already contained white meat tuna fish. I reached across from the kitchen table and patted her hip.
“I got what I needed on Patty Giacomin this past weekend in New York.”
Paul said, “What was it?”
I said, “This is tough. She went to New York each month to pick up strange men in the bar at the hotel.”
Paul said, “Oh.”
“I thought about not telling you that,” I said. “But whatever we are doing, it doesn’t work well on lying.”
Paul nodded. Susan frowned. “There’s nothing illegal in that.”
“No, but Patty will bend to it. She won’t want to look at herself in that light. It wouldn’t help in custody or alimony fights, in the future. If any. It’s enough ammunition for me.”
Susan said, “Poor woman.”
“Yeah, it’s kind of tough to think about how desperate she was for whatever it was she thought she’d find. I don’t assume she found it, that way.”
“Promiscuity doesn’t have to be a sign of unhappiness in a woman,” Susan said.
“Once a month, in a distant city, with strangers, while drunk?”
Susan looked at Paul. “So why don’t we call the police about these men shooting at us?” she said.
“It would be hard to explain without bringing in Mel and Harry and such. I don’t want Mel in jail. I want him out earning money so he can support his kid and pay for his education and stuff.”
“Yes, I see that.” Susan mixed some mayonnaise into her tuna salad.
“I’ll stay with you tonight, and tomorrow I’ll see what I can do to wrap this thing up.”
“What are you going to do about the contract?” Paul said.
“I’ll probably have to talk with Harry about that,” I said.
Susan nodded. “I knew that would come.”
“You have a better thought?”
“No, it’s just you’re so predictable. You’re going to talk with him because he shot at us. If it had just been you…” She shrugged.
“Well, I need to get him out of my way if we’re going to get Paul into dance school.”
Susan was putting tuna salad on whole-wheat bread. The coffee had stopped perking. Her shoulders were stiff and angry.
“I cannot let some gorilla shoot at you,” I said. “I cannot. It’s against the rules.”
Paul said, “What rules?”
Susan said, “His. Don’t ask him to explain them now. I can’t stand it” She put the platter of sandwiches on the table and poured some coffee. “At least take Hawk with you,” she said. “Will you do that? At least take Hawk. You have Paul to think of too.” She took a carton of milk out of the refrigerator and poured Paul a glass. “And me,” she said. Her hand shook slightly as she poured the milk.
“ ’I could not love thee, dear, so much,‘” I said, “ ’loved I not honor more.‘ ”
“Shit,” Susan said.
CHAPTER 31
Susan took Paul with her to work. “He can read in my office waiting room,” she said. “Until this is cleared up he won’t be safe alone and probably not with you.”
“It’ll be cleared up quick,” I said. “Next week, kid, we’ll be back working on the cabin.”
He nodded. Susan and Paul drove to the junior high school in her Bronco, the left side pocked with bullet holes. I followed in my MG. When I saw them safely inside, I drove back into Boston to my office. I needed time for sitting and thinking. I parked in my alley and went up the back stairs. “When I got there, the door was ajar. I took out my gun and kicked it open.
A voice said, ”Don’t shoot, babe, it’s Hawk.“ He was sitting in my clients’ chair, tipped back against the wall out of the line of fire from the door. Hawk was never careless. I put the gun away.
”Didn’t know you had a key,“ I said.
Hawk said, ”Haw.“
I went around my desk and sat down. ”Cotton raise the ante?“
”Naw, I just come by to hang out with you, you know. I got nothing to do and I get restless. You wasn’t at your apartment so I figured you’d come here.“
I said, ”Somebody tried to hit me at Susan’s last night.“
”She okay?“ he said.
”Yeah, but that’s not the gunny’s fault.“
”We gonna go see Cotton today,“ Hawk said. His face was impassive but the lines around his mouth seemed a little deeper and his cheekbones seemed a little more prominent.
