her mouth and then staggered back several, steps into living room. Burt Roth went first.. "It's okay, KC," he said. "Everything is okay."
Her eyes were wide and she made small noises which were not quite crying. It was as if she couldn't get enough air into her lungs to actually cry. I moved Vincent in ahead
us and closed the front door and
arms and leaned on it. Talk about theatrical. KC said, "Butt," in a strangled kind of voice. She didn't
Roth spoke softly and fast.
"This is kind of like an intervention, KC. People who care
you gathered together to help you get past a hard
"You care about me?"
212 Pl'l" if'. tt "Of course. No false messages. Our life together is over, I believe. We each have another life to live. But I've known you most of my adult life. We share a child. Of course I care about you." She was trying so hard to pretend that Vincent wasn't there that it made all her motions stiff as she avoided seeing him. "I don't even know that man," she said looking at Hawk. Hawk smiled at her. When he chose to he could look as warm and supportive as a cinnamon muffin. "He's with me," I said. "We brought Vincent." When I said his name ii was as if I had jabbed her with an electrode. She winced visibly and looked very hard at her ex-husband. "What are you going'to do?" she said. "This man raped you, KC," Hurt Roth said quietly. "You are too important to let someone misuse you that way." "You know... ?" "I know he did, KC." "I never... "Vincent started. Hawk put his hand on Vincent's shoulder and said, "Shhh." Vincent seemed to freeze when Hawk spoke to him. "You made a mistake with him, maybe," Hurt Roth said. "Everybody makes mistakes. You probably made one with me, too. But they are honorable mistakes. Mistakes made for love. The best kind of mistake to make." KC was staring at him as if she'd never seen him or anything quite like him. I wasn't sure how much of what he was saying he believed, but he was saying it well. "And I'm determined," Roth went on, "that you will not have to suffer as you've suffered for making honest mistakes." "God," KC said, "I have suffered."
' "And if we don't put this creep where he belongs." He nodded at Vincent and paused. I admired how clever he was at avoiding specifics. "If we don't;' Roth said, "will he rape you again? Who else will he rape?" He paused again, and looked steadily at KC. "Maybe one day he'll rape Jennifer," Roth said softly. KC made kind of a moan, and stepped back again and sat down on the edge of her couch as if her legs had given way. Again I believed her sincerity, without missing the contrived quality of it. Maybe she was simply an endless series of contrivances and when they had all been peeled away she could c. ease to exist. I said, "Did Louis Vincent rape you, KC?" She stared at Roth for a time ts if I hadn't spoken, then, for the first time, she looked at Vincent. "Yes," she said. Behind her eyes hatred crackled, for a genuine moment, like heat lightning. "Yes he did," she said. Vincent started to speak, looked at Hawk, and didn't. His gaze shifted rapidly around the room, as if he could find a place to run. He couldn't. I walked over to the end table beside the couch and picked up her phone and called Sgt. O'Connor. Roth sat down on the sofa beside KC. She put her out and he took it. Hawk looked at Roth and nodded head once in approval. For Hawk that was the Croix de Guerre. O'Connor came on the line. "Spenser;' I said. "We have your rapist if you'd like to come up and get him." I hung up the phone and turned. Vincent was staring at Suddenly his eyeballs rolled back in their sockets and he
214 Pt't'- 8'. tatrr
fell backward. Hawk stepped aside and let him fall against the wall and slide to the floor. He lay on his back with his eyelids open over his white eyeballs and his mouth ajar. We all looked at him.
"Rapist appears a little vaporish," Hawk said.
Faintly I could hear the police sirens coming our way.
afternoon at a gay bar in the South End near the Ballet.
"Well, the world's straightest straight boy;' Walt said when I came in.
He was drinking red wine. And I could tell that he'd been doing it for a while.
"Good to be the best at something," I said.
The bartender had bright blond hair and an earring.'te bar had Brooklyn Lager on draught. I ordered one. '
"So what you want to talk about, Mister World's Straightest?"
I saw no reason to vamp on the subject.
"I'd like to talk about the blackmail doodle you guys were
running with OUTrageous."
"Huh?"
"I'd like to talk about the blackmail doodle you guys were
running with OUTrageous."
"Doodle?"
"You guys were discovering closeted gay people and threatening to out them if they didn't give you money. I'd like us to talk about that."
216 Irt" if. Pnr]t Walt finished the rest of his wine and motioned to the bartender. "I'm going to switch to martinis, Torn." "Belvedere," the bartender said, "up with olives." "You got it," Walt said. I waited. Walt watched as the bartender mixed his martini and brought it to him. The bartender put out the little napkin, set the martini on it, and went away. Walt picked up the martini carefully and took a sip, and said "ahh." Then he looked at me, and as I watched him, his eyes began slowly to fill up with tears. "Whose idea was it?" I said. Tears were running down Walt's face. "Willie and I have been t)gether for seven years," he said. His voice was shaky. "Long time," I said. Susan and I had been together for more than twenty, with a little time out in the middle. So I didn't actually think seven was a long time, but it seemed the right thing to say at the moment. "I never cheated on him," Walt saidl He drank most of his martini and then stared wetly into the glass, twisting it slowly by the stem as he talked. "And here he is stepping out with Amir Abdullah," I said. Walt looked at me as if I'd just leaped a tall building at a single bound. "I'm a detective," I said. "I know stuff." Walt finished his martini and gestured for another. "That son of a bitch," he said. "He used to be Prentice's boyfriend, you know that?" Walt was monitoring the construction of his second martini, and when it arrived he sampled it immediately. He wasn't paying much attention to me.
v/ t, 217
"So what about the blackmail?"
