”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.
”Some.“
”Hawk’s a free-lance,“ I said. ”But Powers asks him early when he’s got Hawk’s kind of work.“
”And what is Hawk’s kind of work?“ Susan said, still to Hawk.
”He does muscle and gun work.“
”Ah prefer the term soldier of fortune, honey,“ Hawk said to me.
”Doesn’t it bother you,“ Susan said, ”to hurt people for money?“
”No more than it does him.“ Hawk nodded to me.
”I don’t think he does it for money,“ she said.
”That’s why ah’m bopping down the Cape in a new Eldorado and he’s driving that eight-year-old hog with the gray tape on the upholstery.“
”But…“ Susan looked for the right words. ”But he does what he must, his aim is to help. Yours is to hurt.“
”Not right,“ Hawk said. ”Maybe he aiming to help. But he also like the work. You know? I mean he could be a social worker if he just want to help. I get nothing out of hurting people. Sometimes just happens that way. Just don’t be so sure me and old Spenser are so damn different, Susan.“
We pulled back into the parking lot at the motel. The blue and white was gone. I said, ”You people through discussing me yet, I got a couple things to say, but I don’t want to interrupt. The subject is so goddamned fascinating.“
Susan just shook her head.
”Okay,“ I said. ”This is straight, Hawk. I’m not working for Shepard, or anybody, at the moment. But I can’t go home and let you and Powers do what you want. I’m gonna hang around, I think, and see if I can get you off Shepard’s back.“
Hawk looked at me without expression. ”That’s what I told them,“ he said. ”I told them that’s what you’d say if I came around and talked. But they paying the money. I’ll tell them I was right. I don’t think it gonna scare them.“
”I don’t suppose it would,“ I said.
I opened the door and got out and held it open for Susan. She slid out, and then leaned back in and spoke to Hawk. ”Goodbye,“ she said. ”I’m not sure what to say. Glad to have met you wouldn’t do, exactly. But“—she shrugged—”thanks for the ride.“
Hawk smiled at her. ”My pleasure, Susan. Maybe I’ll see you again.“
I closed the door and Hawk slid the car out of the parking lot, soundless and smooth, like a shark cruising in still water.
Chapter 13
Susan said, ”I want a drink.“
We went in and sat on two barstools, at the corner, where the bar turns. Susan ordered a martini and I had a beer. ”Martini?“ I said.
She nodded. ”I said I wanted a drink. I meant it.“ She drank half the martini in a single pull and put the glass back on the bar.
”How different?“ she said, and looked at me.
”You mean me and Hawk?“
”Uhhuh.“
”I don’t know. I don’t beat people up for money. I don’t kill people for money. He does.“
”But sometimes you’ll do it for nothing. Like this afternoon.“
”Powell?“
”Powell. You didn’t have to fight him. You needled him into it.“
