can deal with ‘cause he talks like he went to the Wharton School. Maybe he did, but he’s got no more honor than a toad. He’ll do anything. Hawk won’t. There’s things Hawk won’t do.”
“Like what?”
“He won’t say yes and do no.”
“Well, I guess you know your business. Where the hell are you getting the money?”
“That’s not your problem,” I said. We pulled up in front of Shepard’s house. He’d banged back two big drinks while I was talking with Macey and his mouth was a little slow.
“Thanks, Spenser,” he said. “Just for going, let alone for making that gun deal. I was scared shit.”
“You should have been,” I said. We shook hands, Shepard got out and went in the house. I cruised back to the motel. Susan wasn’t around and her car wasn’t in the lot. I called Pam Shepard from my hotel room.
“You hear from the girls?” I said.
“From Rose, yes. They’ll meet us. I know you’re being funny, but please don’t call them girls.”
“Where?”
“Where will they meet us?”
“Yeah.”
“In Milton. There’s an observatory on top of the Great Blue Hill. Do you know where that is?”
“Yeah.”
“They’ll meet us in the observatory. This afternoon at five.”
I looked at my watch: 1:25. There was time. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll come pick you up and we’ll go. I’ll leave now, should be there around three. Start looking out the window then. I’ll park on the street and when you see me, come on down.”
“What are we going to do?”
“I’ll talk with you about it while we drive to Milton.”
“All right.”
“You bored?”
“Oh God, I’m going crazy.”
“Not too much longer,” I said.
“I hope not.”
We hung up, I went back to my car and set out for Boston again. If I made the trip many more times I’d be able to sleep on the way. I pulled up in front of my apartment at ten after three. In about forty seconds Pam Shepard came out the front door and got in the car. And we were off again for the Blue Hills.
The top was down and Pam Shepard leaned her head back against the seat and took a big inhale. “Good God, it’s good to get out of there,” she said.
“That’s my home you’re speaking of,” I said. “I was kind of wishing I could get in there.”
“I didn’t mean it’s not nice, and it’s not even so much that it’s been that long, it’s just that, when you know you can’t go out, it’s almost like claustrophobia.”
Her clean brown hair was pulled back, still in the French twist she’d worn since I met her, and the wind didn’t bother it much. I went out along Park Drive and the Jamaicaway and the Arborway south on Route 28. Just across the Neponset River, Route 138 branched off from Route 28 and we went with it, taking our time. We pulled into the Blue Hills Reservation and parked near the Trailside Museum at four o’clock.
“We’re awfully early,” Pam Shepard said.
“Plan ahead,” I said. “I want to be here waiting. I don’t want them to get nervous waiting for us and leave.”
“I don’t mind,” she said. “What are we going to do?”
“We’ll walk up to the observatory on the top. And when they come, I’ll tell them I have a seller for them.”
“A seller?”
“A gun broker. I’ve got a guy who’ll sell them all the guns they can afford.”
“But why? Why would you do that?”
“Isn’t that why you stole the money?”
“Yes, but you don’t approve of us, do you? You don’t want to arm us certainly.”
“That doesn’t matter. I’m working on a very fancy move, and I don’t want you trying to pretend you don’t know. So I won’t tell you. Then you won’t have to pretend. You just assume I’m in your corner, and you vouch for me every time the question comes up.”
“I’ve done that already. On the phone when they called. They don’t trust you and they don’t like you.”
“Hard to imagine, isn’t it,” I said.
She smiled, and closed her eyes and shook her head slightly.
“Come on,” I said, “let’s get out and walk.”
