Dwayne nodded a little and slowly got out of the car and straightened up. He didn't say anything, but he looked at me with a blank implacable gaze that didn't seem to mean anything, though it was clearly not friendly.
'Wait here,' I said to Chantel and Dwayne and Susan. Then I started for the front door and Hawk came with me.
He stood to one side of the door, and I stood to the other. Hawk's .44 Magnum was out, the long barrel resting lazily on his shoulder. I took the Browning off my hip. It looked sort of embarrassing next to the Mag.
'Is that a siege weapon?' I said. Then I rang the bell. Nothing happened. I rang it again. Then I could hear footsteps and a female voice say something that was probably, 'I'm coming.' The door opened and there was Madelaine in a blue-and-white striped tank top and white shorts and leather sandals. I put the barrel of the Browning up under Madelaine's chin and said softly, 'Where's Deegan?'
Madelaine's face stiffened and she said very slowly, 'What?'
I pushed her backward and Hawk came behind me.
'Where's Deegan,' I said again, softly.
'Patio,' Madelaine said. And looked toward the back of the house.
The hallway went straight back along the right wall of the condo. The rooms all opened off to the left and a stairway rose halfway down the hall.
Hawk and I moved Madelaine down the hall ahead of us, and when we had about reached the staircase she seemed to come out of shock. She hollered, 'Bobby.' Hawk held her arm and I reached the door at about the time it opened. Deegan came in frowning in a lavender polo shirt and acid-washed jeans with a section of the Globe in his hand, his forefinger keeping the place.
'Bobby,' I said, 'how's it going?'
The muzzle of the Browning was right in front of his left eye as it adjusted to the interior light.
'What's this?' Deegan said and then as he looked at me, 'Spenser? What's with the gun?' He looked past me at Hawk, who was still with Madelaine. A slow recognition moved across his face. 'Shit,' he said.
Hawk smiled at him in a friendly way.
'Let's all go in the living room,' I said. 'There's folks I want you to talk with.'
'So,' Deegan said, 'knock on the fucking door, you know? How come you got to bust in here waving a piece and scaring the shit out of Mad?'
'Just being safe,' I said. 'You did hire some people to ace me.'
'Hey,' Deegan said, and shrugged a New York shrug.
We went into the big white-painted living room. There was a fireplace at an angle across one corner, and some Scandinavian modern furniture in white pebbly material, and a big teak entertainment cabinet with TV and stereo and CD, and VCR, and maybe a hot tub.
Hawk stepped to the front door, and in a moment Susan and Chantel and Dwayne filed in. Madelaine said, 'Dwayne?'
Deegan said nothing at all, but he looked at Dwayne. Susan leaned against the wall to the right of the door. Hawk leaned on the left door jamb, in the door. The Mag was back under his coat. I had put the Browning back on my hip. The only place Deegan could be carrying a piece would be in an ankle holster and Hawk or I would probably be able to spot him bending over and unlimbering. I went and leaned against the mantel of the fireplace.
'These are my friends Susan and Hawk,' I said. 'Hawk is the taller of the two.'
'Better dancer, too,' Hawk said.
Susan had already begun to concentrate. When she did, other things no longer impinged. She was watching Dwayne. Dwayne was looking at Deegan.
'I didn't know you was going to be here, Bobby,' Dwayne said.
'No problem, Dwayne,' Deegan said. 'No problem.'
I said, 'Why, you are doubtless wondering, did I call this meeting.'
No one said anything. Dwayne continued to watch Deegan.
I felt like Philo Vance.
'We are the components of a vexing problem,' I said.
Peripherally I saw Hawk grin and say the word vexing silently.
'Usually the problem is you don't know what happened. Here I know what happened, I don't know what to do about it.'
Everyone was watching me now, except Susan, who was watching Dwayne, and Hawk, who was watching Deegan.
'I know that Deegan stuck up an OTB in New York and started investing the money in a gambling scheme that involved point spread control by Dwayne. I know that Madelaine was the intermediary in the deal. I know that when I got involved and Bobby needed a shooter to take me out of it Madelaine put him in touch with her old school chum Gerry Broz, who without knowing the shootee recommended Hawk.'
'Why not send the very best,' Hawk said in a radio announcer voice with no hint of ethnicity.
'Hawk, being my frequent associate, reported this plan to me and hung around with me thereafter to help me foil it.'
'You can't prove any of this,' Deegan said.
