The grinding started again. The elevator was coming up.
"You must've told them about me after the accident. Did the marshal I hit in the subway think I was part of them? Did you tell them my name?"
"It's not real."
"No, but I've used it before. I can be traced through it."
Chains, clinking chains. And the grind of metal on metal. Another loud click, a scrape.
"Who's coming to visit, Rune?"
"I don't know."
Stephanie glanced at the stairway. Then back at Rune. She said, "So, what do you have in your hand."
Rune couldn't believe that the woman had seen her. Oh, she was good. She was very good.
"Show me," Stephanie persisted.
Rune hesitated, then held up her hand and slowly opened the bandaged fingers. "The piece of stone. From the Union Bank Building. My souvenir. The one I picked up when you were with me that day down in Wall Street."
"Now, what were you going to do with it?"
"Throw it at you," Rune responded. "Smash your goddamn face."
"Why don't you just toss it over there." Lucy Zane held the silenced gun very steadily on Rune's chest.
Rune pitched the stone away.
Just as Richard climbed the stairs and said, "Hi."
He froze, seeing the gun in Stephanie's hand. "What is this?"
Stephanie waved him in. "Okay. Just stand there." She backed up so that she could keep them both covered. She held the gun out straight. It was small and its black metal gleamed in the sunlight. The short cylinder of the silencer was dark too.
Her voice now had an edge to it. "I don't have much time. Who'd you tell about me, Rune? And what did you tell them? I want to know. And I mean now."
"Let him go."
Richard said, "What the hell is this? Are you two joking?"
Stephanie's left hand went out toward him. Palm up. The nails were done in careful purple-pink. "Shut up, asshole. Just shut up." To Rune: "What did you tell them?"
"God," Richard whispered, looking at Rune.
Rune sank back into the cushions, put her hands over her eyes, sobbing. "No, no ... I don't give a shit about you or Emily or anybody. I won't testify. I'll tell them it wasn't Emily or you. Mr. Kelly's dead! Spinello's dead! Just leave us alone."
Stephanie said patiently, "Maybe I'll consider that. You have to understand, Rune. I like you. I really do. You're ... charming. And I was really touched you were going to give me some of that ridiculous money. That almost choked me up. But you have to tell me. This's just business."
"All right ... I didn't tell anybody anything about you."
"I don't believe you."
"It's true! All I did was write about you in my diary. I mentioned you and Emily." She sat back, hand in her lap, small, defeated. "I thought you were my friend. I described you and wrote how nice you were to help me buy some clothes."
If this choked her up too, Stephanie's expression didn't show it.
"Where is it?" the woman asked. "The diary. Let me have it and I'll let you go. Both of you."