'He's killed four women,' I said.
'I cannot let you tell him you know he did it without being around to protect you.'
'I'm afraid you'll have to,' Susan said. 'You and Hawk both may stay up here as you have. I won't have you in the office. He has a right to that sanctuary.'
'And I have a right to keep you alive,' I said.
Susan slammed her hand down flat on top of the counter.
'Don't you, God damn it, play God with me,' she said.
We were silent, looking at each other. Hawk sat comfortably, watching without expression. As far as you could tell from his reaction, we could have been discussing my plans for a haircut.
'I won't let you be alone with him,' I said. 'We worked too hard. It cost too much, to be who we are, to risk it for professional ethics, or human compassion, or your sense of self or all of them and world peace thrown in.'
'You won't let me?' she said.
'I won't let you.'
'Who the hell are you to talk about letting me?' she said.
'Your Sweet Patootie,' I said.
Hawk was shifting his gaze uninterestedly back and forth between us, like a man watching a tennis match that didn't matter.
Susan said to him, 'Have you got anything to say?'
'I won't let you be alone with him either,' Hawk said.
Susan patted the fingertips of both hands along the edge of the counter.
She looked down as she did so and studied her hands while they moved back and forth along the countertop.
'His rights stop this side of us,' I said.
'And mine?' Susan said.
I shook my head. 'I won't get metaphysical about this. I'm bigger, I can insist, and I do.'
She studied her tapping fingers some more. I waited. I could see her breathing begin to slow. Hawk took a plum from the bowl. Hawk finished the plum and got up and dropped the pit into the wastebasket and sat down. Susan's breathing was quiet now. She looked up.
'You are my Sweet Patootie,' she said. 'You can be with me when I talk with Felton.'
'Thank you,' I said.
'You're welcome.' Hawk smiled benignly, like a proud grandparent.
'Knew you two could work it out,' he said.
'Oh, fuck you,' Susan said.
'Good point,' Hawk said.
At nine minutes to eleven on Monday a blond young woman with what amounted to a crew cut came out of Susan's office and took her yellow slicker off the rack and went out of the waiting room without looking at me. As soon as the door closed behind her I got up and went into Susan's office. Hawk lingered at the top of the stairs. As soon as Felton showed up in the waiting room, Susan would ask him to come into the office, and as soon as he came in Hawk would come downstairs and sit in the waiting room.
'He always comes at one minute to eleven,' Susan had said. 'There's never anyone waiting. If he sees Hawk in the waiting room, it will frighten him.'
'Does it matter?' I had said. 'Hawk won't let him leave.'
'You have forced your protection on me,' Susan had said. 'That's enough.'
Which was why I was standing on the wall behind the door as Felton entered and Hawk waited until he was in to come sit in the waiting room.
Susan was wearing a dark blue suit with a boxy jacket and a white sweater. She stood when the waiting-room door opened and walked without hesitation to the office door and said, 'Come in.' Then she walked back into the office and stood by the doorway. When Felton entered, Susan closed the double layered door behind him. Then she went around her desk and sat down. Felton stood where he'd entered, looking at me. I looked back. It was the first time we'd met in daylight.
Susan said, 'Sit down, please, Mr. Felton. I will explain in a moment why Mr. Spenser is here.' Felton continued looking at me, and I at him.
He was probably six feet tall, maybe a little less, and slim, with a springiness in his bearing that suggested he was in decent shape. His brown hair was receding on each side of a widow's peak and there was a balding crown at the back. He had an untrimmed mustache that would have been bushy if he had the whiskers for it, but his beard was too light and it was merely untidy.
'Sit down, please, Mr. Felton,' Susan said. Her voice was clear and firm.
Felton turned and sat in the chair beside her desk. He could see me from there and Susan too. I folded my arms and leaned against the wall.
