“Domino’s-Extravaganza, hold the green peppers,” Stone said.
But nobody could move, and they dozed off.
STONE WAS JERKED awake by the noise the front door bell was making on the telephone. He picked it up. “Yes?”
“Pizza delivery,” a voice said.
“Hang on,” Stone replied. He found a robe and some money, then went down to the front door and brought the pizza upstairs. The girls were sitting up in bed, and the light was on.
He handed them the box and got some beer out of the little bar fridge.
Mitzi was looking at him oddly. “I remember talking about pizza,” she said, “but I don’t remember anybody actually ordering it.”
Rita opened the box and held up a slip of paper. “What is this?”
Stone took it and read it aloud. “ ‘From the guys at the First Precinct. Bravo!’ ”
“Uh-oh,” Mitzi said, pointing at the bedside table.
The little bug sat there where Stone had dropped it, pointing toward the bed.
This time they rested and dozed a little.
34
STONE HAD NEVER EXPERIENCED a night quite like it. The pizza had revived them, and after having stuffed the ear bug into his sock drawer, they began again.
Now, at ten in the morning, they were having breakfast in Stone’s garden, snug behind the ivy-covered brick walls on either side of them and facing the Turtle Bay Common Garden at the end.
The girls seemed fresh as a daisy-showered, shampooed, coifed, and made up, their clothes freshly pressed with Helene’s iron. Stone was freshly showered, shaved, and dressed, too, but despite his having drunk a cup of strong Italian coffee-and he was now drinking his second-he felt tired, sore, and sleepy.
“Do you have any important work to do today, Stone?” Rita asked.
“Nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow,” he mumbled.
“Then maybe you should go back to bed,” she said.
“And maybe we could join you!” Mitzi offered.
Stone held up his hands in a gesture of pleading. “Not today; maybe never again.”
“We’ll see about that,” Mitzi said.
“What I need is a massage,” Stone replied.
“I’d love to do that, but I’ve got a meeting at the precinct.”
“Thank God,” Stone said.
“And I have to go to work,” Rita added.
“And good luck to you.”
Mitzi spoke again. “The meeting downtown is about our next step with Derek Sharpe.”
“What about Sig Larsen?” Stone asked.
“The feds have taken an interest in him. We’re going to give them the recordings that you and I make.”