I said, ”Jesus Christ, I’m glad to see you.“ With her finger in the book to keep her place she turned her head toward me and said, ”Likewise, I’m sure“ and grinned. Often she smiled, but sometimes she didn’t smile, she grinned. This was a grin. I never knew for sure what the difference was but it had something to do with gleeful wickedness. Her smile was beautiful and good, but in her grin there was just a hint of evil. I dove on top of her on the bed, breaking the impact of my weight with my arms, and grabbed her and hugged her.
”Ow,“ she said. I eased up a little on the hug, and we kissed each other. When we stopped I said, ”I am not going to ask how you got in here because I know that you can do anything you want to, and getting the management to aid and abet you in a B and E would be child’s play for you.“
”Child’s play,“ she said. ”How has it been with you, blue eyes?“
We lay on our backs on the bed beside each other while I told her. When I finished telling her I suggested an afternoon of sensual delight, starting now. But she suggested that it start after lunch and after a brief scuffle I agreed.
”Suze,“ I said in the dining room starting my first stein of Harp while she sipped a Margarita, ”you seemed uncommonly amused by the part where Jane tried to caponize me.“
She laughed. ”I think your hips are beginning to widen out,“ she said. ”Are you still shaving?“
”Naw,“ I said, ”it did no damage. If it had, all the waitresses here would be wearing black armbands and the flag would fly half-mast at Radcliffe.“
”Well, we’ll see, later, when there’s nothing better to do.“
”There’s never anything better to do,“ I said. She yawned elaborately.
The waitress came and took our order. When she’d departed Susan said, ”What are you going to do?“
”Jesus, I don’t know.“
”Want me to hang around with you while you do it?“
”Very much,“ I said. ”I think I’m in over my head with Pam, Rose and Jane.“
”Good, I brought my suitcase on the chance you might want me to stay.“
”Yeah, and I noted you unpacked it and hung up your clothes. Confidence.“
”Oh, you noticed. I keep forgetting you are a detective.“
”Spenser’s the name, clues are my game,“ I said. The waitress brought me a half-dozen oysters and Susan six soused shrimp. Susan looked at the oysters.
”Trying to make a comeback?“
”No,“ I said, ”planning ahead.“
We ate our seafood.
”What makes you say you’re in over your head?“ Susan asked.
”I don’t feel easy. It’s an element I’m not comfortable in. I’m good with my hands, and I’m persevering, but… Pam Shepard asked me if I had children and I said no. And she said I probably couldn’t understand, and she asked if I were married and I said no and she said then for sure I couldn’t understand.“ I shrugged.
”I’ve never had children either,“ Susan said. ”And marriage wasn’t the best thing that ever happened to me. Nor the most permanent. I don’t know. There’s all the cliches about you don’t have to be able to cook a souffle to know when one’s bad. But… at school, I know, parents come in sometimes for counseling with the kids and they say, but you don’t know. You don’t have children… there’s probably something to it. Say there is. So what? You’ve been involved in a lot of things that you haven’t experienced firsthand, as I recall. Why is this one different?“
”I don’t know that it is,“ I said.
”I think it is. I’ve never heard you talk about things like this before. On a scale of ten you normally test out about fifteen in confidence.“
”Yeah, I think it is too.“
”Of course, as you explain it, the case is no longer your business because the case no longer exists.“
”There’s that,“ I said.
”Then why worry about it. If it’s not your element, anyway, why not settle for that. We’ll eat and swim and walk on the beach for a few days and go home.“
The waitress came with steak for each of us, and salad, and rolls and another beer for me. We ate in silence for maybe two minutes.
”I can’t think of anything else to do,“ I said.
”Try to control your enthusiasm,“ Susan said.
”I’m sorry,“ I said. ”I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just bothering me. I’ve been with two people whose lives are screwed up to hell and I can’t seem to get them out of it at all.“
”Of course you can’t,“ she said. ”You also can’t do a great deal about famine, war, pestilence and death.“
”A great backfield,“ I said.
”You also can’t be everyone’s father. It is paternalistic of you to assume that Pam Shepard with the support of several other women cannot work out her own future without you. She may in fact do very well. I have.“
”Me paternalistic? Don’t be absurd. Eat your steak and shut up or I’ll spank you.“
Chapter 12
After lunch we took coffee on the terrace by the pool, sitting at a little white table made of curlicued iron shaded by a blue and white umbrella. It was mostly kids in the pool, splashing and yelling while their mothers rubbed oil on their legs. Susan Silverman was sipping coffee from a cup she held with both hands and looking past me. I saw her eyes widen behind her lavender sunglasses and I turned and there was Hawk.
He said, ”Spenser.“
I said, ”Hawk.“
He said, ”Mind if I join you?“
I said, ”Have a seat. Susan, this is Hawk. Hawk, this is Susan Silverman.“
Hawk smiled at her and she said, ”Hello, Hawk.“
Hawk pulled a chair around from the next table, and sat with us. Behind him was a big guy with a sunburned face and an Oriental dragon tattooed on the inside of his left forearm. As Hawk pulled his chair over he nodded at the next table and the tattooed man sat down at it. ”That’s Powell,“ Hawk said. Powell didn’t say anything. He just sat with his arms folded and stared at us.
”Coffee?“ I said to Hawk.
He nodded. ”Make it iced coffee though.“ I gestured to the waitress, ordered Hawk his iced coffee.
”Hawk,“ I said, ”you gotta overcome this impulse toward anonymity you’ve got. I mean why not start to dress so people will notice you instead of always fading into the background like you do.“
”I’m just a retiring guy, Spenser, just my nature.“ He stressed the first syllable in retiring. ”Don’t see no reason to be a clotheshorse.“ Hawk was wearing white Puma track shoes with a black slash on them. White linen slacks, and a matching white linen vest with no shirt. Powell was more conservatively dressed in a maroon-and-yellow-striped tank top and maroon slacks.
The waitress brought Hawk his iced coffee. ”You and Susan having a vacation down here?“
”Yep.“
”Sure is nice, isn’t it? Always like the Cape. Got atmosphere you don’t usually find. You know? Hard to define it, but it’s kind of leisure spirit. Don’t you think, Spenser?“
”I’ll tell you if you’ll tell me.“
”Susan,“ Hawk said, ”this man is a straight-ahead man, you know? Just puts it right out front, hell of a quality, I’d say.“
Susan smiled at him and nodded. He smiled back.
”Come on, Hawk, knock off the Goody Two-shoes shtick. You want to know what I’m doing with Shepard and I want to know what you’re doing with Shepard.“
”Actually, it’s a little more than that, babe, or a little less, whichever way you look at it. It ain’t that I so much care what you’re doing with Shepard as it is I want you to stop doing it.“