Lawyers, Guns and Money

TOWER ONE, WORLD TRADE CENTER, MANHATTAN

"Bullet holes?" Toni asked.

"We don't get a swanky table?" Kane asked as he joined Antonia Marcelle, known to everyone except her mother and court documents as Toni. She was waiting at the bar in Windows on the World on the 107th Floor of Tower One of the World Trade Center. It was the northern tower, offset to the west from its companion. Kane was oblivious to the envious glares from other men as he sat next to her but he was very aware of his field of fire and possible exits.

"Do you own a suit jacket?" Toni asked. She had lustrous, thick black hair that curled and twisted its way to her shoulders in a seemingly random pattern. Combined with her olive tinted skin and long legs, she was a presence in whatever room she occupied, even here, high over New York City, with the spectacular ninety-mile view in all directions through the tall windows. She was several years older than Kane's thirty-two, the sister of his Beast roommate, Ranger Buddy, and best friend, who was interred in Section XXXIV in the Academy cemetery.

"Doubtful," Kane said. "I'm not sure what happened to the one I was issued as a cadet and I lost my Dress Blues."

"No jacket, no table."

"Don't they loan them?" Kane asked.

"Give me a break. You're sweating, Will. Did you go to the gym and run back here from Brooklyn?"

"I gotta work out," Kane says. "I go a little crazy if I don't."

"We wouldn't want you crazy, would we?"

Kane looked around. "Vic's has more ambiance."

"Don't you mean ambivalence?" Toni gave him a sideways look which terminated that avenue of dialogue. "Bullet holes? Did the party get out of hand?"

Kane reached into the map case hanging on his right hip and retrieved the bundle of money Crawford had pressed on him. He put it on the bar in front of her.

The bartender averted his eyes from the cash. "May I get you something to drink, sir?"

Toni had a tall flute in front of her. Kane checked his watch. "Coffee, black, glass of water with two ice cubes, please."

"Right away, sir." The bartender moved off.

"You didn't need to do that." Toni indicated her drink. "I'm a grown up."

"It's still morning."

Toni held up a long red fingernail at the end of a long finger. "Don't start with me. And wearing that—" she indicated the Velcro covered watch—"how can you do it? Don't you remember Ted every time you check the time?"

"That's why I wear it. If we don't remember the dead, remember their names—" Kane stopped. "Sorry."

Toni waved it off. "I know." She pointed at the money. "What's with the cash?"

"Crawford gave it to me to not call the cops."

"Did he pull a six shooter and go cowboy on you?" Toni asked.

Kane nodded to the south, where they could see to the horizon underneath the dark clouds. A line of rain was moving to the west "The city, before there was a United States, bought the island to quarantine smallpox victims."

Toni glanced at the magnificent view of New York Harbor. "What?"

"Liberty Island," Kane said. "It was originally part of a group of small islands among shallow oyster beds. The Indians used to harvest them. So did the early Dutch settlers. But landfills destroyed that. It was named Bledloe Island and—"

Toni cut him off. "You do that when you don't want to answer me. Go all Brother Benedict on me with city history."

"During World War One Germans infiltrators blew up an ammo depot on Black Tom Island on the Jersey side and damaged the Statue."