Hawk said.
'We been looking at Marty Anaheim and seeing Gino Fish,' I said.
'What if Gino's got nothing to do with it. What if it's Marty?
Gino didn't seem too sure about Marty when he came to see me.'
'So what's that got to do with Julius?' Hawk asked.
'Maybe nothing. Maybe there's two sets of things going on.
Julius you can figure. Anthony stole some money from him and it makes him look bad. Julius wants the money and Anthony back without anyone knowing about it.'
'And Marty?'
'I don't know. If he's not working for Gino on this… be kind of hard to drag Anthony back to Boston, he doesn't want to go,' I said.
'Sure,' Hawk said.
'That be really hard for just the two of us, him being such a bad ass and all.'
A woman wearing a designer baseball cap and carrying a coin cup slid into the bar beside Hawk. She ordered a bourbon oldfashioned, looking covertly at Hawk while the bartender mixed it.
When it came, she put it down in three swallows and headed back to the slots.
'Okay,' I said, 'so we can drag him back to Shirley if we wanted to. Let's wait and see first if we want to.'
'During which time we hang around and protect him from Marty Anaheim. If Marty were to show up. For whatever reason, which we don't know, that Marty might have. If Anthony needs protection from Marty.'
'Which he thinks he does,' I said.
'Or which he lets us think he thinks he does,' Hawk said.
'Unless we misinterpret.'
'Unless that,' Hawk said.
Hawk was looking at the casino floor as he talked. His face was expressionless. His eyes always seemed to see nothing and everything simultaneously. After a minute he looked back at me and grinned.
'You know what you're doing?' Hawk said.
'No.'
'But you trying to do the right thing, soon as you know what it is,' Hawk said.
'Yes.'
'And meantime we going to fuck around with Anthony until we find out who to save.'
'That's my plan.'
'So we going to cover him twenty-four hours a day, you and me?'
'I don't think he'll run,' I said.
'Why not?'
'He's not going anywhere,' I said, 'until he loses all the dough.
We'll sort of cover him while he's playing.'
'So Marty Anaheim won't come and scare him to death,' Hawk said.
'Marty's pretty scary,' I said.
'What you going to do about Julius,' Hawk said.
'I told Anthony I wouldn't blow the whistle on him yet.'
'Yeah but Julius paying us,' Hawk said.
'I'll let him know we've located Anthony, see what he has to say.'
'And if he say bring him right back?'
'I'll tell him, soon.'
'And if he say now?'
'I'll tell him, soon.'
'You got to do it your way,' Hawk said, 'don't you.'
'I don't do kidnappings.'
'The hell you don't,' Hawk said.
'I seen you do more than kidnappings, you think it's what you should do.'
I shrugged and took a sip of beer. I had nursed it so long that what was left was warm. I pushed the bottle away.
