'I do.'
'He's got your place staked out.' I walked to the front window.
'Corner of Arlington,' Vinnie said. 'Across Marlborough.' I saw him. He was wearing a blue seersuker suit, and his hands were jammed into the side pockets.
'Might be staking out Emerson College,' Vinnie said.
'Nope,' I said. 'It's me.'
'Want me to buzz him?' Vinnie said.
'No, we'll leave him alone, see what he does.'
I took my coffee to the window and watched Long Hair while I called Hawk on his cell phone.
'Where are you?' I said.
'Not your business,' he said.
'What are you doing.'
'Very not your business,' he said.
'Oh that,' I said. 'Long Hair's showed up in front of my house, corner of Marlborough and Arlington. Blue seersucker suit. Big glasses with black frames.'
'Okay,' Hawk said. 'Lemme finish up here.'
'Make it quick.'
Hawk laughed.
'Person I with don't want that.'
'Whoops,' I said. 'Well, do your best and call me when it's over.'
'Be over already, you hadn't called me up in the middle,' Hawk said. 'I'll call you when I'm on him.'
I t was a large orange juice and two coffees before Hawk called.
'Got him,' he said.
'Okay, long leash,' I said. 'Let's just see where he lives, who he is, that sort of thing.'
'Sho,' Hawk said.
With Long Hair behind us we walked to my car. I could see that it was annoying Vinnie.
'How 'bout I just put one in his foot, or maybe a knee?' Vinnie said.
'No,' I said. 'Gratifying though it would be.'
'Are you talking about shooting that man?' Adele said.
'Yeah.'
'Why is he following us?' she said.
'That's what I think we'll find out,' I said. 'Hawk's behind him.'
A dele started to turn her head.
'Don't look,' Vinnie said, and she froze.
'Wouldn't see him anyway,' I said. 'I expect we won't see him until he's through tailing Long Hair.'
'So how do you know he's there?'
'He said he was there.'
'But . . .'
'Hawk never says something ain't so,' Vinnie said.
'Never?'
'Nope.'
I beeped the power locks on my car doors. Vinnie opened the passenger door in front and Adele got in. Vinnie got in the back and I drove.
'So you want this man to follow us,' Adele said.
'Yes.'
'What if he doesn't have a car.'
'Then he's really an amateur,' I said. 'But it doesn't matter if he follows us or just goes home. Hawk will find out who he is.'
V innie was turned in the backseat, looking out my back window.
'He's got a car,' Vinnie said.
I n my side mirror I could see a yellow Mazda Miata pull away from where it was parked by a hydrant.
'Nice car for a tail job,' I said.
