even.
'Well, it makes sense that the women won't talk,' I said. 'Any lawyer would tell them to shut up and save it for court.'
'Hell,' Hawk said. 'Your own client ain't telling you doo dah.'
'Doo dah?'
'Doo dah.' Hawk continued to push the bar up and let it down.
'How many reps so far?'
'Twenty-eight,' Hawk said. 'Why you suppose your client ain't telling you doo dah?'
'While I haven't phrased it to myself so gracefully,' I said, 'I have been considering that question.'
'And what have you come up with?'
'Doo dah,' I said.
'So maybe he don't want you in it,' Hawk said.
'Wasn't our previous theory that he did, which was why he brought his problem to Susan?'
'Uh huh.'
Hawk drove the bar up a final time and let it down.
'So how many reps is that,' I said.
'Forty-two,' he said.
'You were either aiming for forty and decided to do a couple extra,' I said, 'or you were hoping for forty-five and couldn't make it.'
Hawk sat up from the bench and smiled. There was a glisten of sweat on his smooth head.
'Maybe you wrong in your previous theory,' he said.
'Actually, I believe it was your theory.'
'A foolish consistency,' Hawk said, 'be the hobgoblin of little minds.'
'Of course it be,' I said. 'So if he doesn't want me in it, why doesn't he say so?'
'Don't know,' Hawk said.
'Well, why did he go to Susan with it?'
'Maybe he just need to whine a little,' Hawk said, 'and Susan, being Susan, take the whining seriously, and take action and now Sterling don't know how to get out of it without looking foolish.'
'So maybe he sent the sluggers,' I said.
'You the detective,' Hawk said.
'How can you tell?' I said.
'Mostly guesswork,' Hawk said. 'Why don't we take some steam while we here and got Henry to protect us, then I'll trail along with you, case the sluggers show up with, ah, tactical support.'
'I'll just tell them you did forty-two reps with two hundred fifty and they'll surrender without a struggle.'
'Or I could shoot them,' Hawk said.
'That would be effective,' I said.
On our way to the steam room we passed Henry who was working with a new client.
'No ma'am,' he was saying. 'Most women don't bulk up from exercise.'
chapter twelve
'Just what did you do to these women?' I said to Brad Sterling, 'that caused them to bring suit against you?'
We were at an outdoor cafe on Newbury Street. I was drinking beer. Sterling had a glass of Chartreuse. It was sixty degrees with no wind. Almost April. Spring. Yippee.
'Nothing,' Sterling said. 'That's the damned shame of it. I didn't do anything. The case is ridiculous.'
'You are being charged with sexual harassment by the wife of the most prominent trial lawyer in the country,' I said. 'Whether you did anything or not, the case is not ridiculous.'
'Oh hell,' he said. 'I may have kidded them a little. They liked it. You see a lovely girl, what can be the harm, letting her know she's lovely?'
'Do you have a lawyer yet?' I said.
'No. I told you the case is ridiculous. Give it a little time, and it'll toddle off to memory land.'
'The hell it will,' I said. 'I've talked to Ronan. He's in earnest.'
'Well, I'm not hiring some legal eagle to fiddle and diddle until he turns this into a case that he can retire on.'
'I can put you in touch with a really good lawyer,' I said, 'who will neither fiddle nor diddle.'
