'What if he's watching, or he sees you through the peephole and he won't let you in.'
'He's gotta come out sometime,' I said.
Cecile shook her head.
'I've gotten this far,' Cecile said. 'I need to get you in there.'
'We'll be with you,' I said.
She looked at Hawk. He nodded. 'Okay,' she said. 'What's the plan.'
We got to the Fenway at 6:30 and drove slowly down Park Drive past 137 so Cecile could get a look at it. Then we went on around to Boylston Street and parked in the parking lot of a supermarket a block over from Park Drive. It was 6:45. Cecile's appointment was at seven.
'One more time,' I said. 'You and Hawk will walk down Jersey Street. Hawk will stay around the corner out of sight and you'll continue on down toward the apartment. I'll walk up Kilmarnock Street and approach the apartment from that direction. Give me a little head start so I get there a little before you do. I'll stand on the front steps fumbling for my keys. You come up, pay me no attention, and ring the bell. The minute Hawk sees you ring the bell he starts down toward us. Your date upstairs can't be watching out the window because he's answering your ring. You get buzzed in and I go in with you, because I've lost my keys. I linger a moment to let Hawk in, you start slowly toward the elevator. Hawk comes in and goes up the stairs.'
'What if there aren't any stairs?'
'We'll improvise' I said. 'But I've been in some of these buildings. They have stairs that circle the elevator.'
'Whatever the setup,' Hawk said, 'you won't be alone for a second.'
Cecile nodded.
'Still scared,' she said.
'Don't blame you,' I said.
'Easier than cracking thoraxes,' Hawk said. Cecile made a try at a smile.
'Not for the crack-er,' she said.
'So Hawk goes up the stairs,' I said. 'I get in the elevator with you. Hawk lingers in the stairwell at the top just out of sight and checks around the corner to see if there's a peephole. If there isn't, he walks down and stands beside the door. We go up. We get out on the second floor. You get out. I get out. You start down toward two-B. I look and if I see Hawk I know there's no peephole and I scoot down and stand on the other side of the door. If I don't see Hawk I stay in the elevator with the door open so it can't move and wait as you walk down and ring the bell. When the door opens Hawk and I run down the hall and barge in. You'll never be out of our sight.'
'Okay,' she said. I looked at her.
'You be all right?' I said.
She nodded. I looked at Hawk.
'Cecile's looking a little tense,' I said. 'Do people of African heritage get pale?'
'Only through miscegenation,' Hawk said. He patted her thigh and we got out of the car.
47
There was no peephole. When Cecile knocked and the door opened, Hawk and I were standing one on each side of it.
'Cecile?' a man's voice said. 'Yes, of course it is. Come on in.'
I knew the voice. Hawk went in first. He moved the man down his short corridor without any visible effort, except that when they reached the end the man banged hard against the far wall. I turned to Cecile.
'You can come in,' I said, 'and meet your date.'
She went in and I went in behind her. The man was Bob Cooper.
He said, 'Spenser. My God. What the hell is going on?'
'He carrying?' I said to Hawk.
'Nope.'
'Carrying?' Cooper said. 'What the hell would I be carrying?'
'Can't be too careful,' I said.
'I don't get this, Spenser. What are you doing here? Who the hell are these people?'
We were in a short hallway off of which the other rooms opened. There was a bedroom, a bath, a miniscule kitchen, and a living room. I gestured toward the living room.
'Sit down,' I said. 'We'll talk.'
I t was the kind of furnished apartment that graduate students rent, or newlyweds, or both. It was undistinguished in any way, except for the obviously new, and obviously expensive, big-screen TV/entertainment center opposite the brown corduroy couch.
'Absolutely,' Cooper said. 'I'm eager to hear what you've got to say.'
