'But a guy like Lonnie, he's used to doing what he wants to. He's an activist. And, he may have people to answer to. Maybe he gets a call from the head guy at Kwan Chang 'get the white guy out of our town.' Say Hawk's right and he's wired with the cops. There's not a lot of risk. And he doesn't know I'm stubborn. So he warns me, and it doesn't work. How's he look now? He can't run Port City the way they want it, then the long will replace him. And he's going to run the Death Dragons, he can't lose face by letting me ignore him.'
Susan nodded.
'So it makes sense from Lonnie's point of view,' she said.
'But we still don't know whether he's involved in Craig's death.'
'No, we don't.'
'And we have no idea who was shadowing Jimmy?'
'No, we don't.'
'And Jocelyn.'
'About her I've got an idea.'
Susan smiled at me.
'Oh, good,' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'It's a start.'
Pearl scrambled up on the bench seat between me and Susan and sat at table hopefully. Susan put her arm around her.
'You went to Harvard,' I said.
'If I needed a translator, you think you could find one?'
'I imagine so,' Susan said.
'I don't want a specialist in ritual folk poetry of the Tang Dynasty,' I said.
'I need someone who can talk to street types.'
'I sort of guessed that,' Susan said.
'Wow,' I said.
'You did go to Harvard.'
Hawk speared two bread and butter pickles from the open jar, gave one to Pearl, and ate the other one. Pearl swallowed hers and waited. Nothing happened so she bounced up onto the table and put her nose in the jar. The mouth of the jar was too small and she couldn't get it all the way in, but she was able to put her tongue in and lap a little pickle juice. Vinnie watched in silence.
'Fucking dog's up on the fucking table eating the pickles,' he said.
Susan smiled at him patiently.
'She likes pickles,' Susan explained.
CHAPTER 25
Hawk and Vinnie were sitting with me in my office with the door locked to keep the Death Dragons at bay. We were drinking some coffee and eating some donuts. Hawk was reading a book by Cornel West, and Vinnie was sitting with his feet up on the corner of my desk and his eyes half closed, listening to his Walkman through the earphones. I had some mail to go through, and then I had to think about Port City. Most of the mail was junk. And so was most of what I knew about Port City. Vinnie was humming softly to himself. Hawk looked up from his book.
'What you listening to?' he said.
'Lennie Welch,' Vinnie said.
Hawk looked blank.
Vinnie gave him a sample. '
'You-oo-oo-oo made me leave my happy home…'
' 'Lucky you can shoot,' Hawk said and went back to his book.
Someone turned the knob on my office door. Hawk rolled left out of his chair, Vinnie went right. They came to their feet on either side of the door, guns out, hammers back. Vinnie was still wearing the Walkman. I was crouching behind the desk, with the Browning aimed at the door.
'Yeah?' I said.
'Spenser? Lee Farrell, is this a bad time?'
I put the gun away and nodded at Hawk to open the door. He did, and Lee walked in. He looked at Hawk and Vinnie still on either side of the door.
'Hawk,' he said.
'Lee.'
'Vinnie Morris,' I said.
