'He believed you.'
'Yes,' Husak said. 'I showed him a finger with a wedding ring on it.'
'A finger?' I said.
'Yes. It was his mother's. He recognized the ring.'
'Somebody cut off his mother's finger and sent it to you?'
'Yes. It was neat. Wrapped in plastic, you know?'
'And you showed it to Bohdan,' I said.
'Yeah.'
'He know they were going to kill him in prison?' Hawk said.
'No, I don't think so.'
'You arrange that?'
'No,' Husak said. 'Honest to God I didn't. I just, I just told Boots when I was going to visit Bohdan.'
'You represent the other four?' Hawk said.
'Me and Duda,' Husak said.
'Tell me about them.'
'They never said a word to me,' Husak said. 'I don't know if they speak English. Whatever I said to them, the four of them would just look at me without any expression, like I was a…' he rolled his hands as he searched for the word. 'Like I wasn't anything. Duda speaks a little Ukrainian. He did what talking there was.'
'What did he say?' Hawk asked.
'He said they expected to be acquitted. He said we should do what Boots said for us to do.'
'That's all.'
'That's all, I swear on my mother, I don't know anything else. I promise.'
'Where's Duda,' Hawk said.
'He's in Miami. Took a week off. He'll be back next week.'
'When he get back,' Hawk said, 'I want to see him. Have him call my faithful ofay.'
I took a business card out and put it on Husak's desk.
'He call me and we all have a civilized discussion. He don't call me, you go out the window, and so does he.'
'Yeah. He'll call. Honest to God he'll call, I know he will.'
Hawk went around the desk and closed the window. Husak's face pinched and unpinched.
'Don't tell anyone it was me that talked,' Husak said.
Hawk nodded as though his mind was elsewhere.
'You have no idea what these people are like. They aren't like other people. They find out I talked to you, they'll chop me up into pieces.'
'Who'll do the chopping,' Hawk said.
'Some Ukrainian,' Husak said. 'They're like from the fucking Stone Age, you know? I wish I never seen any of them.'
'I find out you're lying to me,' Hawk said, 'I'll make sure they know you was talking.'
'Everything I told you is the truth, so help me God.'
'The whole truth?' Hawk said.
'So help me God,' Husak said.
Hawk looked at me.
'Got a nice legal sound, don't it,' Hawk said.
15
WE WALKED ALONG Boylston Street toward the new parking garage in Millennium Place. Traffic had become so desperate in Boston during the Big Dig that even the good hydrants were taken.
'Would you have dropped him?' I said.
'Don't have to decide now,' Hawk said. 'Who's Boots Podolak?'
'The mayor of Marshport,' I said.
'Didn't know they had a mayor,' Hawk said.
'City of eighty thousand,' I said.
'Knew it was big enough,' Hawk said. 'Didn't know it was civilized.'
