2
I STOPPED BY pretty much every day to visit Hawk. One day when I arrived, I saw Junior and Ty Bop lingering in the hallway outside his room. Both were black. Junior took up most of the corridor. Fortunately, Ty Bop weighed maybe one hundred thirty pounds, so there was room to get by. I smiled at them cordially. Junior nodded. Ty Bop paid me no attention. He had eyes like a coral snake. Neither meanness nor interest nor affection nor recognition showed in them. Nor humanity. Even standing still, he seemed jittery and bouncy. Nobody on the floor or at the nursing station ventured near either of them.
'Tony inside?' I said to Junior.
He nodded and I went in. Tony Marcus was standing by the bed, talking to Hawk. Tony's suit must have cost more than my car. And he was good-looking, in a soft sort of way. But that was illusory. There was nothing soft about Tony. He pretty much ran all the black crime in eastern Massachusetts, and soft people didn't do that. Tony looked up when I came in.
'Well, hell, Hawk,' Tony said. 'No wonder people shooting your ass. You got him for a friend.'
I said, 'Hello, Tony.'
He said, 'Spenser.'
'Tony and me been talking 'bout the Ukrainian threat,' Hawk said.
'They come to this country,' Tony said, 'and they look to get a foothold and they see that nobody in America much care what happen to black folks, so they move on us.'
'Got any names?' I said.
'Not yet,' Tony said. 'But I'm planning to defend my people.'
'Tony bein' Al Sharpton today,' Hawk said.
'Don't you have no racial pride, Hawk?' Tony said.
Hawk looked at Tony without speaking. He had three gunshot wounds and still could barely stand, but the force of his look made Tony Marcus flinch.
'I'm sorry, man,' Tony said. 'I take that back.'
Hawk said, 'Yeah.'
'I tellin' Hawk he ought to let me put a couple people in here, protect him. Until he's on his feet again.'
'Nobody got any reason to follow up,' Hawk said. 'They done what they set out to do.'
'I think that's right,' I said.
Tony shrugged.
' 'Sides,' Hawk said. 'Vinnie's been in and out. Susan's been here. Lee Farrell. Quirk and Belson, for chrissake. There's been a steady parade of good-looking women worrying where I'd been hit. Plus, I got a phone call from that Chicano shooter in L.A.'
'Chollo?' I said.
'Yeah. He say I need a hand he'll come east.'
'See that,' I said. 'I told you that warm and sunny charm would pay off in friendship and popularity.'
'Must be,' Hawk said.
'Well,' Tony Marcus said, 'I got a vast criminal enterprise to oversee. I'll be off. You need something, Hawk, you give me a shout.'
Hawk nodded.
'Say so long to Ty Bop for me,' I said.
'He try to bite you when you came in?' Tony said.
'No.'
'See that,' Tony said. 'He like you.'
After Tony left, I sat with Hawk for about an hour. We talked a little. But a lot of the time we were quiet. Neither of us had any problem with quiet. I looked at the Hancock Tower; Hawk lay back with his eyes closed. I had known Hawk all my adult life, and this was the first time, even in repose, that he didn't look dangerous. As I looked at him now, he just looked still. When it was time to go, I stood.
'Hawk,' I said softly.
He didn't open his eyes.
'Yeah?' he said.
'Got to go.'
'Do me a favor,' he said with his eyes closed.
'Yeah.'
'Have a drink for me,' he said.
'Maybe two,' I said.
