Chance

by Robert B. Parker

"Thank you for your time, Tarone," I said.

  I nodded at Hawk and we started for the door.

  "Hey, Hawk," the young guy said.

  "You sure you tough as you think?"

  Without speaking, Hawk turned and kicked him in the groin.

  The young guy doubled over and fell on the ground. And moaned.

  Hawk looked at the ex-fighter. The ex-fighter shook his head, and Hawk turned back to the door.

  "Probably am," Hawk said.

  CHAPTER 36

  Dixie Walker agreed to take a ride with me before she went to work, and I picked her up outside The Starlight at about 4:30 on a Thursday afternoon. It was lousy weather, overcast and spitting rain. Dixie was wearing a yellow slicker jacket over jeans and a tee-shirt. To keep the rain off her head she was wearing a black baseball cap with her hair spilling out the adjustable opening in the back. "Nice to see you dressed," I said.

  "Thanks a lot."

  "Be nice to see you undressed too," I said.

  She smiled without much enthusiasm.

  "That's better," she said.

  "Go back down to one-A. Anthony's place is out Eastern Ave."

  "You know the address?"

  "No, but I can find it. I went there enough."

  "Good."

  "Be the first time I went there with somebody sober."

  "You or me?" I said.

  "Both," she said.

  "I hope I can find it without a hand up my skirt."

  "Well," I said, "if you can't…"

  She smiled, more genuinely now.

  "I'll let you know," she said.

  Route 1A is narrow and residential as it runs through Lynn. The rain was annoying. It didn't wet the windshield enough to prevent the intermittent wiper blades from dragging, but if I shut the wipers off altogether, the water beaded up and made it hard to see.

  Timing is everything.

  "You didn't find Anthony in Vegas?" Dixie said.

  "Found him and lost him," I said.

  "His wife was killed."

  "Really? By him?"

  "Don't know," I said.

  "My guess is no."

  "Yeah, he doesn't have the balls for it," she said.

  We turned left onto Eastern Avenue and drove past solid wooden houses, mostly two-family, mostly white, with small lawns in front, and some trees along the street. It was about as residential as Lynn got.

  Dixie said, "Slow down. It's along here someplace."

  We slowed. Cars behind me honked their horns.

  "We're holding up traffic," Dixie said.

  "Take your time," I said.

  More horns. One driver pulled out around me and raced past me, tires screeching. As he passed he gave me the finger.

  "He thinks I'm number one," I said.

  "There it is," Dixie said.

  I pulled in by a hydrant in front of a white three-decker v/ith dark green shutters and some scraggly lilac bushes along the driveway. The cars behind me gunned their engines in angry liberation as they passed me. I felt properly chastened.

  "He's got a place on the second floor," Dixie said.

  "You go in the front door and there's a hallway with stairs. Place always smelled like kerosene to me."

  "He own it or rent it?" I said.

  "I don't know. He always called it his pad."

  "Hell of a love nest," I said.

  "See what I mean?" Dixie said.

  "What kind of a stiff has a romantic hideaway in a three-decker in Lynn?"

  "You haven't heard from him since I talked with you last?" I said.

  "No. I got no interest in him. He called me I'd hang up."

  "If he does, find out where he is before you hang up," I said.

  Dixie smiled again. It was sort of an awkward-looking smile, as if she hadn't had a lot of practice with it.

  "You want I should do your job for you?" she said.

  "Long as it gets done," I said.

  I pulled the car out and circled the block so I was heading back down Eastern Avenue toward the water.

  "You got time to eat before you go to work?" I said.

  "Sure."

  "Anyplace around here that won't poison you?"

  "I don't know."

  "Must be something in Swampscott," I said.

  "Along the water."

  "I never eat around here."

  "Where do you live?"

  "Everett, I got a place there with my sister."

  At the end of Eastern Avenue I turned left onto Humphrey Street and found a small place across from the beach. I parked in the town lot and got out and walked around to Dixie's side of the car. She sat still in the front seat and didn't get out. I opened the door. She still sat without moving.

