'Oh, that charge,' I said.
Livingston grinned, and jerked his head toward the door. I got up from the arm of the couch where I'd been sitting and walked to the door and turned. I'd been so successful with my Bogart impression that I tried Arnold Schwarzenegger.
'Ah'll be baack,' I said.
None of them knew what the hell I was doing. But they liked me. They all waved and hollered 'good-bye' as I went out the door with the cops.
Chapter 16
HAWK CAME IN to my office in the morning with some coffee and a bag of donuts.
'Coffee from Starbuck's,' he said. 'High-grown Kenya, bright and sweet with a hint of black currant.'
'They sell donuts?'
'Naw, Starbuck's too ritzy for donuts,' Hawk said. 'Donuts are Dunkin'.'
'With a hint of deep fat,' I said.
We divided up the coffee and donuts. Hawk took his coffee and one of the donuts and went and looked down from my window at the corner of Berkeley and Boylston. He was wearing starched jeans and high top Nikes, and a blue denim shirt under a black leather field jacket. He had on a pair of Oakley sun glasses with cerulean blue reflective lenses.
'You think my new shades are cool?' Hawk said.
'Cold,' I said. 'Can you see, wearing them indoors?'
'No. But they too cool to take off.'
I drank some Kenya coffee. 'Bright and sweet,' I said.
'Told you,' Hawk said.
'You come up with anything that clears Ellis Alves?' I said.
'No. You adopt a kid yet?'
'No.'
'You been annoying somebody though,' Hawk said.
'That's sort of my job description,' I said. 'You wanna give me a list?'
'Ain't got the time to cover them all, but somebody's looking to have you killed.'
'Moi?'
'Vinnie called me. Said one of the guys works for Gino told him there was a guy looking to have you killed.'
'He want Vinnie to do it?'
'Don't know,' Hawk said. 'That's all Vinnie told me. He's full time with Gino now. He wouldn't be freelancing anyway.'
'How much they paying,' I said.
'Now that's ego,' Hawk said.
'Well, how would I feel if somebody was offering five hundred bucks?'
'Be embarrassing, wouldn't it,' Hawk said.
He was still looking down at the street. It was a dandy fall morning, and a lot of people were hurrying around in the Back Bay like they had important things to do.
'Lotta nice looking women walk past your office,' Hawk said.
'Hoping to catch a glimpse of me.'
Hawk turned and came back and sat down in one of my client chairs. His jacket was open. I could see the butt of a gun under his left arm. I could see myself in his reflective glasses.
'You working on anything but Ellis Alves?' he said.
'Nope.'
'So you probably stirring something up that somebody don't want stirred up,' Hawk said.
'Unless it's someone I've offended previously and they're just getting around to it.'
'Ellis Alves case makes more sense,' Hawk said.
'Yes.'
'So if it is, it mean maybe there is something wrong with the way Alves went to jail.'
'Vinnie didn't give you any idea who wants this done?' I said.
'I don't think he knows,' Hawk said. 'He does, I don't think he'll say. Remember Vinnie ain't one of the good guys. He's pretty far off his range already. Hell, he wouldn't even call you direct. He called me.'
'Good to know Vinnie's got standards,' I said.
