Stone - 25 - Collateral Damage

happened?”
    “Well, no, she just intimated that something happened that she couldn’t talk about. Next day, a black SUV with darkened windows nearly takes her out. She’s scared.”
    “Nothing happened that I know about,” Stone lied. “Will you let me know if you hear any further details about that?”
    “Why?”
    “I’d just like to know.”
    “Okay, Stone, if I hear more, I’ll tell you. In the meantime, Harp is going over to Jim’s place to sweep it.” Herbie hung up. “Stone knows something,” he said aloud to himself. “What’s going on here?”
    —
    Stone called Holly on her personal cell phone.
    “Hey, there,” she said.
    “Hey. You get back to Langley okay?”
    “Yep. Choppered in about an hour ago.”
    “Tell me, did you have Kelli Keane’s apartment wired for sound?”
    Holly cleared her throat. “Why would you think that?”
    “Because Kelli thinks that. She also thinks that somebody tried to run her down yesterday: a black SUV with dark windows. She wants her place swept for bugs, and her boyfriend called Herb Fisher for help.”
    “No, I haven’t had her place bugged, and I haven’t tried to have her killed. I’m surprised you would ask me something like that.”
    “It’s just that, after the conversation we had a few days ago, it occurred to me that you might have been referring to Kelli.”
    “No, I wasn’t. Do you think she is becoming a security threat? I mean, I read her the riot act, and she signed the agreement.”
    “I don’t know. I just hear that she’s scared.”
    “Has she told her boyfriend something?”
    “Apparently she just told him that something happened in L.A. that she couldn’t talk about. Herb is sending his girlfriend, Harp O’Connor, over to Kelli’s place to do a sweep.”
    “When?”
    “At four this afternoon.”
    “Do me a big favor, Stone?”
    “Sure.”
    “Call Herb back and tell him to ask Harp not to keep the appointment.”
    “For what reason?”
    “Tell him it’s no longer necessary.”
    “As you wish,” Stone said. “Hope to see you soon?”
    “Maybe sooner than you think,” Holly said.
    —
    Jim Rutledge was working at his drawing board at three o’clock when the downstairs bell rang. He picked up the phone and pressed the intercom button. “Yes?”
    “Hi, Jim, this is Ted. Harp O’Connor asked me to come and see you.”
    “I’ll buzz you in,” Jim said, pressing a button.
    A minute later, Jim opened the front door to find a short, pleasant-looking young man standing there, holding two toolboxes and an aluminum ladder hung over one shoulder.
    “Hi, I’m Ted. Harp got an emergency call, so she asked me to take this one. We work together.”
    “Come in, Ted,” Jim said. “What can I do to help?”
    “Not a thing. Just do whatever you were doing, and I’ll get to work.”
    “Okay,” Jim said. He looked at his watch. “How long will you be?”
    “A couple of hours. What time does your girlfriend get home?”
    “She’ll be a little late tonight, probably around seven.”
    “Good, I won’t disturb her.”
    Jim went back to his drawing board, and Ted went to work, donning a pair of earphones and waving some sort of antenna around.
    An hour later Jim finished his day’s work, stood up, stretched, and went to find Ted. He was in the master bedroom with his equipment. “Ted, would you mind if I leave you here alone? I thought I’d catch a movie down the street.”
    “No problem,” Ted replied.
    “Just let yourself out when you’re done. The door will lock itself.”
    “No problem.”
    Jim got his coat and left the apartment.
    “No problem at all,” Ted muttered to himself.

Holly was still at her desk at six-thirty when she got a phone call. “Holly Barker.”
    “Hi, Holly, it’s Mike Theodore at the New York station.”
    “Hi, Mike.”
    “I visited the Rutledge and Keane apartment in New York, as requested.”
    “And what did you find, Mike?”
    “I found that all the telephones had taps that would record anything said on the phone or in the apartment.”
    “That’s interesting. What sort of equipment?”
    “Over-the-counter, but good quality. The taps transmitted to a re-transmitter, and I found that on the roof, duct-taped inside an air vent. That unit could transmit eight to ten miles, maybe less in the city.”
    “Did you strip out the taps?”
    “Yes. Rutledge came back from the movies as I was wrapping up, and I gave him all the equipment.”
    “What else did you