The taxi from Brighton Beach had let me off in my underground parking garage, and also left me forty bucks poorer, which is cheap for life insurance.
I'd taken the freight elevator up to my apartment, and no one from the surveillance team seemed to have noticed my absence. I didn't want to get these guys in trouble, so I'd be certain to never get caught leaving home without them.
Anyway, it was now 7 A.M. Wednesday morning, a short seventy-two hours since Kate and I had woken up in the High Top Motel in Sullivan County, excited about jumping out of an airplane. Little did we know, as they say, how exciting it was going to be.
I didn't have anything specific planned for the day, reminding me that the problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you're done.
I did take the opportunity to go through my daily dozen exercises, being motivated not by vanity but by health concerns, meaning in this case, I needed to be in good shape if Khalil and I got into a wrestling match. Boris was right-Khalil's attacks were up close and personal, and if you could survive the initial surprise assault you had a chance to turn it around. This was why Kate was still alive.
As I was getting ready to visit Kate at Bellevue, my cell phone rang and it was Paresi. I answered, "Corey."
Captain Paresi inquired, "What did you do last night?"
Uh-oh. Time to come clean. I said, "I visited Kate in the hospital."
"I know that. What did you do afterward?"
Time to come clean. "I was driven home."
There was a silence on the phone, then Paresi said, "The surveillance guy in your lobby, Ramos, reported that he called your apartment phone and your cell phone and also had the doorman buzz your intercom, but you didn't answer."
Time to really come clean. I replied, "I was dead to the world by ten P.M." Or was I having a vodka with Veronika? I asked, "What did Ramos want?"
Paresi replied, "Nothing. Just a commo check and a situation report."
Bottom line here, Paresi had no evidence that I'd actually gone out, so I got a little huffy and said, "Captain, I'm a cop-not some Mafia informant who needs watching twenty-four/seven-"
"Your life is in danger, Detective Corey." He added, "You have agreed-"
"I didn't agree to sleep with my surveillance guys."
There was a silence, then Paresi said to me, "All right." He informed me, "As it turns out, we know where you'll be tonight."
I didn't reply, and I didn't ask.
He continued, "But first, some housekeeping. Gabe's funeral and that of his wife and daughter was yesterday. It was a private religious ceremony, but we will have a memorial service for him and his family sometime next week if possible." He added, "Depends on what happens."
Right. Depends on our own funerals. I said, "Okay."
Paresi asked me, "How is Kate?"
"Well enough to get out of the hospital, but Walsh is keeping her there, and neither of us is happy about that."
He replied, "She's safer there, and you're better off not having her home."
I didn't respond to that and said, "There's something you need to do-have a death certificate issued and recorded in Sullivan County ASAP, and have the Catskill Medical Center alter their records accordingly."
"Okay… if you think someone would actually be checking on that."
"Let's assume that Khalil is obsessed with his confirmed body count."
"All right. Will do." He asked me, "Have you received or recalled anything I should know about?"
This was basically my last chance to come clean about Boris, and I'd weighed the pros and cons of reporting my contact with Boris Korsakov. Boris, however, had correctly determined that I was acting on my own, and he'd asked me for a week of no police or FBI interference-a week to see if Khalil attempted to whack him on his protected turf at his nightclub. Boris's purpose, of course, was to silence Asad Khalil forever, though I didn't really care what Boris wanted-he wasn't running this operation. But his best interests might coincide with mine. This was a tough call.
"John?"
"I'm thinking."
On the other hand, Boris may have sobered up by now, and smartened up, and he might call me and say he'd changed his mind and please send the police to protect him. Or for all I knew, Boris, the devious KGB man, might now be hightailing it to Moscow with his wife-or the French Riviera without his wife. I wouldn't blame him if he did.
"Hello? John?"
I replied, "I can't think of anything." I changed the subject and asked him, "Has Special Operations seen anything unusual at the bad guy safe houses?"
"No."
"Are we trying to find any other safe houses that we don't know about?"
He replied, "We're checking with rental agents about corporate rentals that they may have thought were suspicious-but that's very time-consuming and a very long shot."
"Right." I said to him, "I had a thought that if I was Khalil's pals in New York, I'd have rented a place on my street-an office or an apartment-and mounted a mini camcorder in the window, and I'd be keeping an eye on my front door from a monitor located in that office or apartment."
Paresi stayed silent awhile, then replied, "That's a good thought… but your street is lined with high-rises-like thousands of apartments and offices-"
"Right. I live here. I can see them." I said to him, "You should get some manpower on that, Captain."
"Right." He advised me, "You should stay off your balcony."
"I was going to invite you over for drinks on the balcony."
Paresi sometimes appreciated my dark humor, but this was not one of those times. He said to me, "I have to tell you, we're spread pretty thin, but I'll see if I can get the FBI field office and One P. P. to give us some people."
Recalling my unproductive surveillance of the Iranian dip, I suggested, "Pull people off the U.N. assignments." I pointed out, "This case is high priority."
"I know. But you have no idea how many tips, threats, and leads we've gotten in the last few months that we have to follow up on."
I thought about that and said, "It's possible these are planned distractions."
He stayed silent a moment, then replied, "Maybe." Then he said, "I never thought we'd be overwhelmed… you know?"
"The world," I reminded him, "has changed."
"Yeah. But we're staffing up." He joked, "That's why you still have a job."
Funny. I asked him, "Any hits from CAU on Kate's cell phone or Gabe's cell phone?"
He replied, "As you know, we've discontinued service on both, but CAU is watching to see if anyone turns them on to use their phone directories."
