'Yeah. Educated. Did a year of grad work there, too. Don't make no difference. He's a wiseguy. Grew up on the fringes of the Brooklyn mob. We can't prove it, but we're pretty sure he's one of the guys hit Joey Gallo.'
'He married?'
'Yeah, lives in Far Rockaway, got a couple kids. But he fucks around. We're looking to get him for a cash room stickup at an OTB parlor in Manhattan.'
'Who's he run with?' I said.
'Got a pencil?' he said.
'Yeah.'
'Okay,' he said, 'known associates,' and read a list of maybe a dozen names. None of them meant anything to me.
'You know any connections he has in Boston?' I said.
'No.'
'What else you got to say about him?' I said.
'Bad news,' Maguire said. 'Got sort of college manners, you know, a breezy yuppie. Guy's crazy. Keep talking to you nice and shoot you in midsentence. You'd never know he didn't like you.'
'He does his own work?'
'Sometimes. Sometimes contracts out. Doesn't mind doing it himself. Mostly it's what's convenient.'
'Tell me about the betting parlor,' I said.
'Last December. Four guys, went in with a key after closing. Tied up a couple cashiers, got seven hundred thousand or so in cash, small bills, no serials. Everybody in Brooklyn knows it was Deegan and his outfit, but nobody can tie it to him.'
'Had somebody inside,' I said.
'Everybody figures that, but we don't have anyone for that either. We talked to both cashiers until they turned gray, they don't have nothing to say. Two dozen people could have got a key legitimately, two thousand could have scooped it and made a dupe. Things ain't buttoned up really tight over there.'
'Nobody's flashing money,' I said.
'Deegan's been flashing money all his life. Story is he's made some heavy scores betting sports.'
'That's the connection up here,' I said. 'He's rigging basketball games.'
'Point shaving?'
'Yes.'
'Can you get him on it?' Maguire said.
'Well, yes and no.'
'What the hell's that mean?'
'Means I probably can take him down on the point shaving deal, but not without taking down some people I don't want to take down.'
'They're involved with Deegan,' Maguire said, 'they deserve to go down too.'
'All you need out of this is Deegan,' I said.
'Any way we can,' Maguire said. 'Any other name, too, on that list I gave you.'
'Name Madelaine Roth or Madelaine Reilly mean anything to you?' I said.
'Not right off,' Maguire said. 'She got something to do with Deegan?'
'I don't know. She was at Queens College, too, in grad school.'
'Hey, there's a hot lead,' Maguire said.
'She went to Georgetown same time as a local hood that Deegan's connected with.'
'Jesus Christ,' Maguire said. 'You a campus cop?'
'She works at the school where the points are getting shaved.'
Maguire was silent for a moment at the other end.
'Okay,' he said. 'I'll see if anybody knows her. Maybe she'll turn up on the computer. Goddamn thing must be good for something.'
'Find something, let me know,' I said.
'Yeah,' Maguire said. 'You too.' We hung up.
I observed Hawk's technique for a few moments, then I got out the phone book and looked up the paralegal's number and dialed. In a moment I heard the phone ring across the hall. She answered.
I said, 'This is Spenser across the hall. There's an escaped sex fiend loose in the building. He's masquerading as a big good-looking black guy and I wondered if you'd seen him.' There was a pause.
'He's drawn obsessively to paralegals,' I said.
