See you then.” Jack hung up.
“Sorry,” Stone said, taking his seat, “a client wants to have our annual lunch.”
“Does that happen a lot?” Dino asked.
“A fair amount. I think they just want to know I haven’t forgotten them. Tell me, how’s the commissioner’s run for mayor next year looking?”
“All I know is what I hear on the local TV news. Everybody seems to think he’s running.”
“Are you among them?”
“It wouldn’t surprise me. If he didn’t run and somebody got elected who isn’t his pal and who wanted to appoint his own commissioner, he could find himself on the sidewalk.”
“Not for long,” Stone said. “A law firm or a security outfit like Strategic Services would snap him up.”
“I can’t see him wanting to run the city. Do you have any kind of idea what sort of horseshit the mayor of New York has to put up with?”
“Only a fair idea. If he runs, and if he’s elected, he’s going to appoint you commissioner to replace him.”
Dino nearly choked on his drink. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re the only member of the police hierarchy he likes. He hates everybody else. One of the reasons he appointed you chief of detectives was to piss off the half dozen other top captains who wanted the job. Most of them quit when you got it, which must have delighted the commissioner.”
“Yeah, well, it was nice to see them go.”
“And if he appoints you commissioner, a whole bunch of other guys will walk, and you’ll get to replace them with your people, which is to say, the commissioner’s people.”
“I admire your logical thinking,” Dino said, “but we’re a long way from that happening.”
“Maybe not as long as you think,” Stone said. “When he announces for mayor, he’ll have to resign as commissioner.”
“Right, and he doesn’t get to appoint his successor, not until he’s mayor.”
“But the commissioner and our current mayor are pretty tight, aren’t they?”
“They certainly are.”
“What’s the matter with his asking the mayor to appoint you? Anybody else he appointed would just be a chair warmer until the commissioner is elected.”
“You think the commissioner would do that?”
“I do.”
“And you think our present mayor would appoint me?”
“If the commissioner asked him nicely, yes.”
“It’s hard for me to get my head around the big job,” Dino said.
“It was hard for you to get your head around being chief of detectives, too, but you did it.”
“I guess I did, at that. What’s more, I’ve gotten to love it.”
“You can’t love doing something unless you’re good at it, Dino.”
“You sound a lot like Viv.”
“You think she’d like to be the wife of the commissioner?”
“She’d love it, as long as she could keep her job at Strategic Services. Being the commissioner’s wife doesn’t pay, you know, and Viv has done very well with Mike. I think if a condition of being the commissioner’s wife was that she’d have to quit her job, she’d divorce me!”
“But she wouldn’t move out,” Stone said.
Dino laughed. “We’re getting way ahead of ourselves.”
“Ahead of ourselves is somewhere we have to be,” Stone said.
“Okay, with that in mind, what if Kate gets elected president?”
“I think that would be great.”
“Suppose she wanted to appoint you attorney general?”
Stone laughed. “That is entirely outside the realm of possibility. I’m completely unqualified, and the Senate would never confirm me, and even if they did, I wouldn’t want all the tsuris.”
“Okay, how about deputy attorney general for criminal investigations? No Senate confirmation required.”
“No, I’m way too happy right here in this house. You know what’s much more likely to happen?”
“What?”
“Kate appoints you deputy director of the FBI.”
“Holy shit!”
“If you were commissioner she would make you director, but you’d make a great deputy director.”
“I’m getting dizzy here,” Dino said. “Let’s talk about something real. If Kate gets elected, then Ann Keaton is going to work in the White House. How will you ever get laid again?”
“Ouch! What a thought.”
“You might have to move to Washington, pal, or at least get a place there.”
“I guess she’s not going to commute to the White House from New York,” Stone admitted. “So if I want to see a lot of her, I’ll have to do something like that.”
“You’re way too comfortable here,” Dino said. “It would be good for you to make a move for a few years. You might even like it down there.”
“I’ve liked it when we’ve been there,” Stone admitted. “And I know a few people.”
“With Ann in the White House, you’d know everybody in about fifteen minutes. Have you talked