It was suppertime before we got things cleaned up with the Boston cops and I got back to Smithfield. Boston would bold Harroway on an assault charge until they straightened out with Healy and Trask the kidnapping, murder, extortion, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and procuring charges that seamed likely. Kevin went home with his mother and father, and I went to Susan Silverman’s house to see if there was any cassoulet or champagne or whatever left around and to soak my hands in ice water. She gave me bourbon on the rocks with a dash of bitters in a big glass.
We sat on her couch.
”And was it Vic Harroway all along?“ she said.
”Nope, not entirely. According to Harroway it was actually Croft that ran things. He got them drugs, set up the prostitution customers, kept things cool with the local fuzz.“
”Chief Trask?“
”Maybe. Harroway says he doesn’t know. He knows only that Croft said the cops wouldn’t bother him.“
”Did he kill Maguire?“
”Yeah. Harroway says it was an accident. He and Kevin were going to get some of Kevin’s things. Harroway was lifting some booze while they were at it, and Maguire caught them. Maguire panicked, grabbed for the poker, and Harroway hit him too hard.“
”And the kidnapping and the sick jokes and everything?“
”That’s not too clear Harroway seemed to have two reasons. First, practical: he thought that they could finance ‘a new life together’—-that’s what he called it—by putting the arm on the old man for the ransom money. And he says then he thought once they got the dough that they’d have a little sport with the straight world. Kevin says it was his idea, but Harroway says no, it was all his own doing. He also says that Kevin was upstairs in his room when Maguire got killed, but Kevin says he was there. Harroway seems to be protecting him, and Kevin’s not entirely coherent. You can imagine. He’s torn apart. He found out he still had some feelings for his mother and father he didn’t realize he had, and it’s all over for Harroway, and the kid knows it.“
Susan said, ”I wonder if it was good or bad for him to see Harroway beaten.“
”I thought it would be good. I hope I was right.
Harroway represented something solid and safe and indestructible; you know, a kind of fantasy superhero to insulate Kevin from the world, to be everything his father wasn’t and his mother wouldn’t let him or his father be.“
”Maybe,“ she said. ”Or maybe it’s a glib generalization that won’t hold. I guess we’ll have to wait awhile and see how therapy works. Psychological truth usually isn’t that neat.“
”Yeah,“ I said, ”but I didn’t have time to wait and see out there in the field.“
She said, ”I know. You do what you have to. And besides, he insulted us once, didn’t he?“
”Yeah,“ I said, ”there’s that.“
I rattled the empty glass at her, and she got up and refilled it. The bourbon made a spread of warmth in my stomach. I took my left hand out of the ice water and put my right one in. I put my feet up on the coffee table and rested my head on the back of her couch. Susan came back with the second drink.
”You know,“ I said, ”he was a nasty, brutish, mean sonova bitch. But he loved that kid.“
”They all do,“ Susan Silverman said.
”You mean his mother and father?“ She nodded. ”Yeah, you’re right,“ I said, ”they do. You should have seen that henpecked, browbeaten bastard try to go up against Harroway.
You’ve seen what Harroway looks like, and Bartlett tried to take him. And so did she. Amazing.“ I took my right hand out of the ice water and switched my glass to it and put my left arm around Susan’s shoulder.
She said, ”How did Croft and Harroway get mixed up together?“
”Harroway says that Croft looked him up. Harroway was doing a little bit of small-time pimping, and he says Croft told him he knew all about it and had an idea for them to get a much bigger and more profitable operation. He’d supply the drugs, get the word around, and Harroway would do the on-the-spot managerial duties.“
”And they split?“
”No, that’s the interesting part. Harroway says Croft had a silent partner Harroway never knew who it was. One third of the take was a lot more dough than Harroway ever dreamed of, and he didn’t complain.“
”Do we know the silent partner?“
I shook my head. ”I imagine Healy will get that out of Croft in a while.“
”Oh, speaking of Healy, there’s a message here for you from him. And one from some policeman in Boston.“ She went to the kitchen and came back with an envelope which said New England Telephone in the return address space.
She looked at it and said, ”A woman called—I didn’t get her name—and said she was from Lieutenant Healy’s office, and the Lieutenant wanted you to know that the package you gave him to keep is being stored at the Smithfield Police Station. You can pick it up when you need it, but it better be soon.“
”That’s Croft,“ I said. ”They must have gotten nervous riding him around and figured to let Trask bear the brunt of a false arrest suit.“
”And,“ she said, ”I have a message that you should call either a Sergeant Belson or a Lieutenant Quirk when you came in. They said you knew the number.“
”Do I ever,“ I said. ”Okay. I’ll do that now.“ I hated to get up, and I was beginning to get stiff. Ten years ago I didn’t get stiff this soon. I let my feet down off the coffee table and drank most of the second bourbon and got myself upright. I felt as if I needed a lube job. A few more bourbons and I’d be oiled. Ah, Spenser, your wit’s as keen as ever. I dialed Boston Homicide and got Quirk.
