“Geez, you look in good shape, bet you could still go a few rounds today, right?”
“Depends on who I went them with.”
“You fight heavyweight?”
I nodded again. The coffee water boiled. Shepard spooned some Taster’s Choice from a big jar into each cup. “Cream and sugar?”
“No thank you,” I said.
He brought the coffee to the table and sat down across from me. I’d been hoping, maybe for a doughnut, or a muffin. I wondered if Hawk had gotten one.
“Cheers,” Shepard said, and raised his cup at me.
“Harv,” I said, “you got more troubles than a missing wife.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean I know Hawk, I know what he does. He’s an enforcer, what the kids on my corner used to call a legbreaker. He freelances and these days he freelances most often for King Powers.”
“Now wait a minute. I hired you to find my wife. Whatever business I’m in with Hawk is my business. Not yours. I’m not paying you to nose around in my business.”
“That’s true,” I said. “But if you are dealing with Hawk, you are dealing with pain. Hawk’s a hurter. You owe Powers money?”
“I don’t know a goddamned thing about Powers. Don’t worry about Powers or Hawk or anybody else. I want you looking for my wife, not peeking into my books, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. But I’ve spent a lot of years doing my business with people like Hawk. I know how it goes. This time Hawk came and talked to you, pleasantly enough, spelled out how much you owed and how far behind you were on the vig and when you had to pay it by.”
“How the hell do you know what we were talking about.”
“And at the end he told you, with a friendly enough smile, what would happen if you didn’t pay. And then I came and he said goodbye politely and he left.”
“Spenser, are you going to talk about this anymore or are you going to get to work on what I hired you for.”
“Harv. Hawk means it. Hawk is a bad man. But he keeps his word. If you owe money, pay it. If you haven’t the money, tell me now, and we can work on the problem. But don’t bullshit me, and don’t bullshit yourself. If you’re dealing with Hawk you are in way, way, far way, over your head.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. Now that’s it. There’s no more to say about it.”
“You may even be in over mine,” I said.
Chapter 4
I had a sense, call it a hunch, that Shepard didn’t want to talk about his dealings with Hawk, or King Powers or anybody else. He wanted to talk about his wife.
“Your wife’s name is Pam, right?”
“Right.”
“Maiden name?”
“What difference does that make?”
“She might start using it when she took off.”
“Pam Neal.” He spelled it.
“Folks living?”
“No.”
“Siblings?”
He looked blank.
“Brothers or sisters,” I said.
“No. She’s an only child.”
“Where’d she grow up?”
“Belfast, Maine. On the coast, near Searsport.”
“I know where it is. She have friends up there she might visit?’‘
”No. She left there after college. Then her folks died. She hasn’t been back in fifteen years, I’d bet.“
”Where’d she go to college?“
”Colby.“
”In Waterville?“
”Yeah.“
