'That's widely acknowledged,' I said.
'It is not a quality I admire.'
'What can you tell me about your relationship with Brad Sterling?' I said to Jeanette.
She shook her head before the question was even finished.
'I had no… '
'I am afraid this interview is over,' Ronan said.
'Hard to tell,' I said.
'Jeanette, perhaps you can excuse yourself,' Ronan said.
She smiled and nodded. She stood. I stood. Ronan remained seated. She put out her hand. I took it. It was much firmer and warmer than her husband's.
'Nice to have met you, Mr. Spenser,' she said.
'You're just saying that.'
Her smile remained polite as she left the glass room. I looked at Ronan. He had poured himself a little more coffee from his silver coffee carafe into his white bone china cup, and was adding a single cube of sugar with a small pair of silver tongs.
'You had no intention of telling me anything,' I said. 'Why did you agree to see me?'
Ronan made a thin lip movement that he probably thought was a smile.
'I like to get the measure of people,' he said.
'And you think you can do it in this amount of time?'
'I believe I can,' he said. 'And I want them to get the measure of me.'
'Sure,' I said. 'About five foot six. Right?'
'I have no interest in jokes, Spenser. Nor, frankly, any further interest in you. I have learned what I need to know. Granted, you, are physically imposing. You would probably make a good bouncer. But in any way that matters, you are a lightweight. I can reach into every crevice of this state. Should you become an irritant, I can have you squished like an insect. You are way out of your league here, and it would be in your best interest to recognize that.'
'Squished?' I said.
Ronan didn't answer. He seemed entirely satisfied with his assessment of me and had nothing to add.
'You college professors are a tough bunch,' I said.
Ronan smiled almost indulgently.
'I am at the moment associated with a university,' he said. 'But surely you know my career.'
'Not as well as I will.'
Ronan laughed out loud. 'Well, really?' he said. 'Was that a threat?'
'I guess so,' I said. 'You are, after all, an annoying little twerp.'
I thought Ronan might have colored a little under his tan, but his voice revealed nothing. He stood.
'As I said, you would make a good bouncer. Let me show you the way out.'
Driving back across the causeway toward the rest of Marblehead, I wondered what there was in a simple harassment suit to make Ronan lean on me so hard.
chapter six
I WAS WITH Susan. We were lying in bed at my apartment with my arm under her shoulders and her head on my chest. Pearl was in exile somewhere outside the bedroom door.
'One of us should probably get up and let the baby in,' Susan said.
'Absolutely,' I said.
We lay still.
'Well?' Susan said.
'I thought you were volunteering,' I said.
'You're closest to the door.'
'True,' I said.
'And you're a guy,' she said.
'That clinches it,' I said.
I got up and opened the bedroom door. Pearl bounded into the room, gave me a sidelong look which might have been reproachful, and hopped up on the bed in my spot.
'This didn't work out exactly as I'd hoped,' I said.
'She'll move,' Susan said, and, in fact Pearl did. She moved huffily down to the foot of the bed and turned
