“If’t‘were be done,’t’were well it be done quickly,” I said.
She shook her head and folded her arms and hugged herself, the pencil still in her right hand.
“What are you waiting for,” I said.
“The strength,” she said.
CHAPTER 39
“YOU’RE MAKING PROGRESS,” IVES SAID. “BUT don’t think because you have the maiden back that you don’t have to slay the dragon.”
Hawk and I were walking on either side of Ives along the waterfront down Atlantic Avenue. Everywhere the mobility was upward.
“We’ll kill Costigan,” I said.
“You have abandoned considerable government property along the way so far,” Ives said. The trousers of his seersucker suit were cuffed at least two inches above the tops of his wing-tipped cordovans.
“Really fuck up the GNP,” Hawk said.
“Not the point,” Ives said. “The car, the weapons, they have to be accounted for.”
“We could skip killing Costigan,” I said, “and concentrate on recovering the stuff we left in Pequod.”
“Not funny, McGee,” Ives said.
We turned into the waterfront park near the new Marriott and walked to the edge and looked at the water.
“What is your plan,” Ives said.
“We were thinking about stopping in here at Tia’s and having some fried squid and a couple of beers,” I said.
Ives frowned and looked at me hard. “You work too hard at being a wise guy, Lochinvar.”
“It’s worth the effort,” I said.
“Man ain’t lazy,” Hawk said.
“Listen, both of you. You think you’re a couple of hard cases. I know. I’ve seen a lot of hard cases. Well, you two hard cases have your balls in a squeeze, you understand. You are in hock to us and we’re calling in the chit. You want to learn about how hard a case someone can be you keep fucking around with us. You’ll find yourself hanging out to dry in a slow wind.”
“Eek,” I said.
“Keep it up,” Ives said. “You’ve got Costigan on one side, and us on the other. You don’t know what pressure is if we start squeezing.”
“Here,” Hawk said. “Why don’t you just give this a gentle squeeze to show you’re serious.”
Ives’s face flushed and small dimples formed near the corners of his thin mouth. He breathed in a large lungful of salt air and let it out, turning to lean on one of the capstan posts that lined the edge of the harbor.
“You know Costigan will be after you,” Ives said in a voice tight with the obvious effort of control. “He’s got a contract out on both of you now, and he has an organization that can find you anywhere in the world.”
“We’ll kill Costigan,” I said.
“If you have any doubts remember that he’ll kill you if you don’t, and without us to back you up, you won’t.”
“With or without,” Hawk said.
“And what do I tell my people when they ask me your plan?”
“Tell them you don’t know,” I said.
“And how do I look telling them that? I’m supposed to be running you.”
“They think so,” Hawk said, “you think so, but we don’t think so.”
“And,” I said, “we don’t have a plan. Yet.”
“Well, you weren’t signed aboard this cruise to sit around and soak up per diem. Every unproductive day is another expense I have to justify to the shoo flies. They want some cost efficiency here.”
“We artists,” Hawk said. “We ain’t cost efficient.”
“Jesus Christ,” Ives said.
“We know something,” I said, “we’ll tell you. But if it helps, we will do it. Not only because it’s him or us, but because we said we would. We’ll kill him.”
“Well, it better be quick, or by God there’s going to be some accounting called for.”
“First we have to find him,” I said.
“He’s not at Mill River,” Ives said. “We can tell you that.”
“And he’s not here in Waterfront Park,” I said. “So that’s already two places we don’t have to look.
“Gonna be easy,” Hawk said.
“I know it’s not much, but it’s all we’ve got so far,” Ives said. “We get more we’ll let you know. But you’ve got
