Both phones in Mike Carson’s home office were ringing. Mike punched the hold button on one of them and said hello into the other.
“Has anyone told you what happened to Lenny Sulzberger?” It was Patsy Abromowitz.
“No. Seems like he was just here.” Mike pressed a few keys on the computer and his calendar popped on the screen. June 2—8:04 A.M. Then, into the phone, “Patsy? He walked out of here nine hours ago. What happened?”
“He went home after his meeting with you and got mixed up with a woman who said her name was Katya. They had a talk in a neighborhood restaurant, Lenny went home, Katya followed and shot him. Shot the poor bastard two times. He’s in St. Vincent’s Hospital and so am I.”
“How bad is it?”
“He was hit in the right thigh and left ass,” Patsy said without hesitation. “Right now he’s flat on his stomach and so damned pissed off he’d bust out if he could.”
“I feel sorry for him, but there’s nothing I can do. Or is there?”
“Not really. Apparently this Katya woman wanted to know what you told Lenny about Akimov. Lenny claims he didn’t tell her anything, so she shot him and took his notebook.”
“Lenny saw her? Did he describe her?”
“He told me she was a plain-looking forty-five-year old, on the heavy side.”
“That’s not the one who shot Sasha.”
“What do you suppose she wanted from Lenny?”
“I haven’t any idea. Lenny took a lot of notes, but I really didn’t tell him very much. Sasha talked about my family, and that’s off limits for Lenny or anyone else.”
“That may be, but I think whoever’s behind all this wants to know what Sasha came all this distance to talk about. More’n likely they figure it wasn’t idle chatter about your mom and dad. I think this, Mike: if they don’t find what they’re looking for in Lenny’s notebook, they might pay you a visit.”
Mike thought a moment. “I think they’re looking for something Sasha never had a chance to tell me. Hell, I’d like to know what it was myself.”
“I’ll stay with Lenny until they get him leveled out.”
There was a moment’s silence before Patsy continued, “You know, Mike, your Russian friend brought bad luck with him. Like there’s three people in the hospital? I’d hate like hell to see you make it four.”