“Yes.”
“What do we do with them when you catch them?”
“That’s sort of up to them.”
“You mean if they give us trouble we whack them out?”
“If we have to.”
“Why not go the easy route and whack ‘em out right off?” I shook my head. Hawk laughed. “Same old Spenser. You still go the hard way.” I shrugged and got another Amstel from the sink. The room service waiter arrived with the shrimp cocktail and I stayed in the bathroom out of sight until he was gone. When the door closed, Hawk said, “Okay, Spenser. I paid for it, you can come out.”
“You can’t tell who they have in their employ,” I said. On the room service cart were ten shrimp cocktails, each in its individual ice dish, and two forks. Hawk ate a shrimp. “Not bad,” he said. “Okay. I can dig it. You paying the ace and half a day, you say how we do it.” I nodded again. “What we going to do first?”
“We’ll eat this shrimp and drink this beer and wine and go to sleep. Tomorrow morning I’m going to watch Katherine some more. I’ll call you before I leave and you can cover me.”
“Okay. Then what?”
“Then we’ll see what happens.”
“What happens if I pick up somebody tagging after you?”
“Just watch them. Don’t let them shoot me.”
“Do mah best.” Hawk grinned, his teeth flawless and white in the glistening ebony face. “Long as I don’t get too distracted by the lady with the French bikinis.”
“You can probably bribe her with a pair of yours.” I said.
13
We followed my plan for nearly a week. No one killed me. No one tried. Hawk drifted around behind me in $5000 worth of clothes earning his $150 a day. We saw nothing interesting. We spotted no one on my list of crazies. We stood around and watched Kathie’s apartment and followed her to the British Museum and the grocery store. “You scared them,” Hawk said while we ate dinner in his room. “They sent their best people after you twice and you ate them alive. They scared. They laying low now.”
“Yeah. They’re not even watching me. Unless they are so good neither one of us has spotted them.” Hawk said, “Haw.”
“Yeah. We’d have spotted them. You think Kathie has spotted me?” Hawk shook his head. “So they don’t know if I’m still after them or not.”
“Maybe check the hotel once in a while, see if you still registered.”
“Yeah. They could do that,” I said. “And they will just keep it cool till I leave.”
“Or maybe they got nothing to keep cool,” Hawk said. “Yeah, it may not be all that organized anyway and there’s nothing in the works whether I’m here or not.”
“Maybe.”
“Could be. I’m getting sick of waiting around. Let’s put some pressure on old Kath.”
“I can dig that.”
“Not that kind of pressure, Hawk. I’ll let her spot me. If she gets scared maybe she’ll run. If she runs maybe we can follow her and find some people.”
“And when she runs I’ll be behind her,” Hawk said. “She’ll think she lost you.”
“Yeah. Keep in mind that these people aren’t necessarily English. If she bolts she may head for another country and you better be ready.”
“I am always ready, my man. Whatever I’m wearing is home.”
“That’s another thing,” I said. “Try not to wear your shellpink jumpsuit when you tail her. Sometimes people notice things like that. I know that’s your idea of inconspicuous, but…”
“You ever hear of me losing somebody or getting spotted by someone I didn’t want to spot me?”
“Just a suggestion. I am, after all, your employer.”
“Yowsah boss, y’all awful kind to hep ol Hawk lak yew do.”
“Why don’t you can that Aunt Jemima crap,” I said. “You’re about as down-home darkie as Truman Capote.” Hawk sipped some champagne, and put the glass down. He sliced a small portion of Scottish smoked salmon and ate it. He drank some more champagne. “Just a poor old colored person,” he said. “Trying to get along with the white folks.”
“Well, I’ll give you credit, you were one of the first to integrate leg-breaking on an interracial basis in Boston.”
“A man is poor indeed if he don’t do something for his people.”
“Who the hell are your people, Hawk?”
“Those good folks regardless of race, creed or color, who have the coin to pay me.”
“You ever think about being black, Hawk?” He looked at me for maybe ten seconds. “We a lot alike, Spenser.
