'That's reasonable enough,' Nudger said, reinforcing her spirit of compromise.
'And if this Ringo tells you he can't pay, I want to know about it.'
'He's not the type to tell anyone that,' Nudger assured her.
As Eileen started toward the door, she paused and looked around the office as if finally noticing her surroundings. Her upper lip curled as if she'd just discovered a hair in her salad. Nudger knew that she was making plenty of money selling one of those all-purpose home product lines while recruiting more salespeople. It was like a pyramid. She was a distributor now, with her own network of salespeople and a disproportionate cut of everyone's take. To her, way up near the peak of the pyramid, this was poverty.
'How can you stand it here?' she asked.
Nudger felt anger dig its claws into his guts. But he knew the folly of stumbling into an argument with Eileen at this point. She was inviting him to thrash around in quicksand.
'The roof doesn't leak,' he said, 'and the rent is cheap, so I can save up and make alimony payments.'
She was smiling as she left. He didn't get up to show her out.
To think that theirs had begun as an amicable divorce.
She certainly wasn't the woman he'd married. But didn't every divorced man think that about his ex? And since she'd gotten into sales, Eileen had become particularly bitchy and aggressive. Perhaps that rapacious aspect of her personality had been there all along beneath the surface, held submerged by her socially imposed self-image and the demanding but stifling roles of helpmate and homemaker, and the divorce had freed that part of her. Whatever the reason, the beast was on the loose. Nudger had married a female Dr. Jekyll; now he was contending with Ms. Hyde. These things happened in the chemistry of human relationships. Maybe people should never marry; maybe it was tinkering with the laws of nature and that's why staying married was so tough. It was something for the marriage counselors and psychologists to consider.
Nudger returned his head to the cradle of his arms, and dreamed again of the sea.
X
Nudger was told at the Third District that Hammersmith had just gone out to eat lunch. He'd left a message for Nudger, inviting him to join him at Ricardo's in the adjoining Fourth District.
Nudger was familiar with Ricardo's, though he hadn't been there in the past several years. The restaurant had been in existence at the same location on Ninth and Locust for more than a decade. Nudger remembered eating there when he was a police rookie attending the Academy, and he and Hammersmith had stopped in there a few times when they were assigned to the same two-man patrol car. It had become one of Hammersmith's favorite restaurants.
As Nudger tugged open a heavy wood door with a stained-glass insert and stepped into Ricardo's, he was struck by the size of the place. The owner, Gino Ricardo, must have leased the space next door and eliminated a wall. The long mahogany bar was where Nudger recalled, along the north wall, to the left of the door, and the general decor seemed much the same. There were the heavy dark drapes, plush carpet, and red tablecloths. Thick oak partitions afforded privacy and provided only occasional glimpses of the tops of heads of tall diners. Ricardo's was a restaurant where, even when it was crowded, a conversation could be carried on with reasonable assurance that it wouldn't be overheard. Though within walking distance of Police Headquarters at Tucker and Clark, it was the scene of countless tense and confidential exchanges between the police and their informants.
Ricardo's was crowded now. The long bar was two-deep with customers drinking or waiting for drinks, some of them marking time until a table became available. Waitresses and busboys scurried around among the oak partitions like industrious mice in a maze they had mastered. A maitre d' in a serious blue suit was approaching to ask Nudger if he had a reservation, when Nudger caught familiar movement from the corner of his vision. Hammersmith had sat where he could see the entrance and was standing now and motioning Nudger over to his table.
Nudger sat down across from Hammersmith, who had before him an awesomely large pizza whose embellishments ran the gamut of the garden, and a tall frosted stein of draft beer. Nudger ordered a chicken salad sandwich and a glass of milk from a waitress who looked like a young, skinny Gina Lollobrigida.
'Don't be crazy,' Hammersmith said. 'This is a great Italian restaurant. They've got lasagna and cannelloni and fettuccine. They've got pizza any size and way, spaghetti and ravioli and other olis and onis and inis. And you ask for-'
'My stomach's been bothering me,' Nudger interrupted. He could understand how Hammersmith had reached his corpulent state. There was real passion in his voice when he spoke of food. 'Besides, if I order light, you might offer to pick up the check.'
'You look glum,' Hammersmith said, changing the subject. 'Something the matter?'
'I had a visit from Eileen.'
Hammersmith took a wolfish bite of pizza, used a plump finger to tuck in a string of cheese that was dangling from the corner of his mouth, and nodded in understanding. When he'd chewed and swallowed, he said, 'Nice woman, Eileen.'
'For somebody else, not for me.'
'The divorce was your fault. You bring out the worst in women, Nudge.'
Nudger said nothing as the waitress brought his sandwich and milk. He took a cautious bite of the sandwich. It was delicious, despite its lack of ethnicity. Hammersmith could be wrong.
Neither man said anything until Nudger had finished eating. Then Hammersmith offered him one of the three remaining oversized slices of pizza and Nudger declined. Around them were the muted sounds of flatware and china in subdued cacophony. Buzz of conversation, occasional laughter, clink of ice cubes against glass. Nudger rested the back of his head against the oak partition behind his chair and waited.
Hammersmith enjoyed a long swig of beer and set the stein down on the red tablecloth. 'Hugo Rumbo is his real name,' he said, 'and he hasn't got much of an arrest record. Stole a car when he was a teenager, and an assault charge four years ago. He's forty years old, had some amateur fights and a few matches as a pro boxer. Nobody ever compared him to Marciano. The way I heard it, his feet and hands were always fighting in two different rounds, and he got hurt bad and had to quit the fight game. Now he picks up money as a sparring partner over at the South Broadway Gym, and besides his old Buick he has a pickup truck and does yardwork and hauling. Other than the usual shady characters who hang around boxing, he has no disreputable friends and no mob connections. He's ornery and clumsy and washed up, not a pro either in or out of the ring.'
'Did somebody talk with him?'
'No, he has no idea we checked into his background. If he means you bodily harm, we wouldn't want to frighten him away.'
The waitress came over and cleared away some of the dishes, placed the point of a pencil to the dimple on her chin, and asked if there would be anything else. Hammersmith said no, he'd already eaten two Gourmet Deluxe pizzas and drunk two steins of beer. Nudger asked for another small glass of milk. The waitress scrawled the order on a pad and hurried away with the impatient, fluid gait of the very young.
'The thing you should know,' Hammersmith said, 'is that one of the people Rumbo frequently does work for is Agnes Boyington.'
Nudger wasn't surprised, now that he knew Rumbo wasn't a professional enforcer. 'She tried to buy me off the case,' he said.
'Why? Her daughter was murdered and you're trying to find the perp. You should be chief among the good guys.'
'She doesn't want her other daughter suffering mental strain, but above all she doesn't want the family name besmirched by what might be revealed in the press about the dead twin. The Puritans have nothing on Agnes Boyington. She runs a tight little matriarchy.'
'I gathered she was one of those.' Hammersmith tilted back his head to drain the last of his beer, then pushed the empty mug away to the center of the table. 'Could be coincidence,' he said. 'Maybe you cut Rumbo off when you made a left turn, and he sulked and followed you so he could set you straight about rules of the road. Maybe what happened has nothing to do with Agnes Boyington. Actually, she doesn't seem like the sort to hire a
