involve the lateral obliques. 'But if I had more than a million dollars in cash, and I were running away from the kind of people you've described, maybe I wouldn't stay in a hotel.'
I finished the thirtieth curl and began to do hammer curls.
'Because you wouldn't be making a temporary departure,' I said.
'That's right,' Paul said. 'You'd know you could never come back.'
'So maybe you'd buy a place, or rent a place.'
'Yes. I don't know what property costs, but if I had a million dollars.. .'
'More than a million,' I said. 'Yeah. You'd stay in a hotel if you were on your way somewhere. But if you were going to make it a permanent hideout, you'd want something more.'
'Could you buy a place without proving your identity?' Paul said.
I put down the barbells. They were bright chrome. Everything was upscale at the Harbor Health Club except Henry Cimoli, who owned it. Henry hadn't changed much since he'd fought Willie.Pep, except that the scar tissue had, with time, thickened around his eyes, so that now he always looked as if he were squinting into the sun.
'You'd have to give a name, but if you were paying cash, I don't think you'd have to prove it.'
'So maybe we should go out there and talk to real estate people,' Paul said. 'Yes,' I said. 'We should.'
I finished my set of thirty hammers and went back to straight curls, concentrating on keeping my elbow still, using only the bicep.
'It's an excellent idea,' I said.
Paul had gone into a hamstring stretch where he sat on the floor with his legs out straight and pressed his forehead against his kneecap.
'You'd have thought of it anyway,' he said.
'Of course,' I said. 'Because I'm a professional detective, and you're just a performer.'
'Certainly,' Paul said.
We finished our workout, stretched, took some steam, showered, picked up
Pearl from the club office where she had been keeping company with Henry, and strolled out into the fresh- washed fall morning feeling loose and strong with all our pores breathing.
In the car I said, 'Is there a picture of your mother?'
'Should be, at the house.'
'Okay, let's go out there and break in again and get it.'
'No need to break and enter,' Paul said. 'While we were there last time I got a key. She always was losing hers, so she kept a spare one under the porch overhang. I took it when we left.'
We went out Storrow Drive toward Route 2. A little past Mass General
Hospital I spotted the tail. It was a maroon Chevy, and it was a very amateurish tail job. He kept fighting to stay right behind me, making himself noticeable as he cut in and cut off drivers to stay near my rear bumper. There was even horn blowing.
I said to Paul, 'We are being followed by one of the worst followers in
Boston.'
Paul turned and looked out the back window.
'Maroon Chevy,' I said.
'Right behind us?'
'Yeah. Probably someone from Gerry,' I said. 'Joe would have someone better. If Vinnie Morris did it you wouldn't notice.'
'Would you?'
'Yeah.'
'What are we going to do?'
'We'll lose them,' I said.
We continued out Storrow and onto Soldiers Field Road, past Harvard Stadium and across the Eliot Bridge by Mt. Auburn Hospital. In the athletic field near the stadium a number of Harvard women were playing field hockey. Their bare legs flashed under the short plaid skirts and their ankles were bulky with thick socks. The river as we crossed it was the color of strong tea, and a little choppy. A loon with his neck arched floated near the boat club. Behind us the maroon Chevy stayed close to our exhaust pipe. I could see two people in it. The guy driving was wearing sunglasses. Near the
Cambridge-Belmont line, where Fresh Pond Parkway meets Alewife Brook
Parkway there is a traffic circle. I went slowly around it with the Chevy behind me.
'Where we going?' Paul said.
'Ever see a dog circle a raccoon or some other animal it's got out in the open?'
'No.'
I went all the way around the circle and started around again.
