Bad Business

47

There was no peephole. When Cecile knocked and the door opened, Hawk and I were standing one on each side of it.

"Cecile?" a man's voice said. "Yes, of course it is. Come on in."

I knew the voice. Hawk went in first. He moved the man down his short corridor without any visible effort, except that when they reached the end the man banged hard against the far wall. I turned to Cecile.

"You can come in," I said, "and meet your date."

She went in and I went in behind her. The man was Bob Cooper.

He said, "Spenser. My God. What the hell is going on?"

"He carrying?" I said to Hawk.

"Nope."

"Carrying?" Cooper said. "What the hell would I be carrying?"

"Can't be too careful," I said.

"I don't get this, Spenser. What are you doing here? Who the hell are these people?"

We were in a short hallway off of which the other rooms opened. There was a bedroom, a bath, a miniscule kitchen, and a living room. I gestured toward the living room.

"Sit down," I said. "We'll talk."

I t was the kind of furnished apartment that graduate students rent, or newlyweds, or both. It was undistinguished in any way, except for the obviously new, and obviously expensive, big-screen TV/entertainment center opposite the brown corduroy couch.

"Absolutely," Cooper said. "I'm eager to hear what you've got to say."

Cooper sat on the couch. Cecile sat quietly in a badly painted Boston rocker in the corner nearest the door. Hawk leaned on the doorframe near Cecile. I sat in front of Cooper on a sea chest that had been painted brown and was being used as a coffee table. Cooper leaned back and rested one arm along the top of the couch. Casual. Fully at ease. A concerned CEO puzzled by the antics of subordinates.

"First," I said, "there's nothing personal here. You seem like a nice fellow. Second, there's nothing judgmental. Your sex life is your business. I don't care if you have carnal knowledge of a Chevy Tahoe, as long as the Tahoe is a consenting adult." Cooper frowned mildly and looked quizzical.

"And third," I said. "We got your ass, and it will just slow everything down if you try to pretend we don't."

"What on earth . . ." Cooper said.

"Stop it," I said. "Hawk and Cecile went to O'Mara's courtly love seminar, and Cecile, the lucky lady, made the cut and got invited to the women's mixer. O'Mara's assistant videotaped her, and you reviewed the tapes and, tastefully, picked her for an assignation."

"That's absurd," Cooper said. "I have no idea who this woman is."

"Which is why you called her Cecile when you opened the door."

"I did not. She must have misunderstood."

"None of us misunderstood," I said.

I looked at the big entertainment center. Mute and sort of threatening on the far wall.

"Hawk," I said. "You know how to work that thing?"

"'Course not," Hawk said.

"I imagine I do," Cecile said.

"See what he's got on videotape."

Cooper said to Cecile, "You seem a nice young woman. But this is, after all, an illegal entry, and you really ought to think of your own best interests, here."

Cecile picked up the remote from the end table beside the couch and clicked on the gizmos in the cabinet, and in a moment the screen lit. She walked over and looked at some videotapes in a holder, selected one, slipped it in, clicked another gizmo, and after a moment of blank blue screen, there was Cecile drinking white wine from a piece of clear plastic stemware at the Balmoral Castle ballroom. Cecile shut it off.

No one said anything.

Then Cecile said, "The tape of me is labeled Cecile. There are also tapes labeled Marsha, Dorothy, Caroline ... and, you get the idea."

"Play Marsha," I said.

"Don't," Cooper said.

Cecile looked at Hawk.

"Let's go to the videotape," Hawk said.

She picked up another videotape cassette. Cooper started to get up. I leaned over and put the flat of my hand on his chest and gently sat him back down. Cecile put it in, did the hocus pocus with the remote, and onto the screen came Marsha. Like Cecile she was good-looking, and like Cecile she was black. We watched her with her white wine, chatting with other women, and smiling into the camera. Then there was a somewhat amateurish cut, and we saw Marsha naked, and smiling past the camera, in what was almost certainly this living room. The camera tracked her as she walked through the hall and into the bedroom. Then another clumsy cut and there she was in bed with Cooper.

