“You’ve got a bank and a development company in some sort of uncertain relationship,” I said. “That raise any flags?”
Rita nodded. “I’ll talk with Abner Grove,” she said. “He’s our tax and finance guy. See what he can find out.”
“It may not help your client,” I said.
“If I am going to put up the best defense I can, I need to know as much as I can. I’m not obliged to use it all. What you can do is come at this from the other end.”
“Mary, Larson, and Roy,” I said.
“Sounds like a singing group.”
“Maybe it will be,” I said.
“So you start from your end, and we’ll start from ours, and maybe we’ll meet in the middle.”
“Or maybe we won’t,” I said.
“Coincidences do exist.”
“They do,” I said.
“You think they exist in this case?”
“No.”
Rita eyed Hawk, who appeared to be thinking of faraway places. I knew he wasn’t. Hawk always knew everything that was going on around him.
“What do you think about coincidence,” Rita said to him.
“Hard to prepare for,” Hawk said.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Hawk and I drove down to Franklin in Hawk’s Jaguar.
“Figure you show up in a decent ride,” Hawk said, “they be impressed and tell you everything.”
“You bet,” I said. “That’s how it usually works.”
We found Roy Levesque at the lumberyard where he worked. He wore jeans and work boots and a plaid shirt that hung outside his pants.
“Whaddya want,” Levesque said.
The yard was loud with the sound of a band saw, and busy with trucks loading lumber and Sheetrock.
“See the car I came in?” I said.
“I don’t give a fuck what car you came in,” Roy said.
I looked at Hawk. He shrugged.
“When’s the last time you saw Mary Smith?” I said.
“Mary who?”
I sighed.
“Mary Toricelli,” I said.
“Why?”
“Why not?” I said.
“I don’t know when I seen her, all right?”
“Not all right,” I said. “I’ve been told you and she are still intimate.”
“Huh?”
“He mean you and she still fucking,” Hawk said gently. “He just talk kind of funny.”
“Hey,” Levesque said. “That’s no way to talk about somebody.”
“Just trying to find a language you’re comfortable with,” I said. “What about you and Mary?”
“Who told you that?”
“People who know,” I said.
“So if they know so fucking much, how come you’re asking me?”
“I like to confirm at the source.”
“Huh?”
“He mean ask the one fucking her,” Hawk said.
“Hey, pal, watch your freaking mouth,” Levesque said.
Hawk looked at me. “Pal,” he said.
I nodded. “Limited vocabulary,” I said. “I’m sure he meant no harm.”