  "Care to dine?" I said.

  She looked up at me and I realized she was crying.

  "Or not," I said.

  "You don't have to pay me off," she said, "just because I showed you where Anthony lived."

  "I know," I said.

  "But I like your company."

  "Are you going to expect anything after?"

  "No."

  Dixie sat staring straight ahead. She sniffed a little as she cried.

  "It's been a long time," she said, "since anyone took me to dinner."

  "Well, let's try it," I said.

  "If you like it we can do it again."

  She nodded and got out of the car while I held the door. The food in the restaurant wasn't too good, but we had a pretty nice time.

  CHAPTER 37

  Chinatown is crammed into Boston a little below the combat zone, a little east of Bay Village, not very far from where South Station backs up the Fort Point Channel. Hawk and I were in a Chinese market on Hudson Street talking to Fast Eddie Lee, who controlled Chinatown. We had an interpreter with us, a Harvard graduate student named Mei Ling. Mei Ling sat next to Hawk, and when she wasn't translating, she looked at him. "Mr. Lee says it is nice to see you again," Mei Ling told us.

  "Tell Mr. Lee we are glad too," I said.

  Fast Eddie nodded and spoke without taking his cigarette from his mouth.

  "Mr. Lee says you behaved honorably in Port City two years ago," Mei Ling said.

  "He too was honorable," I said.

  Fast Eddie smiled gently. He was a solid squat old man with wispy white hair. His thick fingers were stained with nicotine, and his teeth were tarnished with it. He was head of the Kwan Chang Tong. He looked like an Asian Santa Claus. And he was as merciless as a pit viper.

  "I am again looking for a woman," I said.

  "To find her I need to ask some questions about the way business is done in Boston."

  I waited while Mei Ling translated. Fast Eddie lit a new cigarette with the butt of the old one, dropped the old one into a tin can of water, and put the new one in the corner of his mouth.

  "Do you do business with Julius Ventura?" I said.

  Fast Eddie nodded before Mei Ling could translate.

  "Do you do business with Gino Fish?"

  Again Fast Eddie nodded.

  "Do you know Marty Anaheim?"

  Nod.

  "Anthony Meeker."

  Fast Eddie spoke to Mei Ling.

  "Mr. Lee wants you to say the name again, slowly."

  "Anthony Meeker."

  Fast Eddie said, "Ah," and nodded.

  "Tell me about them," I said.

  Fast Eddie thought for a few moments. We waited quietly. An old woman with her hair tight to her head sat on a stool by the counter near the door in the front of the store. She too was smoking. There were no customers. A ceiling fan turned slowly above us and gently swirled the smoke from Fast Eddie's cigarette. A big late-summer horsefly looped furiously about the store without apparent purpose.

  Fast Eddie watched the fly for a while and then began to speak.

  He paused periodically for Mei Ling to translate.

  "Marty Anaheim is known to Mr. Lee only by reputation," Mei Ling translated.

  "He is Gino Fish's assa
ssin. Julius and Gino and Mr. Lee do business. They have separate, ah, spheres of influence, but sometimes those spheres overlap and provisions must be made. Sometimes those provisions are…"

  Mei Ling paused, trying for the right word.

  "It is a Chinese expression," she said to me.

  "My pig, your pig…"

  "Quid pro quo?" I said.

  Mei Ling's smile was brilliant.

  "Yes," she said.

  "Exactly. Sometimes the provisions are quid pro quo, but sometimes the overlap is not equal and then payments need to be made to keep the, ah, equilibrium."

  "Who handles the payments?" I said.

  Without waiting for Mei Ling, Fast Eddie said, "An-tho-ny Meeker." He made it sound like a Chinese name.

  "Both ways?" I said.

  Fast Eddie looked at Mei Ling.

  "I don't know quite what you are meaning, sir," Mei Ling said to me.

  "Did Anthony transfer money among all three of them. Mr. Lee, Julius, and Gino?"

  Mei Ling translated. Fast Eddie nodded as he spoke to Mei Ling.

  "Yes, Anthony carried the money to and fro among them," Mei Ling said.

