“So, another couple hours?” Dino asked.
“I see you’ve been here before,” the doctor said. “I’ll do what I can to expedite things.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Stone said.
The doctor exited through the curtain.
“I went to the crime scene, but you were already gone,” Dino said.
“I apologize for not waiting,” Stone said. “But in my defense, I wasn’t totally aware of what was going on.”
“And you are now?”
“About as aware as I normally am.”
“Then why don’t you tell me how and why you got knocked out in a building in Chelsea.”
“The how is easy. A couple of punches to my head and at least one to my stomach. As for the why? I have no idea. All I know is that it was planned.”
“Don’t tell me. This has something to do with a woman, doesn’t it?”
“Two, actually, but not in the way you’re thinking.”
“I have a very vivid imagination.”
“Which you can pack right up and put back wherever you keep it. I was simply being a Good Samaritan.”
“Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
“Perhaps I can explain,” Fred said. “When Mr. Barrington was leaving Patroon’s after your dinner, he met two young women outside.”
“So far, this is going exactly as I pictured it,” Dino said.
“One of the ladies appeared to be in distress, for what reason, I was not privy.”
“Her friend said she’d broken up with her boyfriend,” Stone clarified.
“And you were her knight in shining armor?” Dino said.
“Mr. Barrington offered to give them a ride to their apartment,” Fred said.
“They couldn’t have called for their own ride?”
“The ex-boyfriend had taken the girlfriend’s phone and the phone belonging to the other woman was dead,” Stone explained.
“And you confirmed this?”
“Well, not exactly.”
Dino stared at him for a moment, then turned his attention back to Fred. “The women’s apartment was in Chelsea?”
“Correct, Commissioner. Or at least that’s what they told us. When we arrived, the one who’d been crying was concerned that someone might be waiting for her and her friend inside.”
“That would be the spurned ex-boyfriend?” Dino said.
“That’s what she claimed,” Stone said.
“And I suppose you offered to walk them to their apartment.”
