Page 115 of Near Miss

“The one in my office. Who is he?”

She rose and walked ahead of him to his office, strode in and said, “I’m sorry to keep you waiting, sir. Mr. Barrington has just returned from a meeting.”

Stone followed her into the room. “Good afternoon,” he said.

Joan was standing next to the man’s chair, looking down at him. “Sir?” she was saying, then she froze.

Stone stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“I think he’s dead,” she said.

Stone walked to her and looked down at the man. He was Peter Greco, and Joan was right.

“Well,” he said, “at least he has a good excuse for standing Eggers and me up for lunch.”

Carly walked into the room. “Hi,” she said. “Something smells dead.”

“Funny you should mention that,” Joan said. “I guess our air-conditioning isn’t working well enough.”

“Joan,” Stone said, “call 911, then get me Dino.”

“Why don’t we skip a step and just call Dino?” Joan asked.

“Dino doesn’t like skipping that step,” Stone replied. “He likes to be the second to hear.”

Joan made the calls, and yelled, “Dino on one!”

Stone picked up. “I just came back from meeting with Eggers at Woodman & Weld and found a stiff waiting for me in my home office.”

“Which one? I know a lot of stiffs.”

“This one is both stiff and cold and is starting to impair our atmosphere,” Stone said.

“Anybody we know?”

“Peter Greco.”

“Why am I not surprised? Did you call 911?”

“Of course.”

“When the detectives get there, tell them I’m on the way and not to touch anything. Don’t you or yours touch anything, either.” He hung up.

Carly was standing next to the desk, staring at Greco’s corpse. “Why would they kill him somewhere else and leave him here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe their dumpster was full.”

“Right, that makes a lot of sense.”

“Or maybe as a warning.”

“What kind of warning?”

“The ‘this could happen to you’ kind of warning.”

“Oh. You think it could be the Sarge guy?”

“It would be foolish to think otherwise.”

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