Valediction

came out. He left it there on a crosswalk and we set out along the river.

'Want to go long,' Hawk said. 'You look like you got stuff to sweat out.'

I nodded. We made the big circle, up along the Charles to the Western Avenue Bridge, then across the river and down the CamIwidge side along Memorial Drive to the Charles River Dam and back up along the Mississippi esplanade to my apartment. It took us a little more than an hour. But when we got back I was loose and sweat- soaked and the hangover had gone.

'Lemme get a change of clothes,' I said, and we'll go over to the health club.'

Upstairs I put jeans and loafers and a clean shirt into my gym bag, along with a gun. The shower was running. And Paige was alone in the sofa bed with a long exposure of naked thigh sticking out from under the covers. Hawk came out of my kitchen with a glass of orange juice and pulled the spread over her. She stirred but didn't wake up. I got some orange juice too and was drinking it when Paul came out of the shower wearing a towel.

Hawk said, 'You looking pretty good for a fag dancer.'

Paul said, 'A fag dago dancer.'

Hawk nodded and grinned and put a hand out and Paul gave him a low five.

'Sherry Spellman called you,' Paul said to me. 'And said for you to call her as soon as you got in. I wrote the number on the edge of the Globe there. It looks like Tommy's studio number. She said be sure and call, it's very important.'

He went into the living room and began to rummage in his dance bag. I called Sherry. Sherry answered on the first ring.

'We're all here at Tommy's studio,' she said. 'Tommy wants you here too.'

'Who's we all, ' I said.

There was a sound of mild confusion at the other end of the phone and then Banks's voice replaced Sherry's.

'I got Winston and her,' he said. 'You get over here and they'll tell you what's been going on. You bring any cops and I'll kill them both.'

'Fifteen minutes,' I said.

'No cops,' Banks said, and hung up.

I put on a warm-up jacket and took my gun out of the gym bag. I put the gun in the righthand pocket of the warm-up jacket and said to Hawk, 'Banks has Winston and Sherry Spellman as hostages. You want to come along?'

Hawk grinned happily. 'Sure.'

We went in Hawk's Jaguar. As he drove he unlocked the glove compartment and took out a 9-millimeter automatic and put it in his lap.

'You could tuck it in your jock,' I said.

'No room,' Hawk said. 'You want to tell me who to shoot?'

'Christ,' I said, 'I don't know. Everybody but me, I think.'

Hawk went straight up Commonwealth and turned left onto Mass Ave. I told him my speculations on Sherry and Winston and the heroin business.

Hawk pulled the jag up along the curb in front of Symphony Hall. Tommy's studio was around the corner.

'Banks is expecting me,' I said. 'If he sees you, he may panic.'

Hawk said, 'I wait till you go on in and then I'll drift along up and hang around outside the door, see if I can hear what's happening. It don't sound good, I come in.'

'What wouldn't sound good,' I said. 'You think I need back-up for a middle-aged choreographer?'

Hawk shrugged. 'You ain't right yet, babe, you still ain't all you was.'

'Okay,' I said, 'just remember I don't know who the good guys are yet.'

'Maybe there ain't any,' Hawk said.

'Maybe there never will be,' I said, and got out of the jag.

Hawk got out of his side and leaned his forearms on the roof and watched me walk toward the corner.

'You learning,' he said. I turned the corner.

CHAPTER 43

Sherry was standing beside Bullard Winston against the mirrored wall on the far side of the dance studio away from the windows. Tommy Banks leaned his back against one of the tall columns that split the room. He held a nondescript .38 police special in his right hand. When I came in he pointed it briefly toward me then back toward Sherry and Winston and then, indecisively, at a point more or less it between us. I moved away from the door. If Hawk came in quickly, I didn't want to be in his way. I was careful to move toward the windows, away from Sherry and Winston, so that Banks wouldn't be able to point the gun ay all of us together. Banks understood. He went straight to Sherry and took her arm and held her in front of him. He pointed the gun at Winston.

'I caught them together again,' he said. 'I stayed on them and I caught them together.'

'Painful,' I said. 'But not illegal.' I stayed away from them. It meant Tommy would have to talk a little louder and Hawk would hear better from the hall.

'Look on that table,' Banks said.