Morton had his arms folded across his chest. He had on a dark blue pinstriped double breasted suit with a large maroon silk tie.
'And you have nothing to report?' he said.
'Hard to believe, isn't it,' I said.
'Mr. Spenser,' Cort said, 'we have been paying you to find out things that we want found out, not to disrupt this campus and annoy our faculty.'
'No extra charge for that,' I said. 'It's a professional courtesy.'
'There's nothing funny about this, Spenser,' Morton said. 'We want an accounting.'
'Don't blame you,' I said, 'but I'm not going to give you one.'
Morton looked at Haller. Cort looked at Haller.
Cort said, 'Vince, do we not have a viable legal position here?'
Haller smiled. 'Sure you do, Adrian. Everybody has a viable legal position everywhere in this great land, whatever that means. But in fact what you can do is fire him or accept his report. All other courses are, ah, counterproductive.'
'Counterproductive,' I said. 'Vince, you been taking night courses?'
'Flippancy is no substitute for competence, Mr. Spenser,' Cort said.
'That's too bad,' I said. 'I was hoping to get by on it.'
Cort looked at Morton. Morton looked at Haller. Haller shrugged.
'You leave us no choice,' Cort said. 'I'm afraid we're going to have to terminate our arrangement as of now. We will honor your expenses through this afternoon until five.'
'Call it even,' I said.
I turned and started for the door.
Haller said, 'Wait a minute, Spenser.' He turned to Cort and Morton. 'You think firing him will get him out of your hair. It won't. He's got hold of something's tail, I know him. He's not going to let go until he pulls it out of its hole and sees what it is.'
'He will no longer be welcome on this campus,' Cort said.
Haller laughed. 'You think he cares? He isn't welcome most places. He doesn't give a shit, Adrian, whether he's welcome or he isn't.' Haller turned toward me. 'Do you,' he said.
I smiled enigmatically.
'What have you got, Spenser?'
I shook my head. 'I don't quite know, Vince. No, that's not it. I do know. What I don't know is what the hell to do with it.'
'And you won't talk about it,' Haller said.
'No.'
Haller shrugged. 'He won't let go,' he said to Cort and Morton.
'We hired him on your recommendation, Vince.'
'And you didn't listen to the warnings that went with it,' Haller said. 'He's good. There isn't anyone as good, let alone better. But he does what the hell he is going to do and if you don't like it he doesn't care. I told you that. You hire Spenser and sometimes you get more than you hoped for and sometimes you don't like it. You remember those words?'
Cort was angry. 'Enough,' he said. 'If there was a mistake made, now is the time to rectify it. You're fired, Mr. Spenser, and you are to be removed from campus by the university police if you are in any way an impediment to the business of this campus.'
'I love it when you're angry,' I said. 'Your whole face lights up.'
27
WHEN Hawk and I got back to my office there was a message on my machine. 'This is Maguire in New York. Nothing in the computer or anywhere else on Madelaine Roth. But Deegan has a girlfriend in the Boston area. Slips out on the old lady every other week or so and goes up there. You get anything, let me know.'
Hawk and I looked at each other.
'Okay,' I said. 'That's more coincidence than I'm ready to buy.'
'Be odd,' Hawk said, 'if it ain't Madelaine.'
'So she knows Broz from Georgetown, she knows Deegan from Queens College. When Deegan is looking for someone to scrag me, she puts him in touch with Broz.'
'Education a wonderful thing,' Hawk said.
'She's got to be in on the fix with Dwayne,' I said.
Hawk was quiet.
'So if I follow her around, after a while she'll lead me to Deegan.'
