Hawk looked pleased.
'All work and no play,' Hawk said.
While I waited for Hawk to shower and change, I honed my observational skills by studying the tightness of the various leotards on the young professional women who made up most of Henry's clientele. It did not escape my attention that there was scant room for anything underneath. When he was through, Hawk went to Henry's office to retrieve his gun from a locked drawer in Henry's desk.
Henry weighed about 134 pounds, and 133 of it was muscle. He had gone twice with Willie Pep in his youth and done as well with Willie as I had with Joe Walcott. It showed on his face.
'That's the biggest fucking weapon I ever seen,' Henry said.
'Got a lot of stopping power,' Hawk said.
He shrugged into the shoulder rig, and slipped on a gray and black crinkle-finish warm-up jacket with bell sleeves and a standup collar. He checked his reflection in the window to see how the jacket hid the gun.
'Whyn't you get one of them new nines,' Henry said.
'Fit nice under your coat, fire fifteen, sixteen rounds a clip.'
Hawk made a minute adjustment to the drape of the jacket.
'Don't need fifteen rounds,' Hawk said.
'What you carrying?' Henry said to me.
I opened my coat and showed him the short-barreled Smith & Wesson on my belt.
'That's all?'
'It's enough,' I said.
'Most of the shooting I've ever had to do is from about five feet away and was over in one or two shots. A nine with fifteen rounds in the clip is heavy to carry. I got one, and I bring it if I think I'll need it. Got a three fifty-seven too, and a twelve-gauge shotgun and a forty-four-caliber rifle. But for walking around, the thirty-eight is fine.'
'Well,' Henry said.
'I got a nine, and I like it.'
'You safe without no gun, Henry,' Hawk said.
'You so teeny anybody shoot at you, going to miss anyway.'
'Just keep it in mind,' Henry said, 'I ever come after you.'
Hawk and I went out, adequately armed, at least by our standards, and walked along the waterfront through a raw wind blowing off the harbor. When we got to the Boston Harbor Hotel we went in and sat in the lounge looking out at the harbor past the big cupola where the airport ferry docked. We ordered coffee.
Hawk said, 'You doing decaf again?'
'Sure. It's good for me… I like it.'
'
'Course you do.'
Hawk put his feet up on the low table in front of the couch we sat on. Outside, the airport ferry slid around the end of Rowe's Wharf and edged in to the cupola to unload passengers. The waitress warmed our cups. Hawk asked if she had a bakery basket.
She said she did and would be pleased to bring one.
The waitress returned with the bakery basket. There were scones and little corn muffins and some croissants, that were still warm. I had one.
'Goes great with decaf,' I said.
Hawk was watching the people file off the ferry with their garment bags and briefcases. He shook his head, and picked up one of the small corn muffins, and popped it in his mouth. I drank some coffee. The ferry picked up a scattering of passengers and backed away from the dock, turning slowly when it was far enough out, sliding on the dark slick harbor water like a hurling stone.
'You think Anthony fooling around?' Hawk said.
'Shirley's a good argument for it,' I said.
'I married to Shirley I wouldn't be fooling around with other women,' Hawk said.
'I be serious about it. You think Julius wants him found so Shirley be happy?'
'Maybe,' I said.
'Loving father,' Hawk said.
'It's possible,' I said.
'Hitler liked dogs.'
The waitress was looking at Hawk from across the room. Hawk smiled at her. She smiled back at him.
'You figure Anthony took some of Julius's money?' Hawk said.
'Shirley said Anthony was in the financial end of the business.'
