“Yes,” I said.
She took my right hand in both of hers and leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. Lightly.
Rachel Wallace tapped on the door. “Room service is here,” she said. I took my hand from Susan’s and patted her on the cheek. Then I went into the other room, and took my gun out and stood half into the bathroom door with the gun out of sight and said to Rachel Wallace, “Okay.”
When the waiter left there were glasses and soda and a large bowl of Smokehouse almonds. “Ice down the corridor,” Rachel Wallace said.
I was gazing at the almonds. “I’ll get some when Hawk comes back.”
Rachel Wallace grinned. “The almonds were with you in mind,” she said.
“If you weren’t a pervert,” I said, “I think I’d marry you.”
There was a tap on the door and Hawk’s voice said, “Booze patrol.”
I opened the door and Hawk came in with two bottles of Glenfiddich and a bottle of Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs champagne.
“Let the good times roll,” he said.
I looked at the champagne: “Domestic?” I said.
“French house, California grapes,” he said. “Top shelf.”
I went down the hall for ice. When I came back into the room Rachel Wallace was talking to Hawk. “And he knew that you were alone at the door. How could he know someone wasn’t forcing you to lie at gunpoint.”
Hawk looked at me sadly.
“If I understand your question,” I said, “Hawk wouldn’t do it.”
“Even under threat of death he wouldn’t betray you?”
“I doubt that either of us has thought of it that elegantly, but no, he wouldn’t.”
“And you know that?”
“Yes.”
“How can you be sure?”
“‘Cause he know he wouldn’t,” Hawk said.
Rachel Wallace shook her head impatiently. “That’s what I’m trying to get at. How do you know he wouldn’t? How do you know he knows he wouldn’t? Do you discuss these things?”
“One doesn’t,” I said.
“Oh, God, spare me the Hemingway posturing,” she said.
I grinned. “We don’t,” I said.
“But damn it, why don’t you?”
“One doesn’t,” Hawk said.
“Oh shit,” she said and began putting ice cubes in a glass.
Susan opened the door of the adjoining room. “We need to talk,” she said.
I went in and closed the door again. The phone lay on the bed, the receiver off the hook.
“He wants to talk with you,” Susan said. Her face was pale and tight.
I picked up the phone. “Yeah?”
“With Susan,” Russell said, “it looks like I lost and you might win. She wants it, she should have it. I wish her well.”
Costigan’s voice was hoarse, but steady. I knew how he might be feeling. I was quiet. My knuckles on the receiver were white.
“You and I aren’t friends,” he said, “but we got a special connection. We know things most people don’t know.”
I said, “Un huh?”
“You’re trying to kill my old man,” Russell said.
“Un huh.”
“He’s trying to kill you.”
“Un huh.”
“He’s in Boise,” Russell said. “Him and the old lady. They’ve been there since you broke into The Keep.”
“Boise, Idaho?” I said.
“Yeah. There’s an old silver mine that he’s recycled.”
“Recycled?”
“Yeah, he’s turned it into a fortress. You get him in there and you’re the best that ever lived.”