  The horsefly cruised down from above the ceiling fan and made a run past Hawk. Hawk caught it in his left hand, and killed it.

  "Did you have any problems with Gino or Julius?" I said.

  Fast Eddie thought about this a little as he started a new cigarette and got rid of the old one. Then he spoke for a while to Mei Ling.

  "Since Joseph Broz retired," she translated, "there have been four people running the business in the main part of Boston. There are the Irish groups in Somerville, and in Charlestown, who have their own following and their own territory but the territory is peripheral. And they do not cooperate with the rest. They have some influence in South Boston as well, but the rest east of Springfield, and north of Providence, all of which belonged to Joseph Broz now belongs to Julius and Gino, and Tony Marcus and to Mr. Lee."

  Fast Eddie took in a deep lungful of smoke and let it out slowly through his nose. He spoke again.

  "The four of them are like large stones in a sack, Mr. Lee says.

  They grind at each other."

  "Tell me more about that," I said.

  More cigarette smoking, more gazing off into the middle distance while we waited. Then Fast Eddie spoke again and Mei Ling translated.

  "When Mr. Broz was active the system ran smoothly. Then he went into his decline. Still there was some balance. Mr. Lee had the Chinese people, Mr. Marcus had the black people. And Mr.

  Fish and Mr. Ventura shared the rest. Their spheres were less clearly defined, and they had to cooperate more intimately to avoid conflict, which would not profit any of us. Thus their spheres became more like one cooperative sphere and the business balanced in three parts until Mr. Marcus went to prison. He has left a weak caretaker, which is wise, Mr. Lee says, because strong caretakers become owners. But that weakness invites others, and since Mr.

  Marcus went to prison there has been a shifting of the stones in the sack."

  "People are trying to take over Tony's enterprise?" I said.

  "There is a vacuum, people are being drawn into it."

  "You?"

  "No, Mr. Lee does not wish commerce with barbarians."

  Mei Ling made a deprecating little smile at me and Hawk when she translated barbarians.

  "Gino or Julius?" I said.

  Fast Eddie shrugged.

  "Both?"

  Fast Eddie shrugged again.

  "Anthony Meeker got anything to do with it?" I said.

  Fast Eddie shrugged again.

  "Inscrutable," I said.

  Fast Eddie smiled. We sat.

  "I do not think he will tell us anything else, sir," Mei Ling said to me.

  Fast Eddie smiled widely.

  "You cause mess," he said.

  "Send Tony Marcus to jail. Now you have to figure out mess. Good fun."

  I stood and said, "Thanks for your help, Mr. Lee."

  He smiled and nodded.

  "Good fun," he said.

  Hawk and Mei Ling both stood. Mei Ling put her arm through Hawk's and the three of us left the store.

  CHAPTER 38

  I was sitting in my office with the newspaper on a rainy day reading Tank McNamara when Shirley Ventura's driver came in, shaking the water off his trench coat. He said, "I understand you're to talk with me?"

  "Yeah."

  He took off the trench coat and hung it on the coatrack behind the door, and took off his tweed cap and shook the water off it and hung it carefully on a different hook, so it wouldn't drip on the trench coat.

  "Can I sit down?" he said.

  I nodded toward one of the client chairs, and he sat in it. He was a big handsome kid with a lot of thick black hair. He had on a white collarless shirt buttoned to the neck and a wide black cashmere sport coat. He looked carefully around the room.

  "Not a very fancy office," he said.

  "Keeps the rain off," I said.

  "You make much money?"

  "Sometimes."

  Jackie thought about that. I waited.

  "People I know," Jackie said, "tell me you're a stand-up guy."

  I nodded. Jackie looked around the room some more.

  "You're still interested in Shirley?" he said.

  "Yep."

  "You know she was tight with Marty Anaheim?"

  "No," I said.

  "Yeah. I used to take her to see him."

  "She had you take her?" I said.

  "Yeah. She couldn't drive a car."

  "You mean they wouldn't let her or she didn't know how?" I said.