"Okay. Are the surveillances of the Muslim neighborhoods turning up anything?"
"No."
"I assume you've cancelled all leave and that everyone is putting in extra days and hours."
"Goes without saying. In fact, John, let me assure you that despite personnel shortages, the Task Force, the FBI, and the NYPD are on top of all this. And let me remind you, you are not part of the investigation. You are on leave."
"Then why are you asking me questions?"
He informed me, "We ask you questions-you do not need to ask us questions. Or give us advice."
Well, I had been wavering about telling him about Boris, but I wasn't wavering anymore. Hey, I'm not part of the investigation.
"John?"
"I understand."
In a more kindly tone, he said, "We want you to focus on remembering the past, and anything from the past that can help us this time."
I said to him, "My car and driver are waiting. Anything else?"
"Yes, the reason I called. You're going trawling tonight."
That was exciting news, and I said, "Good. What's the plan?"
He began, "At about ten P.M., you will leave your apartment and go on foot along Seventy-second Street and enter Central Park-"
"I could get mugged."
He ignored that and continued, "We're using the park because we all know it and we've all trained there for surveillance and countersurveillance."
"Right." I got lost once.
He continued, "You'll meet a Special Operations Group supervisor in your lobby at ten, and he will give you your route and your various destinations in the park. Then you will establish communication with the surveillance teams outside your building, and off you go."
"Sounds like a plan." I reminded him, "I don't want a parade behind me or a brass band in front of me."
"Right. You're covered, but not overprotected."
"I'll let you know what I think when I see it."
"Okay. We're willing to learn. Trial and error."
"No errors, please." I asked him, "Have you notified the Central Park Precinct?"
"We have. They know what's going down and we'll keep in contact with them."
"Good." The CPP had a strong presence in the park at night, including mounted police, undercover cops, and marked and unmarked cars. In fact, too much presence. I said to Paresi, "Keep them away from my route."
"Understood." He went on with his mission briefing. "At your various destinations in the park, there will be backup people-SWAT teams-concealed with night-vision devices and sniper rifles."
"Don't forget to tell them what I'm wearing."
Without even a chuckle, he continued, "The places where you will stop and linger are waterside spots-the Kerbs Boathouse, then a prearranged spot on Belvedere Lake, and then maybe up at the Reservoir." He informed me, "The surveillance and SWAT teams want to use waterside locations because that limits the possible avenues of approach for Khalil, and it also narrows down the area that needs to be covered by the SWAT team, and by the surveillance teams." He added, "In other words, you're covered on one side by the water." Then a joke. "Can you swim?"
"No. But I can walk on water." I asked, "What am I supposed to do at these locations at that hour, other than look like I'm bait in a trap?"
"Good question. And I don't have a good answer, but I'm thinking you just lost your wife… and you can just be taking a long walk. You know? Head down, sit on a bench, put your face in your hands… or maybe carry a bottle of booze-not real, of course-and act a little drunk. You know how to do that."
"Maybe I should look like I'm going to drown myself in the lake."
"Yeah… you can do that… I guess. Anyway, what you won't do is jog. You'll walk slowly, and follow the planned route and listen to instructions on your earphone." He added, "You'll go through this with the Special Operations boss in your lobby."
"Right."
"And remember, John, as you said, if anyone is watching your building and waiting for you to come out, it might not be Khalil himself. So if the bad guys are on the street, or in vehicles, or as you suggested in a building overlooking your street, it could take some time for them to get hold of Khalil while they're following you." He again assured me, "The countersurveillance team will pick up anyone tailing you, and we'll know if we've got a game going. Okay? And remember, the most critical part of this, if it's going to work, is them picking you up as you leave your lobby. Right? So, linger without being obvious."
"Obviously."
"Any questions?"
"Nope."
Then the pep talk. He said, "This is above and beyond, John, and we appreciate your willingness to put yourself in harm's way. You may feel alone tonight, but rest assured, you will not be alone. Tom and I, and everyone on the Task Force and in the Special Operations Group, will be thinking of you and praying for your safety and your success."
"Thank you." I inquired, "Where will you be thinking of me and praying for me?"
"I'm home on call." He reminded me, "I'm on Central Park West, and I can be in the park within minutes."
"Good. We can both pose for photos with the dead lion."
He also reminded me, "We want to take him alive, if possible."
"Of course." I asked him, "Where will Tom be?"
"Also home, waiting to hear."
"Where's your wife, Captain?"
"Out of town."
"Good." I would have asked him where Tom's girlfriend was, but she wasn't in any danger. Why not? Well, she's a barracuda, and Khalil would not harm her out of professional courtesy. Should I share this with Paresi? Maybe not.
Anyway, we seemed to have covered all the points, and I said, "I'm off to the hospital."
"Give my regards to Kate. We'll speak later before you go out."
I hung up and, ignoring Paresi's advice, walked out to the balcony and looked at the buildings across the street. Indeed, there were thousands of windows that all had a good view of me and my balcony, and also the front doors of this building, plus there were dozens of rooftops, many of them higher than my balcony. A very easy way to kill John Corey was to have a sniper on a roof or in any of those apartments or offices-and he didn't even have to be a particularly good shot. But if that was going to happen, it would have already happened.
From here, I could see Central Park at the end of 72nd Street, over eight hundred acres of open fields, woods, ponds and lakes, park structures, and lots of dark spaces at night. It was a good place for this game-but maybe too obvious.
Like the lion for whom he was named, Asad Khalil could smell danger, but a hungry lion will take a risk for a meal, and by now, The Lion must be very hungry.