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Ramona input the door code, but instead of the door clicking open, the keypad beeped three times.

“Sorry,” Ramona said.

She entered the code in again, and again the pad beeped thrice.

She glanced at Sofia.

“Can you do it?”

“Me?” Sofia said.

“I’m still a little shaken up from earlier.”

“I, uh, I don’t, um…”

“Is there a problem?” Stone asked.

Ramona hesitated before saying, “We just moved in a couple of weeks ago.”

“Yeah,” Sofia said quickly.

“And I keep forgetting the code.”

“Me, too, apparently.”

“Do you have it written down somewhere?” Stone asked.

Ramona’s eyes brighten.

“Yes!”

She opened her purse and pulled out a piece of paper on which several numbers were written.

She tapped the keypad again, and this time the door buzzed.

She pulled it open and smiled.

“I won’t forget next time.”

They entered and crossed the small lobby to a hallway at the back.

“The elevator’s this way,” Ramona said with a gesture, and turned to the right.

Stone followed and was surprised to find himself in what must have been a maintenance hallway.

Before he could say anything, a door they’d just passed swung open and two large men stepped out.

One grabbed Stone by the arms, clamping them against Stone’s sides, while the other watched.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Stone protested.

“Thank you, ladies,” the watching one said.

“We’ll take it from here.”

Ramona gave Stone a worried look and mumbled, “Sorry.”

Sofia snagged Ramona’s arm and pulled her farther down the hallway.

“Let’s get out of here.”

They disappeared down an adjoining hallway that headed back toward the front of the building.

Stone twisted free from one of the man’s hands, then turned and kneed the guy in the crotch.

The man’s other hand fell away as he groaned in pain.

“You son of a bitch!” he hissed, voice strained.

Stone raced down the corridor, in the direction Ramona and Sofia had gone.

A beat later, he heard footsteps pounding the cement behind him, coming fast.

Stone had almost reached the hallway the women had taken when a giant mitt of a hand slapped down on his shoulder, spun him around, and smashed into the side of his face.

Stone stumbled into a wall, and the thug punched him in the gut.

Air rushed out of Stone’s lungs.

He sagged to the floor, dazed.

He felt hands patting him down, and one pulling something out from one of his pockets.

The thug slapped Stone’s face.

“Open your eyes.”

When Stone didn’t instantly comply, the guy slapped him again.

“I said, open them!”

Stone’s eyes fluttered open.

Some kind of rectangular light was being held in front of him, but Stone’s brain was too rattled to tell what it was.

The light flickered, then the guy said, “Thanks,” and punched Stone again, knocking him out.

Fred was standing on the sidewalk, near the Bentley, waiting for Stone to return, when a door opened at the other end of the building that Stone and the women had entered.

Sofia and Ramona exited in a hurry and began moving quickly down the sidewalk, in the opposite direction.

“Ladies!” he called out.

“Where’s Mr. Barrington?”

The one named Ramona looked back, but her friend quickly put an arm around her back, urging her to move faster.

Fred immediately opened the Bentley’s trunk, removed the wrecking bar he kept there for emergencies, and hurried to the entrance.

He slipped one end of the bar into the gap between the jamb and the door, near the latch, and yanked hard.

The latch popped and the door swung open.

He paused for a moment in the lobby to take his pistol from his shoulder holster.

As he did, he could hear two men talking from farther inside.

He headed toward their voices.

When he turned into the back hallway, he saw two men standing about fifty feet away, Stone lying at their feet.

One of the men was holding a cell phone in each hand, using one to take a picture of the other’s screen.

Fred strode purposefully toward them, gun raised, and barked, “Don’t move!”

The one holding the phones looked up and said, “What the fuck?” The other one reached into his jacket.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” Fred said.

Glaring, the guy pulled his hand back out, still empty.

Fred was about to tell them to put their hands on the wall when Stone moaned and moved his head from side to side.

As Fred’s gaze flicked to him, the man who’d been holding the phones dropped one of them, and he and his buddy rushed into a side hallway, out of sight.

Fred sprinted after them, but by the time he reached the other corridor, they’d escaped through the same exit the women had used.

Fred hurried back to Stone.

“Mr. Barrington? Can you hear me?”

After a few seconds, Stone’s eyes opened.

“Fred? What happened?”

“I was hoping you could tell me that.”

Stone tried to sit up, but Fred put a hand on his shoulder.

“Better if you stay down.”

Stone blinked and lay his head back on the cement.

“You’re probably right.”

After calling 911, Fred called a number he’d had for many years but had seldom needed to use.

“Bacchetti,” Dino answered.

“Commissioner Bacchetti, it’s Fred Flicker.”

“If you’re calling to tell me Stone’s dead, I’m not going to be happy.”

“I am not. There has, however, been an incident.”

“What kind of incident?”