“Looks like a pretty good dead bolt,” I said. “We’ll raise a fair ruckus kicking it in.”
“Might as well use a key then,” Hawk said.
I looked up at him. He looked like he might spit out a canary feather.
“The Nubian goddess at the desk?” I said.
“Un huh.”
“You sure you been keeping an eye on Amir all this time?” I said.
“She got a little closed-circuit TV can watch the lobby from her bedroom,” Hawk said. “While he in his apartment teaching young men about them formulaic Berbers, I doing a little lesson plan with Simone.”
Hawk unlocked Amir’s door. We went in. The dark room was close, heavy with the smell of men’s cologne mingling with something that might have been incense. I flipped the light switch beside the door. The room was done in tones of brown and vermilion. There was a six-foot African ceremonial mask on the far wall facing us between the seven-foot windows. A squat fertility goddess from Africa’s bronze age stood solidly on the coffee table in front of the beige sectional sofa, and a large painting of Shaka Zulu on the wall opposite the sofa. The rugs were thick. The windows along the front were heavily draped. To our left off the living room was a dining area, with a glass-topped table ornamented with two thick candlesticks in tall ebony holders that had been carved to resemble vines. A kitchen L’d off the dining area. The bedroom and bath were to our right. The bed was canopied. On the night table was a small brass contraption for burning incense. On the bureau was a framed photograph of a stern thin-faced black woman with her hair pulled tightly back and her dress buttoned up to the neck.
“Amir got some style,” Hawk said.
“Incense is a nice touch,” I said.
I sat on the couch. Hawk went over and turned the lights back off.
“Don’t want Amir to spot it from the street,” Hawk said. “Want him to walk right in and close the door behind him.”
He came over, walking carefully while his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, and sat beside me. He put his feet up on the coffee table.
“What’s happening with the woman got raped?” he said.
“She’s staying with her mother in Providence.”
“She getting any help?”
“Susan referred her to a rape crisis counselor, down there,” I said.
“She going?” Hawk said.
“I don’t know. Her ex-husband said he’d pay for it.”
“He likely to end up with her back in his lap,” Hawk said.
“I don’t think so. I think he’s pretty clear about her.”
Hawk was quiet for a time.
“‘Course there’s always your lap,” he said.
“Not if I keep moving,” I said.
“We got a plan what we do when Amir shows up?”
“We’ll ask him a bunch of questions,” I said.
“And when he lies to us?”
“We ask him some other questions.”
“When do I get to hang him out the window by his ankles?” Hawk said.
“We can always hang him out the window,” I said. “Trouble is then he’ll say anything he thinks we want to hear, and we may learn as much stuff that’s not true as we will stuff that is.”
“You just too soft-hearted,” Hawk said.
“Softer than you,” I said.
“Probably both happy ‘bout that,” Hawk said.
“This visit we try it the easy way,” I said.
“Might stir the pot a little,” Hawk said. “Might make him do something that we can catch him at.”
“Might,” I said.
There was the sound of a key in the door. We were both on our feet. Silently on the thick carpet I stepped into the kitchen, Hawk went into the bedroom. The bolt turned. The door opened. The lights went on. The door shut. I could hear him put the chain bolt on. I stepped out of the kitchen and stood in front of Amir. There was an Asian boy, Japanese was my guess, maybe eighteen years old, with Amir. The moment he saw me Amir spun toward the door. Hawk had stepped out of the bedroom between Amir and the door. Amir turned again and tried for the phone beside the sectional sofa. I stepped between him and it. Amir stopped and looked toward the bedroom. Not a chance. Same with the kitchen. He had nowhere to go. He stood frozen between us. Behind him Hawk took the bolt off, and opened the door slightly.
“You go home,” he said to the Asian kid.
The kid looked at Amir. Amir had no reaction. He was stiff with panic.
“Now,” Hawk said.
