“There,” Arrington said, pointing. “The man just behind the reporter. You can see the back of his head.”

“So?” Dino asked.

“That’s Jonathan Dryer,” she said. “I’m sure of it.”

The crowd was moving slowly toward the doors of the theater. Just as the head was about to move off the top of the screen, it turned.

“There, it’s him!”

There was a brief glimpse of a face before the camera zoomed in on the reporter. “The crowd is just returning from intermission, and there’s been a rumor circulating that Barbra Streisand is going to make a surprise appearance. We’ll let you know.” There was a cut to the studio, and the anchorman began to talk about a fire in Queens.

“Are you sure?” Stone asked.

“That’s him.”

“Could you tell who he was with?”

“No, but that was Jonathan.”

“Who’s Jonathan?” Mary Ann asked.

“A guy Stone is interested in,” Dino said.

“You’re not interested?” Stone asked him.

“Yeah, sure, but I’m not going to worry too much about him until we have some more evidence.”

“And you’d like me to come up with it?”

Dino shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind.”

“Dino, he may be involved in a cop killing; doesn’t that mean anything anymore?”

“It does, if there’s any evidence tying him to it. All you’ve got right now is a lot of supposition. Okay, he went to parties at some people’s apartments that later got burgled. So did a lot of other people, including Arrington here. Should we take her to the precinct and beat a confession out of her?”

“Come on, Dino; for the first time we actually know where the guy is.”

“What do you want me to do? Send a SWAT team into a theater crowded with a black-tie audience of celebrities and people who can afford to pay a thousand bucks a seat? The mayor’s probably there; my chief is probably there.”

“Then have him picked up on the way out.”

“Stone, maybe you don’t read the papers anymore, but there are four cops in the city under indictment right now for arresting and, in some cases, leaning on people with no evidence, and two of them are uniforms at the Nineteenth. You think I’m going to wade into that crowd and create yet another incident at a time when we’ve got a full-blown commission investigating the department?”

“You can’t ever find a cop when you need one,” Mary Ann said. “Especially when he’s stuffing his face with linguine.”

“Thanks, sweetheart,” Dino said. “That’s all I need, is you weighing in.”

“Any time,” she said sweetly.

“I got an idea,” Dino said. “Why don’t you call your daddy and have him send a couple guys over to the Shubert and blow the guy away? Then we won’t even have to think about this anymore.”

“I’ve heard worse ideas,” Arrington said.

“Eat your dinner, Arrington,” Dino said. “Please, everybody just eat the white-bread pasta and forget about it just for tonight. We’re celebrating getting this apartment, which, believe me, may not be worth celebrating.”

“It’s worth it,” Mary Ann said.

“You’re trying to turn us into Wasps, aren’t you?” Dino demanded. “I can’t even wear my own clothes to meet these people; neither can you, come to think of it.”

“Dino,” Mary Ann said, “don’t look a gift horse, you know? We’re taking the apartment; we’re getting out of Brooklyn. Try and be happy about it.”

“I’m trying, I’m trying,” Dino said.

“Try harder.”

“Tell you what,” Stone said. “Dryer is going to be in that theater for at least another hour. Let’s finish our pasta, eat our dessert, drink our coffee, and then wander over to the Shubert and tail this guy home. I’d really like to know where he lives, wouldn’t you, Dino?”

“Fuggeddaboudit!” Dino screamed.

Chapter 46

By the time they got out of the cab it had started raining, and the two women ran into the theater lobby. Dino turned up his collar. “This is just great,” he said. “I might as well be back on the beat.”

“A little beat work will do you good,” Stone said. The four of them huddled in the lobby until Stone could find an usher.

“Should be over any minute now,” the man said.

“You planning to do this on foot?” Dino asked Stone.

“Ah, maybe not. You want to get us a cab?”

“We just gave up a cab, and it’s raining. It’s a known fact that all New York City cabs go off duty the minute it starts to rain, and on top of that, a couple of thousand people are going to come pouring out of this theater in a minute, and they’re all going to be trying to hail the same cab.”

Arrington spoke up. “There are two entrances to this theater,” she said. “This one and one in Shubert Alley. We’d better cover both, don’t you think?”

“I don’t want Dryer to see you,” Stone said. “Do you think you could try hailing a cab for us and just wait in it until we come out?”

“You’re sweet.”

“Here, take my hat.” He placed his fedora on her head; it came down over her ears. “Best get one going east on Forty-fourth.”

Arrington took a deep breath and ran into the street, waving her arms. Mary Ann stood her ground. “This guy doesn’t know me; I’m staying right here.”

“Could you keep an eye on Arrington, so we’ll know where she is if we have to move in a hurry?”

“That I can do.”

“I’ll take the alley,” Stone said. “Holler if you see him.”

“Right,” Dino said. “I hope he looks like his picture.”

“Me, too.” Stone left the lobby and walked up Shubert Alley, which ran between 44th and 45th Streets. The alley offered no shelter, and he stood there, getting wet. Shortly, a door opened and a trickle of people began leaving the theater, followed by a flood. Stone tried to search the faces without turning head on to them. After all, Dryer knew what he looked like. The theater was half empty when he heard Dino’s voice.

“Stone!”

He looked toward the corner of 45th and saw Dino waving for him. He hurried toward him.

“He just got into a limo with some other people,” Dino said, pointing at a line of limousines lining the curb.

“Where’s Arrington? Did she find a cab?”

“I don’t know; she went off toward Eighth Avenue.”

The line of limos started to move.

“Shit,” Dino said. “Where is she?”

“I’m getting wet,” Mary Ann said.

“Don’t melt,” Dino replied.

“There!” Stone pointed. Arrington was waving at them from the window of a cab. They all ran for it, and as they did, the limos began picking up speed. “Which car is he in?”

“That one,” Dino said nodding.

Stone tried to see inside, but the windows were tinted too darkly. Then he wondered if Dryer could be looking back at him through the opaque windows.

They piled into the cab with Arrington; Stone took the front seat. “Follow the third limo ahead,” he said to the driver.

“Oh, great,” the driver muttered. “How far we going? Queens? Montauk?”

“Shut up and drive,” Dino said, shoving his badge under the driver’s nose.

“Awright, awright,” the driver moaned.

“He’s crossing Seventh Avenue,” Dino said. “Keep up, and don’t let any more traffic get between him and us.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the driver said.

They moved slowly toward 6th Avenue; then, as they approached the comer, the light turned red, trapping them while Dryer’s limo turned left.

“Shit,” Stone said.

“Look, what can I do?” the driver whined. “There’s two cars in front of me. You want me to drive over them?”

“He’s stopped at the next corner; we can still catch up.”

A raft of traffic moved past them on 6th Avenue. Now they were ten or twelve cars back. Finally the light changed and they were able to turn left, but the light at the next corner changed and they were stopped again.

“Have you got him in sight?” Dino asked.

“I think so.”

They struggled up 6th Avenue in heavy traffic, getting no closer to the limo, then they were stopped again.