'You holding back?'
'Of course I'm holding back,' I said. 'But nothing that would change what you know.'
'So why do you think he's a suspect?'
'Because,' I said, 'I suspect him.'
Belson nodded.
'Thanks for clearing that up,' he said.
By the time I got out of Police Headquarters the thunder had arrived and the lightning and rain were with it. The rain was nearly overwhelming the windshield wipers. The traffic was crawling. The thunder was close and assertive, followed almost at once by the lightning, which gleamed like quicksilver on the wet cars and slick streets. It was almost seven when I got back to my office. I was just hanging up my raincoat and shaking the water off my hat when Hawk came in, wearing a black silk raincoat and no hat. He was carrying something in a plastic grocery bag.
'Glorious feeling,' Hawk said. He took off the raincoat. 'Laughing at clouds,' he said.
He went to my closet and opened the door and got a towel and dried off his gleaming head.
'So high up above,' he said.
'Stop it,' I said.
Hawk shrugged.
'Just being cheerful,' he said. 'You got any food?'
'I'll call for a pizza,' I said.
'Two,' Hawk said.
He went to my office refrigerator and took out two bottles of Stella Artois and handed me one.
'You got anything to tell me?' I said.
'Darrin and Lance,' he said.
'The love that dare not speak its name?'
I drank some beer.
'This will give rise to considerable speculation on our part,' I said.
'I thought it might,' Hawk said. 'That's why I wanted two pizzas.'
'I'll get right on it,' I said and reached for the phone.
58
I took a slice of green pepper and mushroom pizza and bit off the triangular point.
'So what do you know?' I said.
'Nothing you can use in court,' Hawk said.
'Nothing to prove in court,' I said. 'I just need to know.'
'They're a couple,' Hawk said. 'They have dinner together. They go to the movies together. They take evening strolls together. They go food shopping together.'
'Doesn't mean they're intimate,' I said.
'People see you and Susan together,' Hawk said, 'they know you intimate. They see me and you together they know we not.'
'And thank God for that,' I said. 'But I see your point.'
'Couples be different together than friends,' Hawk said.
'They ever affectionate in public?' I said.
'Nope.'
'But you're sure?'
'Yep.'
Hawk stood up and went to the refrigerator and got us two more beers. The plastic grocery bag was still on the floor beside his chair.
'What's in the bag,' I said.
Hawk smiled widely. 'Hopin' you'd ask,' he said.
'I fought it as long as I could,' I said.
'So today,' Hawk said, 'I'm staying dry in a doorway across the street, and the two lovebirds come out with an umbrella, which confirm my suspicion that they gay.'
'Real men don't use umbrellas.'
