'Did he live there when she gave the address?'
'Don't know yet,' I said. 'But among the things Sonny told me to lay of off was his family.'
'You think she's his family?'
'Don't know yet.'
Susan watched Pearl dig. I knew she was deeply distracted, because she didn't tell Pearl to stop.
'I assume that Karnofsky made another attempt at Taft,' Susan said.
I nodded. The hole Pearl was so industriously digging was now deep enough to contain all but her rear end.
'And it hasn't deterred you.'
'It has increased my anxiety,' I said.
'Really?' Susan said. 'I'm not certain you feel anxiety.'
'I try not to dwell on it,' I said.
'But you are frightened sometimes.'
'Of course.'
She looked at Hawk. 'Are you ever scared?' she said.
'Ah is descended from generations of proud warriors,' Hawk said.
'Oh, God,' Susan said. 'You're not going to give me some kind of Shaka Zulu rap, are you?'
Hawk grinned at her.
'All of whom were scared,' he said.
'Like you?'
'Sho'.'
Pearl came over smelling of fresh earth and put her head on Susan's lap. Susan stroked her automatically.
'But.?' she said.
Hawk and I looked at each other.
'When I was boxing,' I said, 'people would occasionally say to me, 'doesn't it hurt to get hit like that?' And of course it did. But if I couldn't put up with the pain, I couldn't be a fighter.'
Susan nodded.
'I know,' she said. 'You've explained it before.'
'Repetition is an excellent learning tool,' I said.
'Of course, I'm not talking about you, anyway,' Susan said.
'I know.'
'I'm scared, and I don't want to be.'
'You get used to it,' I said.
'I wish I didn't have to,' Susan said.
I shrugged. 'I can't sing or dance,' I said.
'I know.'
Pearl moved over to Hawk and pushed her head under his hand to be patted.
'You folks barely talk,' he said, smoothing Pearl's ears. 'One of you say something cryptic, the other one say, 'I know.' Pretty soon you be speaking in clicks.'
Susan smiled at him. 'Yes,' she said softly.
'Nobody gonna kill us,' Hawk said.
'They never have,' Susan said.
38
So far it was a good day. No one had attempted to murder me. The weather was bright and pleasant. I had finished Tank McNamara and was reading Arlo and Janis. There was two-thirds of a large coffee and a second corn muffin beside me on my desk. Hawk, with a sawed-off doubled-barreled shotgun next to him on the couch, was reading a book about evolution by Ernst Mayr. I had the window open behind me, and the bright summer air smelled clean coming in.
When I finished Arlo and Janis, I called Rita Fiore at her office.
'I need a favor,' I said.
'Your place or mine,' Rita said.
'Not that kind of favor.'
