Chance (4 page)

"Marty here about every morning," Hawk said.

The bar was called Poochie's, and through the big plate glass window in front we could see that Marty was there with a couple of other guys in suits drinking draught beer, and watching a motorcycle race on the big color television over the bar.

"Why don't you wait out here and confuse the tail," I said.

Hawk smiled and leaned against the entrance wall. The guy in the raincoat was across the street, near the MBTA entrance, pretending to count his change.

"He'll doodle around out here for a while," Hawk said.

"Trying to figure out if Marty'll be mad, and then he'll come in."

"That's about right," I said.

I walked in and sat on a bar stool next to one of Marty's companions and ordered a beer. Marty glanced at me and away, then he let his glance drift back to me out of the corner of his left eye.

The guy in the raincoat was decisive. After a minute or so, he came in and spoke to Marty, standing on the other side of Marty, whispering so I couldn't hear. Marty listened without taking his eyes off the motorcycle races.

"Okay, Dukes, beat it," Marty said when the guy in the raincoat finished whispering.

"I'll talk to you later."

Marty glanced casually past me at the street through the big window, then let his glance drift disinterestedly over me. I gave him a big friendly smile. He didn't smile back. Marty was a bodybuilder, and a successful one, if you judged by the way his suit didn't fit. He was clean shaven with shoulder-length blond hair and a dark tan. He had a small scar at the left corner of his mouth.

And his right eye seemed to wander off center. There was a gold earring in his left earlobe, and a very big emerald ring on his right pinky. The two guys with him were weight-room types. The one next to me had a medallion of some kind on a gold chain around his neck. On the television another motorcycle race was under way. I didn't watch. Marty and his pals did, with Marty occasionally glancing at me. I waited. Finally it was more than Marty could stand. He leaned forward and looked at me from the other side of his buddy with the medallion.

"How you doing," he said.

He had a surprisingly high voice.

"Fine," I said.

The beer was growing slowly flat in front of me, but ten in the morning seemed a little early. Marty kept leaning forward. His two friends were looking at me too.

"I know you?" Marty said.

"Sure you do," I said.

"I'm your hero. You want to be just like me."

"That a wise remark?" Marty said.

"Yeah. I'm just practicing on you, in case I meet somebody smarter."

Marty's tan darkened, and a small nerve in his right cheek began to twitch, below the walleye. He slid off the bar stool and stepped around his associate to stand beside me.

"You come in here looking for trouble?"

"No, but your guy Dukes was tailing me. Thought I'd ask you about it."

"My guy?"

"Guy in the raincoat. I wanted to see who sent him. And sonovagun, Marty, it was you."

"I don't know no Dukes."

"Sure," I said, "and you don't know no Spenser either, and you didn't have a guy on my tail."

Marty took a half step back and folded his thick arms. His two friends were both turned on the bar stools toward me. I noticed the friend without the medallion sported some crude prison tattoos on his forearms. The bartender had moved as far down the bar away from us as he could and was busy slicing lemons. Marty kept his pose as he stared at me. His coat sleeves pulled tight around his upper arms. His Rolex watch gleamed at me from his left wrist.

"Chills," I said, "run up and down my spine."

"Whaddya doing for Julius Ventura?" Marty said.

"Why do you want to know?" I said.

"

"Cause I'm softhearted," Marty said.

"Give you a chance to tell me what's going on, and maybe walk out of here with your balls still swinging."

I had a couple of killer responses to that all ready, but I didn't get to use them because Hawk came in. He stepped inside the bar and took off his sunglasses and tucked them into the side pocket of his suede-denim jacket. Then he unbuttoned the jacket and walked down the bar past where we were sitting, and leaned on the wall behind Marty and his pals. It was nice theater and also made it harder for all of them to concentrate on giving me the hard eye.

Which had been getting pretty boring anyway.

"So," I said.

"Why do you want to know what I'm doing with Julius Ventura?"

