blood on his chin. 'Not sure you could have pulled it off without the cops outside.' He stopped dabbing with the napkin and held it wadded against his mouth. 'Got some cop in your pocket,' he said, his voice muffled by the napkin. Hawk and I were quiet. Holding the napkin against his mouth, Marcus rolled his neck as if trying to loosen the muscles. Then he looked at me and took the napkin away from his mouth. It was bloody and wet. 'Okay,' he said. 'You make sure Foitras knows what not to talk about. He talks, it's on you.'
'Okay,' I said. 'We clean?'
'Almost,' Marcus said, and hit me an overhand right on the jaw. He rolled off the desk as he threw the punch, and his full weight was behind it. It was a good punch. I had to take a quick backward step to keep from falling. 'Now we're clean,' Marcus said. 'Your lucky day, honky. You and your lady.'
My head was ringing. 'Not bad,' I said. 'Not a bad punch for a pimp.'
Chapter 26
As we walked out through the restaurant Hawk said, 'I seen you slip better punches than that one.' There was no one in the restaurant except Buster, behind the bar, holding ice against his forehead.
'Won't hurt if he feels better about things,' I said.
'We could have zipped him.'
'But then there'd be people trying to zip us. This way is better. It puts Susan out of it, if he'll keep his word.'
'He will,' Hawk said.
In front of the restaurant, as we went out onto Tremont Street, was an unmarked car with the motor idling, and its give-away buggy whip antenna trembling slightly in synch with the engine vibrations.
'That's why no reinforcements came,' I said.
'Henry called Quirk,' Hawk said.
I bent over and looked in the window. Belson sat behind the wheel and Martin Quirk was beside him. Quirk rolled down the window. The smell of Belson's cheap cigar was strong.
'Henry call you?' I said.
'Uh-huh.'
'You down here officially?' I said.
'Nope. Henry told us somebody took a swipe at Susan, and you and your pet shark'quirk pointed at Hawk with his chin -'were coming down to talk with Marcus about it.'
Hawk grinned and drifted over to his car and put the shotgun in the trunk.
I said, 'We did. It's all straightened out.' There was a shotgun between Quirk's knees and another one locked upright into the catch on the dashboard.
'Thanks,' I said.
Quirk was immaculate, as he always was. Hair recently cut, face newly shaved. His trench coat just out of the cleaners.
Quirk nodded. Belson chewed his cigar into a more comfortable corner of his mouth.
'Best to Susan,' Quirk said. And the car pulled slowly away and drove Tremont Street.
Hawk was leaning against his car with his arms crossed. I said, 'Let's go.' And Hawk walked around and got into the driver's side.
As we headed back for the Harbor Health Club, Hawk said, 'You tell Henry to do that?'
'No. I told him to let Quirk know if we didn't come back. You were there.'
'Not sure how legal that is,' Hawk said, 'cops sitting backup while you and me roust some citizens.' 'About as legal as you and me rousting the citizens,' I said.
'That's what I thought,' Hawk said.
Hawk dropped me at the Health Club and I picked up my car and drove out to Smithfield. I was in Susan's kitchen drinking coffee and eating oatmeal cookies when she came home from school. Cataldo came into the house with her.
'You don't have to watch her anymore,' I said. 'It's been fixed.'
Susan put her coat across the back of a kitchen chair and said to Cataldo, 'Coffee?'
Cataldo shook his head. 'No, thanks. I hope,' he said to me, 'there was no crime committed in fixing things?'
'Cynical and suspicious,' I said. 'Years of police work will do that to you, Suze.'
She was making instant coffee for herself at the counter and her face was serious. She nodded. Cataldo said, 'See you, Susan.'
She said, 'Thank you very much, Lonnie.'
He nodded at me, and Susan walked him to the door. When she came back, she put her arms around my neck from behind as I sat at the table and pressed her cheek against the top of my head for a moment. Then she got her coffee from the counter and came and sat across the table from me. She took a cookie and bit a small half-circle from the edge and sipped some coffee.
'What did you do,' she said, 'to fix it?'
