shook her head. Tears had begun to run down her cheeks.
Hawk took a sip of wine, put down the glass and slapped her across the face. Her head rocked back and then she seemed to collapse in on herself, shrinking down into the chair. The tears came in sobs then, shaking her body as she bent over. She put both hands over her ears and squeezed her face between her forearms and cried. Hawk sipped some more wine and looked at her with mild interest. “She do take on,” he said.
“She’s scared,” I said. “Everybody gets scared. She’s alone with two guys she’s tried to kill and the man she loves has ditched her. She’s alone. That’s hard.”
“It gonna get a lot harder if she don’t tell us what I want her to,” Hawk said.
“Beating up on a lady isn’t your style, Hawk.”
“Women’s lib, babe. She got the same rights to have me bust her up that a man have.”
“I don’t like it.”
“Take a walk then. When you come back, we’ll know what we want to know.”
I stood up. I knew we were playing good-cop bad-cop, but did Hawk?
“Oh my God,” Kathie said. “Don’t.”
Hawk stood up too. He took off the jacket, slipped out of the shotgun shoulder rig and peeled off his shirt. Hawk had always had a lot of muscle tone. His upper body was taut and graceful. The muscles in his chest and arms swelled slightly as he made a slight loosening gesture with his shoulders. I started for the door.
“Oh God, don’t leave me with him.” Kathie slid out of the chair onto the floor and crawled after me. “Don’t let him. Don’t let him debase me. Please don’t.”
Hawk stepped between her and me. She grasped one of his legs. “Don’t, don’t, don’t.” The saliva was bubbling again at the corner of her mouth. She was gasping for breath. Her nose ran.
I said to Hawk, “I don’t want to know this bad.”
“Your biggest problem, man, you a candy ass.”
I shrugged. “I still don’t want to know this bad.” I reached down and took Kathie’s arm. “Get up,” I said. “And sit in the chair. We aren’t going to do anything bad to you.” I put her in the chair. Then I went in the bathroom and got a facecloth and soaked it in cold water and wrung it out and brought it in and washed her face with it.
Hawk looked like he was going to puke. I gave her a glass of wine. “Drink some,” I said. “And get it back together. Take your time. We got lots of time. When you’re ready, we’ll talk a little. Okay?”
Kathie nodded.
Hawk said, “You remember she blew up some guy’s wife and kids? You remember she trying to set you up in the London Zoo? You remember she gonna stand around while her boyfriend wasted you in Copenhagen? You remember what she is?”
“I’m not worrying about what she is,” I said. “I’m worrying about what I am.”
“Gonna get you killed someday, babe.”
“We’ll do it my way, Hawk.”
“You paying the money, babe, you can pick the music.” He put his shirt back on.
We ate the rest of the late night special in silence. “Okay, Kathie. Is that your name?”
“It is one of them.”
“Well, I’m used to thinking of you as Kathie so I’ll stick with it.”
She nodded. Her eyes were red but dry. She slumped as she sat.
“Tell me about you and your group, Kathie.”
“I should tell you nothing.”
“Why? Who do you owe? Who is there to be loyal to?” She looked at her lap.
“Tell me about you and your group.”
“It is Paul’s group.”
“What is it for?”
“It is for keeping Africa white.” Hawk snorted.
“Keeping,” I said.
“Keeping the control in white hands. Keeping the blacks from destroying what white civilization had made of Africa.” She wouldn’t look at Hawk.
“And how was blowing up some people in a London restaurant going to do that?”
“The British were wrong on Rhodesia and wrong on South Africa. It was punishment.”
Hawk had stood and gone to the window. He was whistling “Saint James Infirmary Blues” through his teeth as he stood looking down into the street.
“What were you doing in England?”
“Organizing the English unit. Paul sent me.”
“Any connection with IRA?”