Marty was still looking at me, but his two pals had swung farther around in their seats and were looking at Hawk.

"The colored guy don't make no difference," Marty said.

"The hell he doesn't," I said.

"Still three to two," Marty said.

"Yeah, but one of the two is me," I said.

"And the other one's him."

Marty wasn't scared of me, or of Hawk. Marty was much too predatory to be scared. But he was confused. He'd put a simple tail on a guy and ended up having the guy, so to speak, on his tail.

He was used to scaring people to death. He wasn't used to smart talk. His natural response to it would be violence. He was almost certainly doing what Gino Fish had told him to do, so he couldn't just kill me. He was supposed to find something out.

"You doing anything for Ventura got to do with Anthony Meeker?" Marty said.

The nerve near his eye was twitching faster. "Who wants to know?" I said.

"Who the fuck you think? Who's asking you? Geraldo fucking Rivera?"

"Gino interested in this?"

Marty shrugged.

"Sure he is," I said.

"And when he found out Ventura hired me, he wanted to know what I knew."

"So?"

"So he told you to have me followed, and you did."

"So?"

"So, why's he want to know?"

"None of your fucking business," Marty said. It was starting to occur to him that I was finding out more than he was.

"And how'd he know so quick that Ventura hired us?" I said.

"That's it," Marty said.

"Meeting's over."

"He's got somebody in Julius's organization."

"Get lost," Marty said.

Marty put his thick hand on my chest and shoved. I was supposed to stagger backwards. But I didn't. I rolled a little away from the shove and Marty's hand slid off my chest and Marty actually staggered a half step forward. He caught himself on the bar and tried to look like he hadn't staggered.

"You okay?" I said solicitously.

The tic in his cheek was vibrating like high C. His hand started toward his coat.

Hawk said, "Marty."

Hawk never talked especially loud. But you could always hear him. He seemed to be in the same position leaning on the wall that he had assumed when he came in. Except the big-barreled.44 Mag that he always carried was now out and aiming at Marty Anaheim.

Everything stopped.

The bartender ducked down out of sight behind the bar.

The motorcycles kept zooming around the track.

Hawk nodded toward the door.

Nobody said anything for a moment. Then Marty jerked his head at the two gym rats and the three of them headed out. At the door Marty turned back, his cheek in full tic.

"Another day," he said, his high voice shaking, "you're both dead meat."

Hawk grinned at him.

"Gotta watch them steroids, Marty. You be talking soprano pretty quick."

Marty looked at Hawk with a look that would have scared us both if we weren't so fearless. Then he turned and went out the door followed by the gym rats. Hawk put the big Magnum away, and leaned over the bar.

"You got any Krug?" he said to the bartender, who was still crouched on the floor behind the bar.

"Maybe an eighty-six?"

The bartender didn't know what Krug was.

"You got any, ah, like maybe a roast beef sandwich?" Shirley said to the waitress.

"We have a wonderful sandwich of grilled portabellas with Asiago on country bread dressed with extra virgin oil and served with julienne of jicama and blood orange," the waitress said encouragingly.

"What's a portabella?" Shirley said to me.

"A big mushroom," I said.

She looked at the waitress and frowned.

"A mushroom sandwich?"

The waitress smiled enthusiastically.

"Why don't we each have the pail lard of chicken, and a green salad and some bread."

"Of course, sir. Anything to drink with that?"

"Wine," Shirley said.

"Anything special?" the waitress said.

"Some white wine," Shirley said. She'd lost interest in ordering and was looking around the room at the other diners.

The waitress looked at me. She didn't have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind was blowing.

"Bottle of Sterling Sauvignon Blanc," I said.

The waitress smiled as they always do to tell me how much she admired my choice of wines, and hurried away to tell the wine steward.

"What's that pal lard thing you ordered?" Shirley asked.

"Breast of chicken flattened with a mallet and quickly sauteed."

"Sounds terrible," she said.

"Drink enough wine," I said, "you'll think you like it."

