I looked at him for a minute. ”Yeah,“ I said. ”We are.“
Hawk stood up. ”May as well get an early start,“ he said. I nodded. I took out my gun, spun the cylinder so there was a slug under the hammer, put a fresh slug in the chamber I usually kept empty under the hammer, and put the gun back on my hip. We went out. I locked the office door, and we went down the back stairs.
In the alley I said, ”Where you parked?“
”Down front of your place,“ Hawk said.
”I’m right here,“ I said. ”We’ll take mine.“
We got into the MG. Hawk pushed the passenger seat back further. ”Cute,“ he said. We drove down Berkeley and turned west onto Commonwealth. The trees were leafing and brownstone town houses were bright with early flowering.
As we went through Renmore Square, Hawk said, ”You gonna have to kill him.“
”Harry?“
”Uh-huh. You can’t scare him.“
I nodded.
”He near put a hole in Susan,“ Hawk said.
I nodded. About a block short of Harry’s used-car lot I pulled in and parked in a loading zone. We got out.
Hawk said, ”I think I might drift around back, case they see you coming.“
I said, ”You know the place?“
”I been in there,“ Hawk said.
I nodded. Hawk turned down a side street, and cut through an alley and disappeared. I walked straight up Commonwealth and into Harry’s office. Harry was at his desk. Shelley and two others were in the service bay. When I came in the door, Harry reached into the desk drawer for a gun. He got it out and half raised when I reached across the desk and slapped it out of his hand. Then I took him by the shirt front with both hands and yanked him out of his chair and frontward across the desk. Shelley yelled, ”Hey,“ from somewhere to my left and then I got a dark glimpse of Hawk between me and the sound of Shelley’s voice. I dragged Harry across the desk and slammed him against the far wall of the cinder-block office. He grunted. I pulled him away from the wall and slammed him back against it, He was kicking and clawing at me but I didn’t notice much. I shifted my right hand from his shirt to his throat and jammed him against the wall, holding him up by the throat with his feet off the floor.
”Which one shot at us last night?“ I said.
Harry swatted at my face. I ignored it and leaned my hand in against his windpipe. ”Which one?“
He pointed at Shelley. I dropped Harry and he slid down the wall and sat gasping on the floor. I turned toward Shelley. ”If you can get past me,“ I said, ”Hawk won’t shoot. You’re out of here free.“
Shelley and two others stood motionless against the wall in the repair section. Hawk with his gun steady and relaxed stood in front of them. There were three pistols on the floor. Shelley looked at Hawk. Hawk shrugged. ”Okay by me, Shell. You ain’t gonna make it by him anyway.“
”Yeah, if I win you shoot me.“
”You don’t try and I shoot you now,“ Hawk said.
One of the other two men was Buddy Hartman. I said to him, ”Buddy, take your pal and beat it. You ever come near me or anyone I know, I’ll kill you.“
Buddy nodded. His companion was a lean, dark, handsome man with the dark-blue shadow of a recently shaven heavy beard. His companion nodded too and they went past me and out the door of the gas station and down the street, walking fast without looking back. Hawk shook his head. ”Should have burned them,“ he said.
Shelley stared after the two men who had gotten out. Then he lunged toward me, trying for the door. He weighed more than I did and the force of his lunge pushed me back against the doorjamb. I got a short uppercut in under his jaw and straightened him up with it slightly. Hawk leaned against the far wall with his arms crossed, the revolver still in his right hand. To my left, Harry Cotton was inching along toward his desk. I hit Shelley again under the jaw, and he stepped back and swung at me. I shrugged my shoulder up and took the punch on it. I hit Shelley four times, three lefts and a right in the face. He stumbled back, blood rushing from his nose. I hit him another flurry. He stumbled, waved an arm at me, and backed into Harry’s desk. His hands dropped. I hit him one big left hook and a haymaker right hand and he went backward over the desk and hit the swivel chair. It broke under his weight and he lay still on the floor with one foot still on the desk. Harry was trying to get the gun I’d knocked away from him. It was partly under Shelley’s body. I took a step around the desk and kicked Harry in the neck. He fell backward and made a swacking noise. I stood over him.
I said, ”Never come near anybody I know. Never send anybody else. You understand me?“
Hawk said, ”Ain’t good enough. You gotta kill him.“
”That right, Harry? Do I? Do I have to kill you?“
Harry shook his head. He made a croaking sound.
”You gotta kill him,“ Hawk said.
I stepped away from Harry. ”Remember what I told you,“ I said.
Hawk said, ”Spenser, you a goddamned fool.“
”I can’t kill a man lying there on the floor,“ I said.
Hawk shook his head, spit through the open door into the repair bay, and shot Harry in the middle of the forehead.
”I can,“ he said.
