“She got ‘bout fifteen bottles of Steinlager beer, too, honey.”
“Lawzy me,” I said. “I’ve died and gone to heaven.”
“Done died,” Hawk said. “Ah done died and gone to heaven. Haven’t you ever watched any Mantan Moreland movies?”
“Give me a beer,” I said. “I’ll drink it in the shower.”
CHAPTER 21
AT EIGHT FIFTEEN THE NEXT MORNING HAWK and I were eating fried egg sandwiches on whole wheat toast and drinking pot-brewed coffee in Yvonne’s sun-splashed living room.
“No way to know what Susan knows,” I said. “She will assume I got her letter and came out to California. After that she may not know anything.”
“She’ll know you won’t stop looking for her,” Hawk said.
We were both naked, our clothes churning through Yvonne’s washer-dryer. A double treat for Yvonne if she came home suddenly.
“Okay,” I said. “So she won’t expect me to be at home or at the office.”
Hawk nodded.
“So she’d try Paul,” I said.
“She figure you’ll stay in touch with him.”
“Yes. It’s a good time to call him. He’ll be asleep for sure. Once he’s up you can never get him.” I called Sarah Lawrence and got the switchboard and asked for Paul’s dorm. After eight rings a kid answered. I asked for Paul. The kid went away and I could hear him holler in the background. Then he came back and said, “He’s asleep.”
“Wake him up,” I said. “It’s very important.”
The kid said, “Okay,” in a tone that implied nothing could be so important as to wake Paul Giacomin up at eight twenty-five in-the morning. There was more hollering and a long pause and then Paul said, “Hello,” in a voice thick with-sleep.
I said, “Do you know who this is?”
He said, “My God, yes.”
I said, “Okay. Is it safe to talk?”
“Sure. What’s happening?”
“A lot. But first, have you heard from Susan?”
“No. But Lieutenant Quirk wants you to call him.”
“Quirk?”
“Yes. He called me up and left a message I should call him, so I did and he says if I hear from you that you should call him.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m with Hawk at… what’s the street address?”
Hawk told me and I relayed it to Paul. I also read him the number off the phone. “You and you alone are to know where I am. You understand. Except Susan, and her, only directly. No one calling for her, or anything. You understand?”
“Sure. What’s going on?”
I told him, as briefly as I could.
“Jesus Christ,” he said when I was through.
“That will wake you up in the morning, won’t it?”
“Clears up the old sinuses,” he said. “Want me to come home?”
“No,” I said. “There’s not enough room here as it is and if Yvonne shows… No, you stay put.”
“You’ll get her back,” Paul said.
“Yes,” I said. “We will.”
“Kid’s okay?” Hawk said when I hung up.
“Yes.” I said. “Quirk wants me to call him.”
Hawk raised his eyebrows. “God damn,” he said. “Give you a chance to surrender?”
“I doubt it.”
“I doubt it too. But one thing about Quirk. He won’t cross your ass. He ask you to call him, he won’t have a trace on the line.”
“I know.”
The dryer clunked to a stop in the kitchenette and I went and got my clothes out and put them on still warm from the machine. Hawk dressed too.
“Let’s see what he wants,” I said and called police headquarters and asked for Homicide, and when I got it I asked for Quirk and in about ten seconds he came on the line.
