'You just trying to weasel out 'cause you can't think of no plan,' he said.
'Okay, I admit it,' I said. 'You go.'
Hawk grinned. 'Brain, do yo' duty,' he said.
We were quiet. Hawk looked ruminative. He chewed his sandwich. He sipped his champagne. I stood and walked to my front window and looked down on Marlboro Street. The colleges had closed for the summer, and the summer-school sessions hadn't started. The whole Back Bay seemed empty and pleasant. I could even see a parking space up toward Berkeley Street.
Behind me, Hawk said, 'Damn.'
'You think of something?' I said.
'No.'
I grinned. 'You just discovered you're no smarter than I am.'
'Startling,' Hawk said.
'Maybe we need to work on this together,' I said.
'One half-wit plus one half-wit?' Hawk said.
'We can hope,' I said.
Hawk poured himself some more champagne. 'So how come the mob. ' Hawk said.
'Or some of it,' I said.
'And the FBI. '
'Or some of it.'
'Both want to cover up the twenty-eight-year-old murder of some hippie broad from San Diego?' Hawk said.
'Nicely restated,' I said.
'Thank you-you talk with the husband yet?'
'Daryl's father?'
'Uh-huh.'
'San Diego seemed like a long way to go,' I said.
'We got no place else to go.'
'Excellent point,' I said.
26
Susan sat on the bed watching me pack. Pearl loped around my apartment, alert for something to chew.
'What are you going to do about a gun?' Susan said. 'It's not a good time to be checking one through.'
'Hawk has an arrangement,' I said.
'I shudder to think,' Susan said.
'If you came, we could stay at La Valencia in La Jolla and eat in their upstairs restaurant with a view of the cove.'
'Would there be any sex involved?' Susan said.
'Only with me,' I said.
'Oh,' Susan said.
We were quiet for a moment. Pearl padded silently into the bedroom and circled my bed and padded silently out. We both watched her.
'I can't leave her yet with someone else,' Susan said.
I nodded.
'You understand.'
'Better,' I said. 'I agree.'
'But you still wish I could come,' Susan said.
I smiled at her.
'Why are you smiling?' she said.
'You are always,' I said, 'so entirely you.'
'Yes,' Susan said. 'I believe I am.'
I finished packing and closed the suitcase.
'How can you exist for several days with what's in that suitcase?' Susan said.
'Astonishing, isn't it?' I sat on the bed beside her. She looked straight at me for a moment, then suddenly she
