Hawk came into my office on Monday afternoon, carrying a brown paper bag.
'He ain't in there,' Hawk said, and put the bag on my desk while he took off his white leather trench coat and hung it on the rack.
'Anthony?'
'Yeah. Two women live there. And he ain't either one of them.
They go to work every morning, come back every evening. After they left this morning I went in and looked around. Women only, no sign of anyone else.'
Hawk took a sandwich and a twenty-four-ounce can of Foster's lager from the bag, folded the bag flat, and used it as a place mat.
'What kind of sandwich?' I said.
'Lobster, basil mayo, on sourdough bread.'
'And you plan to eat all of it,' I said.
'Un huh.'
Hawk took a bite, and popped the top of the beer can while he chewed.
'Fine,' I said, 'I'll just suck on this paper clip for a while.'
'How you doing in Needham?' Hawk said.
'The husband's got a daughter by his first marriage. She visits on weekends.'
'So we oh for two.'
'At best,' I said.
'Nice detective work though, found Anthony's love nest, found Bibi's high school chum.'
'Makes you proud,' I said.
'Doesn't it.'
'Make a nice slogan,' Hawk said.
'Missing? Don't want to be found? Call Spenser. Your secret is safe with us.'
'You haven't found anybody either,' I said.
'Yeah,' Hawk said.
'But I got a lobster sandwich.'
'Good point.'
We were quiet while Hawk ate his sandwich, and drank his beer. When he was through he got up and washed his hands and face in the sink. Then he came back and sat down and put his feet up on my desk.
'So where are we,' he said.
'I'm not sure,' I said.
'But I don't think we got a paddle.'
'Well,' Hawk said.
'We know something.'
'We know we don't know anything,' I said.
'We listen to Fast Eddie Lee,' Hawk said, 'we know there seem to be a hostile takeover percolating.'
'Okay, we know that.'
'And it seem to have something to do with Anthony Meeker.'
'But we don't know what,' I said.
'Not yet,' Hawk said.
'And we don't know where Anthony is,' I said.
'Nor what scam he and Marty were trying to run, nor what was going on between Marty and Shirley, nor what went wrong between them, nor who is going to take over what hostilely, nor who killed Shirley Ventura, nor whether Marty is after Bibi, nor where Bibi is.'
'Okay,' Hawk said, 'so we don't know everything.'
'I suppose you could say that.'
'You talk to Julius since we left Vegas?'
'No.'
'So we could do that,' Hawk said.
'Well, aren't you perky,' I said.
'I be even perkier, I knew exactly what the hell we trying to do.
We looking for Bibi, or Anthony, or we trying to solve Shirley's murder, or we keeping tabs on the mob, or we
