Manhattan Is My Beat (Rune 1)

Then Rune saw the bracelets. In a huge glass pyramid, a dozen silver bracelets. She walked to the end of the counter, staring at them, her mouth slightly open. Exhaling an Oh.

"You like them, do you?" the clerk asked.

"Can I see that one, there?"

Rune took the thin bracelet, held it up to her face. Turned it over and over. The silver grew thicker and thinner and the ends were like two hands clasped together.

The Rastafarian grinned. "She look nice. She look nice on your arm but ..."

"'She'?" Stephanie asked.

The clerk was studying Rune's face. "Mebbe you thinkin' 'bout givin' her away to someone. Mebbe you thinkin' that?" He held the bracelet in his long, sensuous fingers, studied it carefully. Rune thought of Richard's hands slowly opening a beer can. The clerk looked up. "To some man friend of yours."

Rune didn't pay attention to his words. "How did you know that?" Stephanie asked him.

He grinned, silent. Then said, "He's a nice man, I think."

Stephanie looked at him uneasily. "How did you know?"

And Rune, who wasn't surprised at all by the clerk's words, said, "I'll take it."

"It's too expensive."

The Rastafarian frowned. "Hey, I offer you satori, I offer you love, and you say that be too expensive?"

"Bargain with him," Stephanie commanded.

Rune said, "Wrap it for a present."

The Rastafarian hesitated. "You sure?"

"Sure I'm sure. Why?"

"Oh, jus' this bracelet, s

he be important in your life, I got this feelin'. Be very important." He fingered the metal hoop. "Don't be too fast to give her away. No, no, don't be too fast to do that."

"Can we eat now?" Stephanie asked. "I'm hungry."

As they walked to the door the clerk called to Rune, "You hear me?"

Rune turned. Looked into his eyes. "I hear you."

"'I'll go in, sir,' "

Rune handed Stephanie a hot dog she'd bought from the vendor in front of Trinity Church downtown, near Wall Street. She continued speaking. "'I'll go in, sir' is what Roy the cop--Dana Mitchell--says to his captain. They're all standing around the front of the bank with their bullhorns and guns. 'I'll go in, sir.' And it's a big surprise because he's just a beat cop and a young guy. Nobody'd been paying any attention to him. But he's the one who volunteers to rescue the hostage."

Rune took her own hot dog from the man. They sat down beside the wrought-iron fence in front of the cemetery. Thousands of people were walking past on Broadway, some disappearing down Wall Street into the curving, solemn griminess of the buildings.

Stephanie ate thoughtfully, looking at the hot dog uncertainly after each bite.

"Then Roy goes, 'Let me try it, sir. I can talk him out. I know I can.'"

"Uh-huh." Stephanie was gazing straight ahead; the hordes of passing crowds were mesmerizing.

"So the lieutenant goes, 'All right, officer, if you want to go, I won't stop you.'"

Rune threw out her half-eaten hot dog. Stood up." 'But it's dangerous.'" She sounded as melodramatic as the character in the film itself. "That was another cop, a friend of his, said that. And Dana--remember that dreamy kind of look he had?--Dana says, 'I'm not letting anyone get killed on my beat.' His jaw was all firm and he pulled his hat straight and handed his nightstick to his friend then walked across the street and climbed in the side window." Rune started pacing. "Come on, let's go. I want to see the real bank."