'Won't that be a disappointment,' Cecile said.
'Not for Licorice Stick,' Hawk said.
41
I sat in my office, with my feet up, and the window open behind me, while I read the paper. Then I called Healy at 1010 Commonwealth.
'I been thinking,' I said.
'Well isn't that special,' Healy said.
'When Gavin wanted me to go away he offered me a security job in Kinergy's Tulsa office.'
'I've seen you work,' Healy said. 'I was you I'da grabbed it.'
'We have two private eyes who were tailing principals at Kinergy,' I said. 'And now they've disappeared.'
Healy was silent for a moment. Then he said, 'I'll get back to you.'
Then I went down and got my car and drove up to Gloucester.
I found Mark Silver in a smallish house on the top of a hill on the east side of Lobster Cove overlooking Annisquam on the other side of the cove, and Ipswich Bay beyond it. We sat on his small deck looking at the water. Tomato plants grew in tubs on the deck. He offered me some iced tea. I took it.
'So why you want to know about Marlene?' Silver said.
He had a short haircut and a smooth tan and even features and teeth that seemed too white to be natural.
'You like her?' I said. Mark was careful.
'What's not to like?' he said.
'Well, she's self-absorbed and self-important and insecure and autocratic and dependent . . .' I said.
He grinned.
'Okay,' he said. 'Okay. You know the beauteous Marlene.'
'So do you like her?'
'No, of course not.'
'She likes you.'
'God knows what Marlene likes,' Mark said. 'She certainly has tried to get me to jump on her bones.'
'And?' I said.
'I'm gay,' Mark said.
'She know that?'
'Sure. I'm so far out of the closet I couldn't find my way back to it.'
'And she was still after you?'
'Marlene was of the one-good-fuck-from-me-will-cure-him school,' Mark said.
'Oh,' I said, 'that school.'
'What's this got to do with her husband's murder?' Mark said.
'I don't know,' I said. 'I just keep talking to people, see if anything pops up.'
'Good luck,' Mark said.
I sipped some iced tea. There was a mint leaf in it.
'But you still trained her, even though she was annoying.'
'I go house to house,' Mark said. 'I charge a lot. I'm used to bored upper-class women who think they can fuck me straight.'
'Gee,' I said. 'Maybe I should get gayer.'
'Honey,' Mark said, 'you're straighter than God.'
I shrugged.
'But more accessible,' I said. 'How'd she get on with her husband?'
'He wasn't around much. She didn't talk about him much. When she did she talked mostly about him making money.'
'You think they, I don't want to be corny here, ah, loved each other?'
'I think she thought he was a good provider,' Mark said.
'You think she was faithful?'
'Wow, you are straight. All I know is she kept trying to straighten me out.'
