Kisser (Stone Barrington 17)

“But no evidence.”

“Well, there is that.”

“What about a bullet?”

“Passed through,” Stone said, but he turned and looked at the front of the house. “There,” he said, pointing at a brick with a missing chunk. “Ricocheted from there.”

They both looked around for the bullet but couldn’t find it.

“It’ll be distorted anyway,” Dino said. “Wouldn’t provide any ballistics to check.”

They got into Dino’s car and left.

54

STONE FOUND MITZI in the garden, dunking a croissant into her coffee.

“ Charleston manners?” Stone asked.

“My mother would turn over in her grave,” Mitzi replied, “but I love it this way.”

Stone asked Helene for some breakfast and sat down at the garden table.

“So, what was the emergency?” Mitzi asked.

“Somebody took a shot at Carrie,” Stone said.

“Hit her?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, good.”

“Don’t gloat; it wasn’t that bad. She’s going to rehearsal later this morning.”

“I’ll bet the list of suspects is a long one,” Mitzi said.

“How’d you guess?”

Mitzi made a snorting sound. “You could include all the members of her high school class.”

“And the cast of her show, apparently, but it was probably her ex-husband. He’s been stalking her.”

“You think he meant to kill her? I mean, he missed.”

“Most people are lousy shots,” Stone said. “The untrained just point in the general direction and yank the trigger.”

“More people should train,” Mitzi said.

“If they did, we’d just have a lot more successful shootings.”

“Good point. Do you suppose we could persuade the NRA to support training shooters badly?”

Stone laughed. “Probably not.”

“You were good last night,” Mitzi said. “There are times when I’m so discouraged with men that I think about becoming a card-carrying lesbian. You’ve restored my faith in men.”

“Really?”