  "Both. I don't think her mother ever let her learn."

  "Did she tell you she was seeing Marty?"

  "Naw. She'd have me drive her to Copley Place. Say she was going to do some shopping, pick her up in an hour. But, you know, I don't work for her. I work for Julius. I'm not just a driver, I'm supposed to take care of her. Christ knows she can't take care, couldn't take care, of herself. You saw her in the restaurant that day. So I check her out. She goes into the center of the shopping area, near the elevators, where that waterfall thing is, and Marty's there, and they walk through the mall and talk for maybe half an hour, then she leaves and I take her home. This starts happening couple times a week before she went to Vegas. And I don't know what to do. I speak to her about it she'll go bananas, deny it, and get me fired. I tell Julius she cries to her mother and Momma's little girl would never do nothing wrong. So I'm out of a job and maybe Julius puts out paper on me."

  "So you go along."

  "Wouldn't you?"

  I shrugged.

  "I take her where she wants to go," Jackie said.

  "I keep an eye on where she is. I get her home in one piece. I'm doing what I can, you know?"

  "I wonder why she didn't just take a cab?" I said.

  Jackie laughed.

  "Man, you don't get it, do you. She never did nothing on her own. The old lady is there all the time. The old lady has her way.

  Shirley stays home with her all day and plays dolly. She never left the house by herself. She never got a cab by herself. She probably don't know how."

  "She and Anthony live with her parents?"

  "Sure. Big house in Revere. Point of Pines. Shirley got a little suite of her own in the back. When she marries Anthony, he moves right in."

  "So how come you're telling me this now."

  "Since she got killed, it's bothering me. I hear Marty was in Vegas when it happened. I don't know if he killed her, but I been thinking. I'm thinking about what Marty was up to. Why is he shagging Shirley? You know? I mean, would you?"

  I shook my head.

  "Maybe love is blind," I said.

  "Love? Marty Anaheim? Gimme a break. He's up to something, and the more I think about it the more I think it's maybe trouble for Julius."

  "Maybe," I said.

  "Well, I work for Julius. I worked for him since I was rig
ht out of the Marines, you know? He's been okay to me. You work for a guy you supposed to, you know, be on his side."

  "I've heard that," I said.

  Jackie started to speak and stopped.

  "That a crack?" he said.

  I shook my head.

  "None intended," I said.

  "Okay. But you see my problem. I can't tell Julius his daughter's shmoozing with Marty Anaheim. He can't hear it. The old lady can't hear it. She's walking around the house wearing a black veil and carrying a doll, for cris sake "And you can't talk to the cops," I said.

  "

  "Course not."

  "So you came to me."

  Jackie shrugged.

  "Couldn't think of anybody else."

  I nodded. Jackie was through. We both sat in silence while the rain beaded on my office window and formed ropey little crystalline streams as it ran down the glass.

  "Anybody in the outfit you can tell?" I said.

  "No. Julius played it very close to his own chest," Jackie said.

  "Everybody just worked for him. We figured Anthony was going to be the number-two guy when he married Shirley, he wasn't such a fucking lightweight."

  We were quiet some more.

  Finally I said, "I don't know what I'll do with this, Jackie. Hell, I don't even know what it means. But sooner or later it will mean something and sooner or later I'll do something."

  Jackie sat for a minute. Then he stood and put on his coat and hat. He looked at me for a moment and nodded and turned and went out without saying anything else.

  I got up and stood at the window and looked down at the wet street and the cars going along with their wipers moving steadily back and forth. Diagonally across from me the grass around Louis' was still bright green and glistening under the early fall rain and somewhere in this great land was somebody who knew something about what was going on. But I didn't and I didn't know who did.

  CHAPTER 39

  The sweat had soaked through Susan's black spandex leotard and made a dark blotch in the small of her back. The muscles in her bare shoulders and back moved intricately as she did a set of rows on the Cybex machine. "Don't bend back," I said.

  "Sit up straight. Use your arms."

  "Are you sure I'm not just building up my arms?" she said.

  "You're using mostly the lats," I said.