Unnatural Acts (Stone Barrington 23)

“She is a very beautiful girl,” Viv said. “Lots of guys would have gotten mixed up with her.”

“Hey,” the tech said, “I’ve got a hit on the analysis. There’s Ambien mixed with the brandy. It’s a sleeping pill, and it looks like a hefty dose. He drank most of it, too.”

“I’m going to the hospital,” Stone said.

“Me too,” Dino replied. “Viv, you pick up the girl on suspicion of filing a false report. Take her back to the precinct and milk her dry before she can lawyer up. I’ll be over there later.”

“Yes, boss,” Viv replied, then left.

Dino and Stone took a good look around the apartment.

“Nice place,” Dino said. “I didn’t know Herbie had taste, except maybe in clothes.”

“Herbie packs a lot of surprises,” Stone said. “He made senior associate at the firm in two years. Never been done before.”

“Come on, we’ll take my car,” Dino said.

At Lenox Hill they found Herbie in an ER cubicle, being attended by a young female resident. Dino made the introductions. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s still out. We’ve sent blood and urine to the lab, but we may not have results for a while.”

“He was drinking brandy, heavily laced with Ambien,” Dino said.

“Are you sure about that?”

“We can run that test on the scene these days.”

“In that case, I know what to give him. I’ll be right back.” She left the cubicle.

Dino peered at Herbie. “Sleeping like a baby,” he said.

“Drooling like one, too,” Stone said. He picked up a tissue from a box at bedside and wiped Herbie’s mouth.

The resident returned with a hypodermic. She unbuttoned Herbie’s sleeve, swabbed a vein, uncapped the hypo, and injected it. “Watch this,” she said, recapping the hypo and tossing it into a disposal unit.

Herbie’s eyelids began to flutter, and in a moment he opened his eyes and looked around. “Holy shit,” he said. “This looks like a hospital.”

“That’s because it is,” the resident said. “You’re in the ER at Lenox Hill.”

“How are you feeling, Herbie?” Dino asked.

“A little fuzzy around the edges,” he said. “Last thing I remember, a beautiful girl had her face in my lap.”

Even the resident had to laugh.

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Herbie sat in the backseat of Dino’s car. “Okay,” he said, “what the hell happened? How’d I go from getting a blow job to the ER?”

“The girl drugged you,” Stone said. “She put more than one Ambien in your brandy glass, then she went to the ER and said she’d been raped.” Stone told him the rest of the story. “Who is Carson Cullers?”

“She’s Dink Brennan’s girlfriend,” Herbie said. He told Stone and Dino how she came to be in his apartment.

“Dink had to have sent her,” Stone said. He explained to Dino who Dink was.

They parked in Herbie’s garage and went upstairs.

“There was an ounce or so of cocaine on the coffee table,” Dino said. “My tech took it into evidence.”