Cold Service

11

IN MID-MARCH I was sitting in my office, invoicing clients. It was tedious, but it reminded me of why I did what I did. Outside my window the sun was shining. It wasn't spring yet, but the snow was beginning to decay, and the sour smell of long-buried leaves bore the gentle promise of milder times.

Hawk came in. He took off his coat and folded it and put it on my client chair. He took the big.44 Mag off his belt and laid it on top of the coat. Then he dropped to the floor and did ten push-ups with his right arm and another ten with his left. Then he stood.

"Am I to gather that you're ready?" I said.

"I am."

Hawk put the.44 back in its holster and put his coat back on.

"Now?" I said.

"Un-huh."

"You got a plan?"

"Start with Tony," Hawk said.

"Marcus?" I said.

"Want to find out what's been going on since they shot me."

"And Tony will know," I said.

" 'Course he will," Hawk said.

"His interests are the same as ours," I said. "He could help."

"He will," Hawk said. "If we need him."

I heaved a big sigh.

"Back down to the ghetto again," I said.

"Good for you," Hawk said. "Give you a chance to be a minority."

"I like you," I said. "I am a minority."

"Just 'cause I recovered," Hawk said. "Don't get sloppy and emotional."

"My car or yours?" I said.

"I be embarrassed to show up at Tony's place in your ride."

Tony Marcus had an office in the back of a restaurant and nightclub at the edge of the South End, which had been called Buddy's Fox. Then Tony hired a marketing consultant and the place was now called Ebony & Ivory.

"Swell name," I said as Hawk parked across the street. "Implies elegant racial intermingling."

"Except you the only ivory I ever seen in there," Hawk said.

There were booths along both walls, a bar across the back, and a narrow corridor to the right of the bar that led to washrooms and Tony's office. In a booth near the door, Junior and Ty Bop looked at us when we came in. Ty Bop was drinking coffee. Junior simply sat. Neither of them said anything. The patrons ignored us. The bartender nodded as we walked by.

"Hawk, my man," Tony Marcus said when we went into his office. "You are looking buff."

"Lost that unhealthy pallor," I said. "Hasn't he?"

"And you ain't," Tony said to me.

I grinned.

"I back in business," Hawk said. "Want to talk about the Ukrainians."

"Figured the time would come," Tony said. " 'Less you died."

"Time has come," Hawk said. "What you know?"

"I know they here," Tony said. "I know they costing me money. I know the connection runs back to Brooklyn, and probably back to Ukraine, wherever the fuck that is."

"Even further than Brooklyn," I said.

"You not a candy cane," Hawk said to Tony. "Whyn't you chase them out."

"They don't come at you direct, man. They pressure a pimp, or one bookie, or a guy doing drugs in one neighborhood. When the one guy cracks they move in big, and then to get them out you got a damned war. It costs you money. The cops come looking. The feds get involved. Prosecutors are RICO this and conspiracy that. It's still easier to work around them."

"You think they stop?" Hawk said.

"No," Tony said. "They want it all."

"So you going to have to step up sooner or later," Hawk said.

"They also pretty bad," Tony said.

"That so?" Hawk said.

"You should know," Tony said.

"Why Gillespie come to me?" Hawk said. "Why didn't you protect him?"

Tony looked at the ceiling above his desk for a while. He had short salt-and-pepper hair and a big moustache. He had on a tie, as he always did. His shirt was immaculate. His suit fit him perfectly. He was even a little soft around the neck as befits a successful middle-aged executive.

"Luther and I were, ah, in disagreement," Tony said.

"You thought he holding out on you?" Hawk said.

"I did."

"So you left him on his own?" Hawk said.

"I did."

"Mistake," Hawk said.

Tony nodded.

"But I cut a guy off, I can't go bailing him out later, you unnerstand. I do that, pretty soon everybody be trying to fuck with me and I have to do some major bang bang."

"Many of the people they've moved in on been in disfavor?" I said.

"Disfavor." Tony shook his head. "Man, you white folks do talk funny."

"Were they?" Hawk said.

"Couple were," Tony said. "Some of the others weren't mine."

"I thought they were all yours," I said.

Tony smiled.

"They were going to be," he said.

Hawk took out the paper on which I had typed the names of the four Ukrainians that Bohdan had named.

"Know any of these?" Hawk said.

Tony looked at the list.

"Don't see no brothers on this list," Tony said.

"Anybody you know?" Hawk said.

"Man, they all got those fucking bohunk do-do names, you know? I can't tell one from another one."

"Well, me and Spenser gonna be prowling around some of your neighborhoods," Hawk said. "You got any problem with that?"

"Live and let live." Tony sat.

"I think he means it's okay," I said to Hawk.

"We be prowling either way," Hawk said.

Tony smiled.

"You want a drink?" he said. "On the house. People see whitey at the bar, justify the new name."

"Like to help you out," I said. "But it's a little early."

"Whoa," Tony said. "I remember the days when you'd drink paint remover at nine in the morning."

"Never drank paint remover," I said.

"And we proud of you for that," Hawk said.

"Drop in anytime," Tony said.

"Anything helpful," Hawk said to him, "you know where to find me."

"Harbor Health Club. Leave a message with Henry."

"Nice to be remembered," Hawk said.

"Nothing to do with you," Tony said. "I don't forget much."

Hawk stood. I stood with him. Tony stayed seated. Nobody shook hands.

"Good luck," Tony said.

"Got nothing to do with luck," Hawk said.