"Willie and I didn't know anything about it. We were serious about OUTrageous."
He studied his martini again for a time. His face was wet with tears.
"Then when Prentice died, Amir came to Willie and me. He explained what Prentice had been doing. He said that it had a wonderful justice to it, that queers without the courage to come out of the closet could at least be made to contribute
to those of us who were loud and proud about it."
"Good to take the high road," I said.
"He said Willie and I ought to continue it," Walt said.
"Said that it was a proud, tradition."
"He want a cut? I said.
"No. He said he didn't need the money."
Walt ate the single big olive fromm his martini, in several small bites.
"Willie loved it," Walt said. "He's always been more rebellious than me. Always ready to give the finger to ,.[he
straight world.". "What's this got to do with the straight world?" I said. "During Gay Pride he'd march in outrageous drag," Walt said. "Once he went as a priest with the collar and everything,
only wearing a skirt, holding hands with two altar boys." "That ought to shock them in Roslindale," I said.
"I was always kind of embarrassed by it," Walt went on. He was having more trouble now, talking, because period-
he'd have to stop and get control of his crying enough to continue.
"Willie used to tell me I was just playing into the straight
trap, that I was ashamed of my sexuality. I guess I'm
conservative. Willie was always much more out there
stick in the mud Walt. It's probably why it happened."
218 OY' 5. tt
He was nearly to the bottom of his second martini. His speech was slurring. I didn't know how much wine he'd drunk before I arrived. Considerable was a fair guess. Right now it was working for me. He w drunk a
nd garrulous and had someone to talk to about his pain. But I didn't know how long I had before he would get too drunk to talk. I wanted to push him, but I had the feeling that if I pushed I'd remind him that he was admitting to a felony and, drunk or not, he might shut up.
"Why what happened.9'' I said carefully.
"Why Willie started fucking Amir;' Walt said and started to cry full out.
The bartender looked at me. I shrugged. The bartender went to the other end oI the bar and began to reorganize some clean glasses.
"Who would blame him?" Walt said, snuffling and gulping. "Got this uptight homophobic gay lover. Who wouldn't want somebody more interesting, for crissake. Who wouldn't want somebody with more..." He stopped and tried to get his breathing under control. "With more... I don't know what, just more."
"I don't know a lot about this;' I said, "but I do know that in a situation like this if you can blame yourself it gives you hope. He's out of your control, but if it's your fault, maybe you can fix it?'
"I can change;' Walt said.
He had some trouble with the ch sound.
"Sure;' I said. "You think Amir had anything to do with
Prentice going out the windowT'
"Amir?
"Amir Abdullah;' I said.
"You mean do I think he killed him?"
He had a lot of trouble moving his mouth from I to think.
vq/ t0ng 219
"You could put it that way;' I said.
"I... I... I don't... "As he stumbled over his answer, Walt got one of those crafty looks that' drunks get when they have this great insight, which in the morning will embarrass them.
"I bet he did," Walt said. "I bet he did an' I bet Willie help' him."
"'Cause he a sonfabish;' Walt said. "They both sonfabish." He pushed the nearly empty martini glass away from him and f61ded his arms on the bar and put his head down on them and mumbled "sonfabish" a couple of times and was quiet.
"Any evidence other than him being a son of a bitch.'?" I said.
I waited. Walt didn't move. 'he bartender ambled down the bar. Walt started to snore.
"Walt a friend of yours?" the bartender said,
"No," I said.
"Okay. He's a regular. Bar's almost empty. Let hil sleep
it off a little. When he wakes up I'll send him home in a cab." "Good," I said.
"He's got a forty-three-dollar tab here," the bartender said. "Including your beer."
I put a hundred-dollar bill on the bar.
"My treat," I said. "Take his cab fare out of that too." "Thanks."
"No problem," I said.
As I was leaving I contemplated the, albeit illusory, sense of POwer one achieved by slapping a C note on a bar. Maybe I should start carrying several. More imPOrtant, maybe I should start earning several. At the moment I was doing two pro bonos, one for Susan, one for Hawk. I wondered if it was
too late to cut myself in on OUTrageous. Maybe I could earn a bonus by telling everyone everything about everybody.
It was raining again, but I was dressed for it, and the walk back up to my office wasn't very far, and I liked to walk in the rain. So I strolled the block down Tremont and turned up East Berkeley with my hands in my pockets and my collar up, while the rain came down gently. I thought about what I knew. I knew a lot, but nothing that solved my problem with Robinson Nevins. It was clearly time to talk with Amir Abdullah again. He almost certainly was a son of a bitch, but he didn't look like someone who could have forced open that jammed window and thrown anyone through it. On the other hand, he might know someone who could.
outside the former Hotel ¥endome, now a condominium complex. We had decided to conduct our discussions with Abdullah in a different vemte, the first discussion having been a little brisk.
