give her some room she going to move, and he say he won’t let her. And I say, `what he going to do,‘ and she shake her head and she say, ’you don’t know him.‘ And I say, `you want to tell me about it’ and she just shake her head, and I see she getting tears, her eyes filling up. And I say, `why not come back with me. And Spenser and me, we fix it up, whatever it is. We can fix up anything.‘ And she just sit there, she not crying exactly, but her eyes full of tears and she shake her head, and then the door opens and Costigan comes in and he got a couple of heavy lifters with him.”
“Only a couple?” I said.
Hawk said, “I telling this story.”
The dashboard clock read 5:03.
“And Susan say, `Russell what in hell you doing,‘ ” Hawk said, “and Russell, he say to me, `beat it.
I almost smiled. “Beat it?” I said.
“Beat it. He that kind of a slick guy. So I say something about lawzy me M’ars Russell but I a guest of Ms. Silverman. And the two heavy lifters are standing around checking their pecs in the mirror and seein‘ which one got the bigger tricep dimple and Russell he say, `You ain’t nobody’s guest, Boogaloo, on your way.”’
“Boogaloo?” I said.
“Boogaloo. So I look at Susan and she frozen, and…”
“What do you mean, frozen?” I said.
“Still. She got a little half smile and she look scared and mad and she not moving or speaking or looking like she going to.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said.
“Umm hmm,” Hawk said. “I not feeling warm toward Russell anyway, even before I know him. And he getting on my nerves telling me to beat it and all. So I expressed my displeasure by hitting him in the mouth with my elbow. I hate to cut up my hands if I don’t have to. And the two gym rats get into it and I forced to quell them. And I quell one of them kind of hard with a chair and the dumb bastard died.”
“And the cops came,” I said.
“Yeah. About ten of them with shotguns and vests and all.”
“And no one called them,” I said.
“Nope,” Hawk said, “they come in the door about the time the last gym rat hit the floor.”
“Like they’d been waiting.”
“Yep.”
“You were set up,” I said. “You were supposed to get roughed up and then arrested for assault. Teach us all a lesson.”
“Figure they had her phone tapped,” Hawk said.
“Cops or Costigan?”
“Don’t matter,” Hawk said. “They Costigan’s cops.”
CHAPTER 6
OFF TO THE RIGHT, CLEAR IN THE LUCID predawn stillness, I could see Candlestick Park on the edge of the bay. When I was a kid the Giants played at the Polo Grounds, and the ‘49ers played at Kezar Stadium and I didn’t even know Susan Silverman.
“The cops take me to the pokey and last I see they giving Russell some ice in a towel to hold on his mouth. And Susan still frozen, weird little smile, and she crying.”
I was silent.
“There a picture of you,” Hawk said. “In her condo.”
Ahead I could see the outline of the Transam tower on the San Francisco skyline. “Boogaloo,” I said.
“Knew you’d like that.”
“You broke three of Costigan’s teeth,” I said.
“He got some left,” Hawk said.
“I know. We’ll get to that.”
“We surely will,” Hawk said.
“But first we get Susan,” I said.
“We surely will,” Hawk said.
“And then we’ll see about the Costigans.”
“We surely will,” Hawk said.
“And Mill River,” I said. “Might neaten that up a little, too.”
“While we doing all this, be better if the cops don’t catch us,” Hawk said. “Be pretty soon they figure out who you are.”
“And then they’ll check the airlines and the rental agencies and have a fix on this car.”
Hawk said, “How much bread you have?”