"Shut it off," Cooper said.

His voice was hoarse. Cecile looked at me, and I nodded, and she shut everything down.

"My wife," he said. "My wife can't know."

"Why don't you take a walk around, Licorice Stick," I said to Hawk, "see if you find some video equipment."

"I'm leaving," Cooper said.

He tried to stand, and once again I redirected him with the flat of my hand.

"No," I said. "You're not."

"You can't keep me here against my will," Cooper said.

"Don't be silly," I said.

He tried again to get up. I held him down. He tried to push my hand away. He couldn't.

"Coop," I said. "You got no chance."

He strained against my hand for another minute. I could see him debating whether to swing at me or not. He opted, wisely I felt, for not. Hawk came back into the living room with a video camera.

"Bedroom closet," Hawk said. "Lotta other stuff in there too."

"Video equipment?"

"Un-huh."

"And?"

"A selection of, ah, adult novelty items."

"Coop," I said, "you dog."

"Want to see?" Hawk said to Cecile.

"Oh, ick," Cecile said.

"That mean I'm all you need?" Hawk said.

"It means, oh ick," Cecile said.

Hawk grinned. Coop had assessed his position vis-a-vis fighting his way out of there, and found it not to be viable. He stopped pressing against my hand and leaned back again against the couch.

"Okay," he said. "I have an eye for the ladies." He looked at Hawk standing beside Cecile. "I mean, don't we all?" he said.

Some of us don't use a pimp," Hawk said.

Coop opened his mouth and thought about what to say, and apparently thought nothing would be best. He looked at me. A couple of simpatico white guys. I'd understand. He and I could clear this whole thing up.

"You want to he a senator," I said. "Maybe president. A sex scandal? A divorce, almost certainly messy? With the likely negative effect all that would have on Kinergy stock?"

"Okay," he said. "You've got me by the short ones. What kind of deal can we make."

"I thought you'd never ask," I said.

"How much," Coop said, "will this cost me?"

He felt better. He was back on familiar turf. He was making a deal.

"Hard to say at this point. I want my accountant to have full access to all Kinergy's financial records."

"You mean an audit? Why?"

"I do," I said. "I understand Kinergy has a cash problem."

"Cash?"

"That's what they tell me."

"Absolutely not," he said.

"I want you to pay for the audit," I said.

"I can't do that. That's absurd."

"And," I said, "I want to know everything you can tell me about Darrin O'Mara."

"O'Mara?"

"Yep. The company pimp."

"O'Mara? I don't know anything about O'Mara," Coop said.

"That's the deal," I said. "Audit and O'Mara. Or we tell everyone everything."

"I'm not going to agree to that."

"I've already spoken with Mrs. Cooper."

"Wilma?"

"Yep."

"About what?"

"If I were you I wouldn't want her to find out any of this," I said.

"Oh God."

"My thoughts exactly," I said.

"I can't. I'll pay you. I am wealthy. I'll pay you a young fortune."

"O'Mara and the audit," I said. "Or Wilma and the press and probably the SEC and maybe the vice squad."

"Jesus," he said. "Oh Jesus, I can't. I can't."

I leaned forward a little with my hands clasped and my forearms resting on my thighs.

"Coop, darlin'," I said. "You gotta."

I t was like pulling a camel through the eye of a needle. While we talked Hawk collected all the videotapes in a gym bag he found in the bedroom closet. Then he and Cecile sat and listened for a while. Then after about a half hour he stood.

"Me and Cecile got to go review all these tapes for evidence." he said.

"Me and Cecile?" Cecile said.

"Might have to watch them two, three times. Make sure not to miss a clue."

"Two or three times?" Cecile said.

"Maybe learn something," Hawk said.

"You might," Cecile said. "In fact you probably better."

"You like them feisty colored girls, too?" Hawk said to Cooper.

Cooper looked at the floor and didn't say anything. I gave Hawk the car keys and they left. As they went out of the apartment, Hawk said something to Cecile and I heard Cecile giggle.