Shirley picked up a roll from the bread basket and bit into it the way you eat an apple. She looked around the room some more until the waitress returned with the wine.

"You care to try it?" I said to Shirley.

"Sure," she said.

The waitress opened the bottle and poured a splash in Shirley's glass. Shirley looked at it.

"Come on, lady, pour me some wine," Shirley said.

I nodded to the waitress.

"Pour it out," I said.

"I'm sure it's fine."

The waitress smiled happily and poured us both a glass of wine, and put the bottle in the ice bucket. Shirley picked up her glass and drank half of it. She smiled at me.

"Hits the spot," she said.

"You bet," I said.

She glanced out toward Huntington Ave. where her father's big Lincoln sat near the curb. The driver was behind the wheel, reading the Globe.

"See if Jackie's watching," she said with a big confidential smile.

"They don't like it, I drink wine at lunch."

"Your secret's safe with me," I said and made a slight toasting gesture with my glass. Shirley drank the rest of her wine and reached behind her to get the bottle from the wine bucket. She poured another glassful. The waitress brought our salads. The salad chef was long on presentation. There were various colored greens arranged into a somewhat precarious-looking vegetable spray. Shirley studied it for some time, sipping her wine without a word. I ordered a second bottle of wine from the waitress.

"So what can you tell me about Anthony?" Shirley said.

She stuffed a forkful of greens into her mouth.

"Haven't found him yet," I said.

"So why we having lunch. So you can tell me you haven't found him?"

"Tell me a little more about what he did for your dad," I said.

"Money stuff," Shirley said.

She washed the greens down with more wine.

"What kind?" I said.

"What kind of what?"

"What kind of money stuff," I said.

I took my first sip of wine. If I drank a lot at lunch, I needed a nap. Shirley didn't seem worried about that.

"He used to pick up money from people," she said.

"Bring it places, and give it to other people."

"Bookies?"

"I don't know. I'm a girl. They don't talk about business with girls."

"Of course not," I said.

"He carry a lot of money around?"

"Sure. Daddy trusted him like he was his own son."

"Sure," I said.

The waitress arrived with our chicken pail lard Shirley poked at it with her fork for a moment, and put the fork down and drank some wine.

"Daddy never had sons of his own, just me."

"Only child, huh?"

"Yeah, my mom said it was too hard."

"I'm an only child too," I said.

Shirley nodded. It didn't seem to make us closer. I drank another small swallow of wine.

"You and Anthony ever have any, ah, little spats?"

"Never, I told you before, he'd stand on his head for me."

I nodded. She drank the rest of the wine in her glass and reached around to the ice bucket and poured out the remainder of the first bottle.

"Well sure, I know a woman who'd stand on her head for me, unless she was wearing a skirt. But now and then we might disagree about something."

Shirley laughed loudly. Her face was flushed.

"I bet she wouldn't," Shirley said between guffaws, "if she was wearing a dress. I bet she wouldn't."

She laughed very loudly again.

"Well, luckily, Anthony doesn't wear a skirt," she said.

"So he can stand on his head whenever he wants."

"When he stands on his head, do you forgive him?"

She was still giggling.

"Depends how long he stands." She had trouble saying it because she was giggling so hard.

I laughed along with her. She tried to get it under control by having some more wine, but it only made her more giggly.

"What's the longest you ever made him stand on his head?" I said. Jovial.

"Well, of course he never really stood on his head. But there was the time when I found out about him and the cocktail waitress at The Starlight," she said.

Her face was bright red now, and she spilled a little of her wine as she drank.

"He paid big for that one," she said.

"He paid for that big time."

"I'll bet he did," I said, bursting with mirth.

"I'll bet he never tried that again."

"You kidding?" she said, leaning forward toward me over the table.

"Little fink would fuck a snake, you hold it for him."

"Really?" I said.

"I'm telling you," she said.

"How you feel about that?"

