He and Danny started to walk past when Beefy slashed at them with the blade.
A second later he dropped to his knees holding his belly. Danny rubbed his fist and looked down at his attacker.
“Not nearly as much fun when it’s just one-on-one, is it, chunko?”
Beefy weakly threw a punch at Danny, catching him lightly on the knee. Danny wound up to nail him again, but then just pushed him away. He grinned at Stone. “Can’t hit a man when he’s down. Ain’t sporting.”
Stone glanced sharply at Beefy’s two friends, who seemed to be deciding whether to attack or run. He said, “I’m done with you guys. So if you don’t take your friend here and get the hell out of my life right now I’m going to beat both of you into a coma.”
He knelt down, picked up the knife, and with a flick of his wrist tossed it ten feet where it embedded neatly in the wooden façade of the One T. Seconds later his two sidekicks were helping Beefy down the street as fast as they could go.
Danny was staring at the knife stuck in the wood, his mouth agape. He pulled it out and tossed it in a trash can. “Where’d you learn to throw like that?”
“Summer camp. So what’s it going to be, Danny? Home to get patched up, or running around on that gimpy leg watching your back for those a-holes?”
“Home. Couple days. No more.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“What about you?”
“Flop here for one night. Wait for the next train south. Tired of the cold.” Just tired.
The men started walking down the street.
“I wasn’t cheating at cards.”
“I believe you.”
“How come?”
“You don’t seem dumb enough to cheat when it’s three against one. How you getting to Divine? The train go there?”
Danny laughed. “Hell, nothing goes to Divine. Bus goes near it. Walk or thumb it from there. Won’t be the first time for me.”
Stone’s gaze caught on a black sedan that pulled slowly down the street. It stopped next to a police car and the driver of the sedan rolled down his window and started talking to the cop. Stone’s eyes dropped to the white government plate on the sedan.
Bureau car? Here? Did the train conductor suspect something and make a call?
Stone turned to face Danny. “Divine a pretty isolated place?”
Danny’s gaze drifted to the twin cars and then back to Stone. He’d clearly noted Stone’s reaction to the police car. “Isolated? Let me put it like this. Divine’s the sort of place you got to really want to get to if you want to find it. Although why anyone would beats me. And once you do find it then the only thing you want to do is get the hell out of there.”
“Sounds good.”
“What?”
“Let’s go.”
“You’re kidding, right? I’m telling you, man, it’s hell.”
“I don’t think so, Danny.”
Was he a lunatic or something else? Since Carter Gray was not known to summon mentally unstable people to his home, Knox opted for the latter. Oliver Stone had been accompanied by a Secret Service agent when he’d visited Gray’s demolished house. That too was interesting. He would have to get acquainted with Agent Alex Ford.
The last bit of interesting information had to do with a recent disinterment at Arlington National Cemetery. The grave of a man named John Carr had been dug up on orders from Gray. The coffin had been taken to CIA headquarters. Knox did not know the results of that action or actually who had ended up being in the coffin. He had seen some of Carr’s confidential military record, and it was an exemplary one. Yet then the man had simply disappeared.
Knox’s instincts told him that a man like Carr, with proven killing skills, would’ve made a productive member of Triple Six. Many of their members had come from the military. And right around the time Carr had vanished from public record was when Triple Six had been at the height of its activity. That had raised more questions than answers.
He reached his house and pulled into the garage. A moment later his daughter, Melanie, opened the door to the kitchen. She’d earlier phoned him to say she was coming over to take him to dinner. After he’d gotten the summons from Macklin Hayes he’d called her back saying he couldn’t make it, so he was surprised to see her.
The aroma of a cooked meal reached him from the kitchen. She gave him a hug and ushered him in, taking off his coat and hanging it up.