Worst Fears Realized (Stone Barrington 5)

“Let me acquaint you with a point of the law in the state of New York,” Dino said. “We have the death penalty here. You understand the death penalty?”

The man shrugged and said nothing.

“They take a needle,” Dino said, pointing at his arm, “and put it here, in the vein. That’s all; lights out; kaput.”

“In Deutschland is being no death,” the man said. “Deutschland is being civilized.”

“Well, here, we’re still barbarians, I guess,” Dino replied.” Here we still put murderers to death, and you are a murderer. You have confessed to killing seven people.”

“Six only,” the man said. “Not this lady Bean.”

“Bad news,” Dino said. “Six is enough for the death penalty, the needle. Of course, before that happens, you’ll spend many years in a small cell, talking to nobody. We have prisons like that in this country. Dangerous people like you are put into special cells where they see nobody, talk to nobody for twenty-three hours a day. One hour a day, you get to exercise alone. Once a week, you get to shower. Then, after a few years, when you’re already crazy from being alone, they take you to a little room and they put the needle in your arm, you understand?”

The man said nothing, but his face had become grim.

“Now,” Dino said, “maybe there is a way for you to live. You see, we know that you did these murders because Mitteldorfer wanted you to. You had nothing against these people, right? Maybe Mitteldorfer made you kill them. If you tell us about that, if you testify to that in court, then maybe we can ask the district attorney not to go for the death penalty.”

“But I am being in the place alone?” the man said. “I am not speaking to any person? I am not seeing any person?”

“Maybe,” Dino said. “If you’re real helpful, maybe we can make that better, too.”

“I am not believing you,” the man said. “You will be putting me in this room all the time.”

“I’m offering you a deal,” Dino said. “You understand deal?”

“No.”

“You help me, I help you.”

“How am I helping you?”

“You tell me where to find Mitteldorfer. You tell me why Mitteldorfer wanted these people dead. You say this in a court of law.”

The man shook his head. “If you are not killing me, he is killing me.”

“No,” Dino said. “We will protect you from Mitteldorfer.”

To Stone’s astonishment, the man began to cry.

Dino gaped at him, startled.

The man stood up. “I must have toilet,” he said.

“Later,” Dino replied.

The man began unzipping his fly.

“All right, all right,” Dino said. He handcuffed the man with his hands in front of him, so that he could use the toilet. “Let’s go,” he said.

Stone followed the two into the hallway outside the interrogation room. It was a narrow hallway, and momentarily crowded. Dino held the man against the wall to allow two police officers to pass.

Stone saw it coming and opened his mouth to yell, but too late. The man reached out and plucked the pistol from an officer’s belt, elbowed Dino out of the way, and pointed the weapon at Stone.

“Gun!” Stone yelled, diving for the floor. From behind him he heard two shots, and he looked up to see the suspect fall to the floor beside him. A good part of his head was missing. Stone looked back down the hallway. Andy Anderson was still in a combat crouch, with his weapon pointed at the dead man.

“Oh, shit!” Dino said.

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