"Lives on the fourth floor front," Hawk said.
"Learned anything else about him?" I said.
"Stops by the packie on Boylston, couple timesa week, and buys two, three bottles of wine," Hawk saic.."Usually before Willie comes calling."
"Anybody else come calling?"
"Almost every day," Hawk said. "Young men. Any race. Look like students. Most of them are one time only."
"You think he's tutoring them in the formulaic verse of the North African Berbers?"
"Be my guess," Hawk said, "that they exchanging BJ'." "Yeah," I said, "that's another possibility." "He went away last weekend." "Where?"
"Took a cab to Logan to one of those private airways service areas, walked out onto the runway, got in a Learjet
222 etT-. Par]r
Hawk made a zoom-away gesture with his hand. "Came home Monday morning, went to class." "Private jet?" "Yep."
"You have any idea where?"
"Nobody I asked knew," Hawk said. "Plane was a Hawker-Sibley, left at two thirty-five last Friday from in front of the
Baxter Airways building. Some numbers printed on the tail." Hawk handed me a slip of paper.
"Somebody has to know," I said. "They have to file a flight plan."
"You know who to ask?" Hawk said.
"Not right off the top of my head."
"My problem exactly;' Hawk said. "I bet Amir will know." "Of course," I said. "Let's ask him."
"He's teaching a late seminar," Hawk said. "Doesn't get home until about seven."
"Good," I said. "Give us time to break into his apartment."
"You think he might not let us in if we knocked nice and said howdy doo Mr. Abdullah?" Hawk said.
"I hate your Uncle Remus impression," I said. "Everybody do;' Hawk said happily.
We left the car in a no parking zone and walked across to the Vendome. Hawk said hello to the good-looking black woman at the security desk and pointed at the elevator. She smiled and nodded us toward it.
"Isn't she supposed to call ahead and announce us," I said. "Un huh," Hawk Said. "Been busy," I said.
"Never no strangers," Hawk said, "only friends you haven't met."
"That's so true," I said, and pushed the call button for the elevator.
/-$/ M 223
"You know," Hawk said as we were waiting for the elevator, "I suppose Amir got the right to go off on a weekend without us coming in asking him where and why." "Absolutely," I said. "But we going to ask him anyway." "Absolutely," I said. "'Cause we don't have anything else to ask," Hawk said.
"Exactly," I said and got into the elevator. Hawk got in with me and pushed the button for the second floor. "You ever think of getting into a line of work where you knew what you was doing?" Hawk said. "Why should I be the one," I said. "No reason," Hawk said. "Just a thought." The elevator stopped. We got qut. Hawk pointed left and we walked down the corridor to the end door. I knocked, just to be sure. No one answered. I bent over to study the lock. "You want to kick it in?" Hawk said, i ,, , "Looks like a pretty good dead bolt, I said. We 11 iaise a fair ruckus kicking it in." "Might as well use a key then," Hawk said. I looked up at him. He looked like he might spit out a canary feather. "The Nubian goddess at the desk?" I said. "Un huh." "You sure you been keeping an eye on Amir all this' time?" I said. "She got a little closed-circuit TV can watch the lobby from her bedroom," Hawk said. "While he in his apartment teaching young men about them formulaic Berbers, I doing a little lesson plan with Simone." Hawk unlocked Amir's door. We went in. The dark room
224 rOq- 8'. Psrr was close, heavy with the smell of men's cologne mingling with something that might have been incense. I flipped the light switch beside the door. The room was done in tones of brown and vermilion. There was a six-foot African ceremonial mask on the far wail facing us between the seven-foot windows. A squat fertility goddess from Africa's bronze age stood solidly on the coffee table in front of the beige sec-tionai sofa, and a large painting of Shaka Zulu on the wall opposite the sofa. The rugs were thick. The windows along the front were heavily draped. To our left off the living room was a dining area, with a glass-topped table ornamented with two thick candlesticks in tall ebony holders that had been carved to resemble vines. A ki
tchen I'd off the dining area. The bedroom and bath were to our right. The bed was canopied. On the night table was a smail brass contraption for burning incense. On the bureau was a framed photograph of a stern thin-faced black woman with her hair pulled tightly back and her dress buttoned up to the neck. "Amir got some style," Hawk said. "Incense is a nice touch," I said. I sat on the couch. Hawk went over and turned the lights back off. "Don't want Amir to spot it from the street," Hawk said. "Want him to walk right in and close the door behind him." He came over, walking carefully while his eyes grew accustomed to the dark, and sat beside me. He put his feet up on the coffee table. "What's happening with the woman got raped?" he said. "She's staying with her mother in Providence." "She getting any help?" "Susan referred her to a rape crisis counselor, down there," I said. "She going?" Hawk said.
Robert B Parker - Spenser 26 - Hush Money Page 14