.” I said, “By the way, Patrolman Alvarez outside my door is a guy you might want to take under your wing. I want him back in the morning.”

“Yeah? We’ll see how he does protecting your ass. Hey, how’d it play out with Kate and your roommate?”

“Fine.”

“No scenes? No claws coming out?”

“No.”

“You lead a charmed life.”

“You think?”

“Iknow. Don’t sweat tomorrow. It’s all set.”

“Good. See you at Windows.” I hung up.

Kate asked me, “Is everything set?”

“It is.”

Jill asked me, “Is there a problem?”

“No.” I smiled at her and said, “We have a three-car, six-man police escort to the World Trade Center. That’s more than the commissioner or mayor gets.”

She smiled.

I said, “Well, we have an early morning.” And I’m very horny. “So, I think we should turn in and get some rest.” Sex.

Everyone stood, and Jill said, “I’m sure you two have a lot of catching up to do. Good night.”

She went into her room, and Kate said to me, “She’s very nice.”

“She’ll make a good witness.”

“I think she has a little crush on you.”

“I don’t think so.”

“She hung on your every word and kept stealing glances at you.”

“I didn’t notice.” I took the videotape out of the VCR player and said, “Let’s hit the sack.”

I took Kate’s overnight bag, and she took her purse with the gun, and we went into my bedroom. I closed the door and said, “I amextremely horny.”

“That works.” She put the gun on the nightstand, then started undressing and said, “I don’t even have a nightie. My luggage is somewhere at the airport.”

“You don’t need a nightie, sweetheart.”

She was pulling off her blouse by the time I was naked in bed. She looked at me and laughed. “That’s a record.”

She finished undressing and crawled into bed next to me. She rolled on her side and looked at me, then pulled the bandage off my chin and asked, “How did that happen?”

“Your friend Nash sucker-punched me.”

She said, “He didn’t look too good at the airport himself. His face was all bruised and swollen.”

That was the best news I’d had in a long time. I said, “Well, we got it out of our systems.”

“I don’t think so.”

I changed the subject and said, “Sex.”

But before I could make my first move, she said, “That tape was very graphic.”

“Yeah. You see why Bud erased it, and why Jill never came forward with the duplicate.”

“I do… it couldn’t have been easy for her to show it to you.”

“I tried to make it easy.” I added, “When you have sex and murder on the same videotape, the murder is more important. She knew that.”

“Well,we know that in theory. But if it’s you on the videotape… anyway, I couldn’t believe it was the same woman.”

“People are very complex.”

“You’re not. That’s what I like about you.”

“Thank you. I think.”

Kate stayed quiet for a few seconds, then asked me, “Is there going to be a problem tomorrow?”

“I don’t think so.” I related some of what Dom said and concluded, “The NYPD trumps the FBI in these kinds of local pissing matches.”

She replied, “And what am I supposed to do as an FBI agent? Stand there and look confused?”

I said to her, “Do what you think you have to do, and if you think you have to leave, then leave. I’ll understand.”