"I won't hold one for him," she said. And leaned back in her chair and laughed hard. I had a bite of chicken and glanced around the room. The chic lunch crowd was grimly ignoring her.

"You ever catch him with anyone else?" I said.

"Naw. That time I caught him I laid down the goddamned law.

He's too scared to try and step out on me," she said.

"Your father know about this?"

"Gawd no," she said.

"That's what I told Anthony.

"I tell Daddy about this," I told him, 'and he'll have them cut off your balls." I nodded.

"That would be discouraging," I said.

She giggled again.

"

"Course I wouldn't really want them to snip off his balls, you know. Wouldn't be in my best interest, you know what I mean.

Little bastard is something in bed, I'll tell you."

"I'm glad to hear it," I said.

Shirley stood up quite suddenly.

"Scuse me," she said.

"I gotta go to the little girls' room."

I stood, ever gallant, and watched her as she wove among the tables, showing too much of her chunky legs, looking sadly vulnerable with the little dress draped badly over her big butt. People stared at her as she wobbled among the tables. Not our kind.

I sat down and looked at nothing much. Shirley had eaten half her salad and none of her chicken. But the second bottle of wine was nearly empty. I caught a couple of people peeking over at me, wondering who would be lunching with her! I'd have to come here with Susan and try to recoup. The long dining room was impressive. Along the front, picture windows looked out onto Huntington Ave." and across at the Prudential Center. The bar was across the far end of the room, and the ceiling was two stories high. The kitchen was, apparently, at the top of a flight of stairs to the right of the hostess station, which must have been an added benefit for the wait staff. Earn a living while developing the quadriceps of a long jumper.

The maitre d' came to my table. His brass name tag said Jose.

"Excuse me," Jose said. He spoke with the silken hint of an accent.

"I'm afraid your companion has had a small accident in the ladies' room."

"She pass out?" I said.

"I'm afraid she has, sir," Jose said.

"But unfortunately not before she was sick."

"Okay, Jose," I said.

"Keep the other ladies out of there for a couple minutes and we'll get her out."

"Jose," the maitre d' said.

"I'm Brazilian. In Portuguese you pronounce the J."

"Jcs," I said, and went to the front door of the restaurant and gestured at her driver. Jackie was more alert than I had thought.

He came rolling out of the car very quickly, with his hand inside his coat. He was a tall rangy kid, with a lot of black hair cut short on the sides, left long on the top.

"She passed out in the ladies' room," I said.

He took his hand out of his coat.

"You give her something to drink?"

"Some wine," I said.

Jackie nodded.

"Probably two bottles, right?"

I nodded.

"Which way?" Jackie said.

We went into the ladies' room and found Shirley asleep on the floor in one of the stalls, her cheek resting on the toilet seat, her white thighs exposed by the skirt that had hiked up above her hips. She looked like a clumsy little girl who'd eaten too much Halloween candy. I wanted to put my coat over her, or something.

"Goddamn it," I said.

Jackie pushed past me. He straddled her, got his arms around her waist, and hoisted her up.

She mumbled something that sounded like "hey."

Jackie turned her toward the sink.

"Clean her off," he said to me.

I wet one of the hand towels and did the best I could. She wasn't cooperative but she was too zonked to put up much resistance. I used a second towel to finish the cleanup and a third to dry her off.

"Okay," I said.

"Want me to take an arm?"

Jackie shook his head.

"Easier I just do her around the waist like this. You can go ahead and open doors."

"Done this before, I gather."

Jackie didn't say anything but he let his eyes roll upwards in their sockets for a moment. We got her through the restaurant, out the door, and into her father's car. She slumped over when Jackie put her in the backseat. He went around to the front, got in behind the wheel, nodded at me, power-locked the doors, and drove her away.

I went back in to pay the check.

"I hope the lady is all right, sir," Jose said.

I gave him my American Express card.

"I don't think she'll ever be all right," I said.

"But she'll be no worse for this experience."

Jose went away with my card.

No wonder they didn't like her to drink wine at lunch.