I shrugged. Susan ate a bite of fritter.
'Wow,' she said. 'Banana, too?'
'Never a dull moment with Spenser,' I said.
'Never,' she said.
I had one each fritter with maple syrup and drank some coffee.
'Hawk's got a plan,' I said.
Susan nodded and didn't speak.
'It's complicated, and requires people to react as we expect them to, and it will take some doing,' I said. 'But it's not a bad plan. It might work.'
'Can you think of a better plan?' Susan said.
'I can't think of one as good,' I said.
'Care to share?' Susan said.
I smiled.
'Sure,' I said. 'But you have to pay close attention.'
'You'll help me with the hard stuff,' Susan said.
'Count on me, little lady.'
She didn't do anything while I told her but listen. She didn't drink coffee or eat or tap her fingertips together, or frown or smile or move. Susan could listen the ears off a brass monkey. When I got through, she was quiet for a moment.
Then she said, 'If it's going to work, a number of people may have to be killed.'
'Yes.'
'Do you mind if they die?'
'Not too much. These aren't very good people.'
'But you mind killing them.'
'There are circumstances when I'd be comfortable with it,' I said.
Susan nodded.
'But not these circumstances,' she said.
'I don't think so,' I said.
'You've killed people before,' Susan said.
'I always felt I had to.'
'But this seems like, what, serial assassination?' she said.
'Something like that.'
'And if you walk away?' Susan said.
'I can't walk away.'
Susan smiled slightly.
'I know,' she said. 'The question was rhetorical.'
'The problem is not,' I said.
I was being churlish and we both knew it, but Susan chose not to comment.
Instead, she smiled and said, 'A fine mess you've got us into this time, Ollie.'
I nodded.
'This doesn't bother Hawk,' Susan said.
'No.'
'Or the hideous Gray Man.'
'I doubt that either of them has thought about it,' I said.
'I wish the Gray Man weren't involved,' Susan said.
I shrugged.
'The other day,' I said, 'I remarked that he was a strange dude, and he said, 'We are all strange dudes. In what we do, there are no rules. We have to make some up for ourselves.' '
'He always said you and he were alike,' Susan said.
I nodded.
'Remember in San Francisco? When you and I were separated? And you killed a pimp? Just shot him.'
