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.“
”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
