”It’s ugly,“ I said. ”Ugly talk.“
Powers said, ”Macey. Call the cops when you get out, Macey. You hear me, you call the cops. They’re going to kill me. This crazy nigger is trying to kill me.“
Macey and Powell went out and closed the door. Powers’ voice was high now. ”Macey, goddamnit. Macey.“
Hawk said, ”They gone, King. Time for you to finish Spenser off, like you started to.“
”I don’t have a gun. You know that, Hawk. I never carry a piece. Lemme have Macey’s.“
”No guns, King. Just slap him around like you was doing before.“ Hawk put his.357 under his coat and leaned against the door with his arms folded and his glistening ebony face without expression. Powers, on his feet now, backed away two steps.
”Hey, wait up, now, hey, Hawk, you know I can’t go on Spenser just me and him. I don’t even know if you could. I mean that ain’t fair, you know. I mean that ain’t the way I work.“
Hawk’s face was blank. Harvey Shepard got off the couch and took a looping amateurish roundhouse righthand haymaker at Powers. It connected up high on the side of Powers’ head near his right ear and staggered him. It also probably broke a knuckle in Shepard’s hand. It’s a dumb way to hit someone but Harv didn’t seem to mind. He plowed on toward Powers, catching him with a left hand on the face and knocking him down. Powers scrambled for the two guns on the coffee table as Shepard tried to kick him. I stepped between him and the guns and he lunged at my leg and bit me in the right calf.
I said, ”Jesus Christ,“ and reached down and jerked him to his feet. He clawed at my face with both hands and I twisted him away from me and slammed him hard against the wall. He stayed that way for a moment, face against the wall, then turned slowly away from the wall, rolling on his left shoulder so that when he got through turning, his back was against the wall. Shepard started toward him again and I put my hand out. ”Enough,“ I said. Shepard kept coming and I had to take his shoulder and push him back. He strained against me.
From the couch Pam Shepard said, ”Don’t, Harvey.“ Shepard stopped straining and turned toward her. ”Jesus,“ he said and went and sat on the couch beside her and put his arms awkwardly around her and she leaned against him, a little stiffly, but without resistance.
Susan got up and walked over and put her hands on Hawk’s shoulders and, standing on her toes to reach, kissed him on the mouth.
”Why not, Hawk? I knew you wouldn’t, but I don’t know why.“
Hawk shrugged. ”Me and your old man there are a lot alike. I told you that already. There ain’t all that many of us left, guys like old Spenser and me. He was gone there’d be one less. I’d have missed him. And I owed him one from this morning.“
”You wouldn’t have done it anyway,“ Susan said. ”Even if he hadn’t warned you about the police.“
”Don’t be too sure, honey. I done it lots of times before.“
”Anyway, babe,“ Hawk said to me, ”we even. Besides“— Hawk looked back at Susan and grinned—”Powers a foul-mouthed bastard, never did like a guy swore in front of ladies that way.“ He stepped across, dropped my gun on the table, picked up those belonging to Macey and Powell and walked out. ”See y’all again,“ he said. And then he was gone.
I looked at Powers. ”I think we got you on assault with intent to murder, King. It ain’t gonna help iron out the trouble you’re already in in Boston, is it.“
”Fuck you,“ Powers said and let his legs go limp and slid onto the floor and sat still.
”Hawk was right, King,“ I said. ”Nobody likes a garbage mouth.“
