”Ah-ha,“ I said. ”A threat. That explains why you brought Eric the Red along. You knew Susan was with me and you didn’t want to be outnumbered.“
Powell said from his table, ”What did you call me?“
Hawk smiled. ”Still got that agile mind, Spenser.“
Powell said again, ”What did you call me?“
”It is hard, Powell,“ I said to him, ”to look tough when your nose is peeling. Why not try some Sun Ban, excellent, greaseless, filters out the harmful ultraviolet rays.“
Powell stood up. ”Don’t smart-mouth me, man. You wising off at me?“
”That a picture of your mom you got tattooed on your left arm?“ I said.
He looked down at the dragon tattoo on his forearm for a minute and then back at me. His face got redder and he said, ”You wise bastard. I’m going to straighten you out right now.“
Hawk said, ”Powell, I wouldn’t if I was you.“
”I don’t have to take a lot of shit from a guy like this,“ Powell said.
”Don’t swear in front of the lady,“ Hawk said. ”You gotta take about whatever he gives you ’cause you can’t handle him.“
”He don’t look so tough to me,“ Powell said. He was standing and people around the pool were beginning to look.
”That’s cause you are stupid, Powell,“ Hawk said. ”He is tough, he may be damn near as tough as me. But you want to try him, go ahead.“
Powell reached down and grabbed me by the shirt front. Susan Silverman inhaled sharply.
Hawk said, ”Don’t kill him, Spenser, he runs errands for me.“
Powell yanked me out of the chair. I went with the yank and hit him in the Adam’s apple with my forearm. He said something like ”ark“ and let go of my shirt front and stepped back. I hit him with two left hooks, the second one with a lot of shoulder turned into it, and Powell fell over backward into the pool. Hawk was grinning as I turned toward him.
”The hayshakers are all the same, aren’t they,“ he said. ”Just don’t seem to know the difference between amateurs and professionals.“ He shook his head. ”That’s a good lady you got there though.“ He nodded at Susan, who was on her feet holding a beer bottle she’d apparently picked up off another table.
Hawk got up and walked to the pool and dragged Powell out of it negligently, with one hand, as if the dead weight of a 200-pound man were no more than a flounder.
The silence around the pool was heavy. The kids were still hanging on to the edge of the pool, staring at us. Hawk said, ”Come on, let’s walk out to my car and talk.“ He let Powell slump to the ground by the table and strolled back in through the lobby. Susan and I went with him. As we passed the desk we saw the manager come out of his office and hurry toward the terrace.
I said, ”Why don’t you go down to the room, Suze. I’ll be along in a minute. Hawk just wants me to give him some pointers on poolside fighting.“ The tip of her tongue was stuck out through her closed mouth and she was obviously biting on it. ”Don’t bite your tongue,“ I said. ”Save some for me.“ She shook her head.
”I’ll stay with you,“ she said.
Hawk opened the door on the passenger’s side of the Cadillac. ”My pleasure,“ he said to Susan. If Hawk and I were going to fight he wouldn’t pick a convertible for the place. I got in after Susan. Hawk went around and got in the driver’s side. He pushed a button and the roof went up smoothly. He started the engine and turned on the air conditioning. A blue and white Barnstable Township police car pulled into the parking lot and two cops got out and walked into the motel.
Hawk said, ”Let’s ride around.“ I nodded and he put us in gear and slipped out of the parking lot.
”Where the hell did you get him?“ I said to Hawk as we drove.
”Powell? Oh, man, I don’t know. He’s a local dude. People that hired me told me to work with him.“
”They trying to set up an apprentice program?“
Hawk shrugged. ”Beats me, baby, he got a long way to go though, don’t he?“
”It bother you that the cops are going to ask him what he was doing fighting with a tourist, and who the tourist was and who was the black stud in the funny outfit?“
Hawk shook his head. ”He won’t say nothing. He dumb, but he ain’t that dumb.“
Between us on the front seat Susan Silverman said, ”What are we doing?“
Hawk laughed. ”A fair question, Susan. What in hell are we doing?“
”Let me see if I can guess,“ I said. ”I guess that Harv Shepard owes money to a man, probably King Powers, and Hawk has been asked to collect it. Or maybe just oversee the disbursement of funds, whatever, and that things are going the way they should.“ I said to Susan, ”Hawk does this stuff, quite well. And then surprise, I appear, and I’m working for Shepard. And Hawk and his employer, probably King Powers, wonder if Harv hired me to counteract Hawk. So Hawk has dropped by to inquire about my relationship with Harv Shepard, and to urge me to sever that relationship.“
The Caddie went almost soundless along the Mid-Cape Highway, down Cape, toward Provincetown. I said, ”How close, Hawk?“
He shrugged. ”I have explained to the people that employ me about how you are. I don’t expect to frighten you away, and I don’t expect to bribe you, but my employer would like to compensate you for any loss if you were to withdraw from the case.“
”Hawk,“ I said. ”All this time I’ve known you I never could figure out why sometimes you talk like an account exec from Merrill Lynch and sometimes you talk like Br’er Bear.“
”Ah is the product of a ghetto education.“ He pronounced both’t‘s in ghetto. ”Sometimes my heritage keep popping up.“
”Lawdy me, yes,“ I said. ”What part of the ghetto you living in now?“
Hawk grinned at Susan. ”Beacon Hill,“ he said. He U-turned the Caddie over the center strip and headed back up Cape toward Hyannis. ”Anyway, I told the people you weren’t gonna do what they wanted, whatever I said, but they give me money to talk to you, so I’m talking. What your interest in Shepard?“
”He hired me to look for his wife.“
”That all?“
”You find her?“
”Yes.“
”Where?“
”I won’t say.“
”Don’t matter, Shepard’ll tell me. If I need to know.“
”No.“ I shook my head. ”He doesn’t know either.“
”You won’t tell him?“
”Nope.“
”Why not, man, That’s what you hired on for.“
”She doesn’t want to be found.“
Hawk shook his head again. ”You complicate your life, Spenser. You think about things too much.“
”That’s one of the things that makes me not you, Hawk.“
”Maybe,“ Hawk said, ”and maybe you a lot more like me than you want to say. ’Cept you ain’t as good looking.“
”Yeah, but I dress better.“
Hawk snorted, ”Shit. Excuse me, Susan. Anyway, my problem now is whether I believe you. It sounds right. Sounds just about your speed, Spenser. Course you ain’t just fell off the sugar-beet truck going through town, and if you was lying it would sound good. You still work for Shepard?“
”No, he canned me. He says he’s going to sue me.“
”Ah wouldn’t worry all that much about the suing,“ Hawk said. ”Harv’s kinda busy.“
”Is it Powers?“ I said.
”Maybe it is, maybe it ain’t. You gonna stay out of this, Spenser?“
”Maybe I will, maybe I won’t.“
Hawk nodded. We drove a way in silence.
”Who’s King Powers?“ Susan said.
”A thief,“ I said. ”Loan sharking, numbers, prostitution, laundromats, motels, trucking, produce, Boston, Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford.“
Hawk said, ”Not Brockton anymore. Angie Degamo has got Brockton now.“
”Angie chase Powers out?“
”Naw, some kind of business deal. I wasn’t in it.“
”Anyway,“ I said to Susan, ”Powers is like that.“
”And you work for him,“ she said to Hawk.