A Catskill Eagle

CHAPTER 5

IT WAS A CLEAR NIGHT, A LOT OF STARS, THE moon about three-quarters full. The land loomed higher in a dark mass of low hills to my left, and tabled away flat toward the bay on my right. There was nothing on the highway.

“So you went out,” I said.

“Course.”

“Without telling me anything.”

“Yes.”

The wheels made a little hum on the asphalt and now and then when we hit a seam there was a harumph.

“I wouldn’t have told you either,” I said.

“I know,” Hawk said.

On the other side of the highway a big produce truck went by, heading south toward Salinas.

“So I got here and rented a car and drove on down to Mill River like she say. And Susan’s there.”

“How’d she look,” I said.

“She looking terrific, except she looking real tired and she tense, like she frantic but she don’t want anyone to know it, including her.”

“How’d she sound?” I said.

“Same way,” Hawk said. “Got a bow, you could play `Intermezzo‘ on her.”

I blew out some breath.

Hawk said, “Told you this wouldn’t be easy.” I nodded.

Hawk said, “So we have some coffee, she got some new French roast, and she put out some little sesame cookies, and all. Like she playing house and she tell me she met this guy Costigan in Georgetown last year, when she in Washington doing intern. And she took up with him and he say he can get her a job at a clinic out here.”

“In Mill River?”

“Yeah,” Hawk said, “Costigan Hospital.”

“Family business,” I said.

Hawk said, “One of them.”

There were unattractive shacks along the way that sold artichokes and strawberries and things. The headlights picked up the ugly hand-lettered signs in front of them.

“So Susan having her troubles with you and all, she decide she going to come out. And she really like Costigan, she say. But she don’t want to let go of you. So she talk to you on the phone and you write her letters and you talk and she hanging on to you but she staying close to Costigan too.”

A green sign loomed up on the right shoulder of the highway. The headlights brightened the reflective lettering for a moment. It said, SAN MATEO BRIDGE, 5 MILES.

“And Costigan, he getting edgy. He wanting to move in, and she saying no. And he saying, `how come you don’t dump this stiff from Boston,‘ and Susan saying, ’‘cause I love him,’ and Costigan saying, `how come you love him and me too,‘ and Susan saying, `I don’t know,’ and they having a nice time like that.”

“I know some of this,” I said.

“So she can’t go back to you and leave Costigan; but she can’t give you up and move in with him. She say to herself, I believe I am fucked up, and she go see a shrink.”

Hawk’s voice was soft and pleasant as he talked, telling the story as if he were talking about Br’er Rabbit and the briar patch.

“I say to her, ‘Susan, you a shrink,’ and she say, `I know‘ and shake her head. Anyway,” Hawk said, “she talk to this shrink… ”

“She mention the shrink’s name?” I said.

“No,” Hawk said. “And the shrink help her see that maybe she got some problems. And she begin to pull back a little and Costigan not liking that and he begin hanging around even when she ask him not to, and he come into her apartment, he got a key, even when she say she need to be alone and try to work this out. And she say if he don’t give her some room she going to move, and he say he won’t let her. And I say, `what he going to do,‘ and she shake her head and she say, ’you don’t know him.‘ And I say, `you want to tell me about it’ and she just shake her head, and I see she getting tears, her eyes filling up. And I say, `why not come back with me. And Spenser and me, we fix it up, whatever it is. We can fix up anything.‘ And she just sit there, she not crying exactly, but her eyes full of tears and she shake her head, and then the door opens and Costigan comes in and he got a couple of heavy lifters with him.”

“Only a couple?” I said.

Hawk said, “I telling this story.”

The dashboard clock read 5:03.

“And Susan say, `Russell what in hell you doing,‘ ” Hawk said, “and Russell, he say to me, `beat it.

I almost smiled. “Beat it?” I said.

“Beat it. He that kind of a slick guy. So I say something about lawzy me M’ars Russell but I a guest of Ms. Silverman. And the two heavy lifters are standing around checking their pecs in the mirror and seein‘ which one got the bigger tricep dimple and Russell he say, `You ain’t nobody’s guest, Boogaloo, on your way.”’

“Boogaloo?” I said.

“Boogaloo. So I look at Susan and she frozen, and…”

“What do you mean, frozen?” I said.

“Still. She got a little half smile and she look scared and mad and she not moving or speaking or looking like she going to.”

“Jesus Christ,” I said.

“Umm hmm,” Hawk said. “I not feeling warm toward Russell anyway, even before I know him. And he getting on my nerves telling me to beat it and all. So I expressed my displeasure by hitting him in the mouth with my elbow. I hate to cut up my hands if I don’t have to. And the two gym rats get into it and I forced to quell them. And I quell one of them kind of hard with a chair and the dumb bastard died.”

“And the cops came,” I said.

“Yeah. About ten of them with shotguns and vests and all.”

“And no one called them,” I said.

“Nope,” Hawk said, “they come in the door about the time the last gym rat hit the floor.”

“Like they’d been waiting.”

“Yep.”

“You were set up,” I said. “You were supposed to get roughed up and then arrested for assault. Teach us all a lesson.”

“Figure they had her phone tapped,” Hawk said.

“Cops or Costigan?”

“Don’t matter,” Hawk said. “They Costigan’s cops.”