Sleight of Hand

CHAPTER Forty-Two

Dana got home a little after two-thirty. Jake woke up when she entered the bedroom. Dana sat on the side of the bed.

“We have to talk,” she said.

The only light in the room came from the moon, so Dana’s face was in shadows. Jake couldn’t see her expression, but he could hear the tension in her voice. He sat up.

“What’s wrong?”

“I was attacked tonight.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, and the man who attacked me isn’t. I took care of him. But he was working for someone who wants to scare me off a case, and I’m worried that they might try to get at me through you.”

Jake was wide awake now. “How serious is this?”

“Very serious.”

“Shit.”

“I’m sorry, Jake. I’d never have gotten involved if I had any idea I might put you in danger.”

“I know that.”

“I’m working with a homicide detective who told me to go out of town for a day or so. He’s working on something that he thinks will make the threat go away. Why don’t you come with me?”

“Where are you headed?”

“Kansas City. We’ll leave in the morning.”



Dana was packing when Frank Santoro called.

“There have been two developments,” the detective said. “Neither one is good, but one is interesting.”

“Tell me.”

“Tiffany Starr is dead.” Dana felt the air go out of her. “A jogger found her body in Rock Creek Park. Stabbed in the heart. It looks like a robbery—her purse is missing and she wasn’t wearing any jewelry.”

“But you don’t think robbery was the motive?” Dana asked as she shut down her emotions.

“It’s too much of a coincidence,” Santoro answered.

“You said there were two developments.”

“Last night, a man named Gregor Karpinski was admitted to Georgetown Medical Center. He’d been stabbed in the balls and had his head kicked in. The beating was pretty brutal.”

As soon as Santoro detailed Karpinski’s injuries Dana’s pulse shot up.

“There’s a connection between Karpinski and Barry Lester,” Santoro continued. “Lester was in general population in the jail. Then he was placed in isolation because he had a run-in with Karpinski. Karpinski is a beast, six five and solid muscle, and he works as an enforcer for Nikolai Orlansky. Barry Lester is a little shit with almost no muscle and no record of violence. The jail incident report states that Lester bumped into Karpinski, then called him an a*shole.”

“You think the fight was staged to get Lester into isolation?”

“That’s precisely what I think. Karpinski doesn’t breathe unless he gets permission from Orlansky, so either Nikolai wanted Lester in isolation or he was doing a favor for someone.”

“Have you asked Karpinski if he was ordered to beat up Lester?”

“He isn’t in any condition to answer questions.”

“Will he pull through?”

“The doctors can’t say yet. There’s something else. Four years ago, Karpinski beat an assault charge. Do you want to guess who his lawyer was?”