Cold Service

14

THE LAW FIRM of Duda and Husak was on the tenth floor of an office building on Boylston Street near Tremont. We parked in the garage at the Millennium Center and walked back. The lobby of the old building was narrow and trimmed with tarnished gilt. The gray marble floor was cracked and faded. The elevator was a mesh cage. It rose as though it had lost all interest years ago. It eased to a clumsy stop on the tenth floor. We walked down another narrow corridor with a worn marble floor. The marble was cracked and faded, and the once even marble threshold to Duda and Husak dipped in the center, rounded with use.

A nasty-looking gray-haired woman with a hint of facial hair sat in an armless swivel chair behind an old conference table, reading the Boston Herald. The table held a phone and a computer and not much else. She looked at us with contempt. Probably most of the clients that sought the services of Duda and Husak were contemptible. Not us.

"Can I help you?" she said.

"We here to see either Duda or Husak," Hawk said. "Don't matter which."

"Mr. Duda is not in," she said.

There were two doors on the other side of the secretary. One of the doors was open, and we could see a man at the desk with his coat off, talking on the phone. The other door was closed.

"Then we'll see Mr. Husak," Hawk said.

We walked toward the open door.

"Hey," she said.

We ignored her and went on into the office. She followed us in, saying, "Hey, hey, hey."

Husak said "Hold on" into the phone and looked at us.

"What's going on?" he said.

"We come to talk Ukrainians," Hawk said.

Husak said, "Then maybe you should have made an appointment."

Hawk sat in one of the client chairs. The office was small and no better looking than the rest of the building. It smelled of desperation accumulated over years. Behind Husak's desk was a dirty window that overlooked an air shaft.

Hawk looked at the secretary.

"You can go now, missy," he said.

"I ain't no missy," she said, and looked at Husak.

He nodded. And she went out. I closed the door behind her. Then I sat. He spoke into the phone again.

"Got a coupla guys here I need to listen to," he said. "I'll buzz you back in a while."

He hung up and tipped his chair back and put his feet up.

"So whadya need in such a hurry?" he said.

"Name of the people hired you to represent Bohdan Dziubakevych," Hawk said.

"Who?"

"Bohdan Dziubakevych," Hawk said.

I was impressed.

"Never heard of him," Husak said. "Who the hell are you?"

"Me and my faithful honkie be members of the Ukrainian Royal Family."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Husak said. "I got shit to do. I got no time to be flapping my gums with you."

Hawk stood and walked past Husak and opened the window behind him.

"What are you doing?" Husak said. "It's fucking freezing out."

"It is," Hawk said. "Isn't it."

He took hold of Husak's hair and yanked him out of his chair and spun him around. He shifted his grip to the back of Husak's shirt and the crotch of Husak's pants and picked him up and stuck him headfirst halfway out the window. Husak began to scream-short screams, one coming right after another, quietly so as not to make Hawk lose his grip. His body was rigid, but he didn't dare struggle. In slow desperation, he reached carefully back, trying to find something to hold on to. Hawk shook him a little, as if he were dusty.

"I don't like you," Hawk said to him in a reasonable voice. "I got no reason not to let you go unless you got something you can tell me that I might want to hear."

Husak kept up the short soft screaming. Hawk brought him in and held him with Husak's head still out the window and his chest resting on the sill. Husak's short screams morphed into gasping.

"Royal Ukrainians don't fuck around," Hawk said calmly. "Who hired you to represent Bohdan?"

Husak kept gasping.

"You go out again," Hawk said. "I let go."

"Boots," Husak gasped.

The pulse in his neck was beating visibly.

"Boots who?" Hawk said.

"Boots Podolak," Husak said.

Hawk looked at me. I nodded. Hawk pulled Husak off the window and stood him up and sat him in his chair. He left the window open. Husak sat rigid in the chair. His face was pale. He was trembling.

"He hire both of you?" Hawk said.

"Not him personally, but a guy said he was from him," Husak said. His voice was hoarse, but the gasping had slowed. "Paid us in cash. Up front. Me and Duda both."

"He want you to give them the best defense you could?" Hawk said.

"He wanted to make sure Bohdan didn't roll over."

Husak was limp. There was no snap left in him. He was eager to answer questions. The only danger in someone like that was that he'd figure out what you wanted to hear and tell you that. Tell you anything. Ten stories is a long way down. The unpleasant secretary knocked on the office door.

"Mr. Husak? Is everything all right."

"Tell her yes," Hawk said gently.

Husak raised his voice.

"Fine, Nancy, everything's fine."

"You the one told Bohdan not to testify?" Hawk said.

"No…"

Hawk glanced at the window.

"I did," Husak said. "We both did. Bohdan had family back in Ukraine. If he testified, they were all going to be killed."

"You told him that."

"Yes."

"He believed you."

"Yes," Husak said. "I showed him a finger with a wedding ring on it."

"A finger?" I said.

"Yes. It was his mother's. He recognized the ring."

"Somebody cut off his mother's finger and sent it to you?"

"Yes. It was neat. Wrapped in plastic, you know?"

"And you showed it to Bohdan," I said.

"Yeah."

"He know they were going to kill him in prison?" Hawk said.

"No, I don't think so."

"You arrange that?"

"No," Husak said. "Honest to God I didn't. I just, I just told Boots when I was going to visit Bohdan."

"You represent the other four?" Hawk said.

"Me and Duda," Husak said.

"Tell me about them."

"They never said a word to me," Husak said. "I don't know if they speak English. Whatever I said to them, the four of them would just look at me without any expression, like I was a…" he rolled his hands as he searched for the word. "Like I wasn't anything. Duda speaks a little Ukrainian. He did what talking there was."

"What did he say?" Hawk asked.

"He said they expected to be acquitted. He said we should do what Boots said for us to do."

"That's all."

"That's all, I swear on my mother, I don't know anything else. I promise."

"Where's Duda," Hawk said.

"He's in Miami. Took a week off. He'll be back next week."

"When he get back," Hawk said, "I want to see him. Have him call my faithful ofay."

I took a business card out and put it on Husak's desk.

"He call me and we all have a civilized discussion. He don't call me, you go out the window, and so does he."

"Yeah. He'll call. Honest to God he'll call, I know he will."

Hawk went around the desk and closed the window. Husak's face pinched and unpinched.

"Don't tell anyone it was me that talked," Husak said.

Hawk nodded as though his mind was elsewhere.

"You have no idea what these people are like. They aren't like other people. They find out I talked to you, they'll chop me up into pieces."

"Who'll do the chopping," Hawk said.

"Some Ukrainian," Husak said. "They're like from the fucking Stone Age, you know? I wish I never seen any of them."

"I find out you're lying to me," Hawk said, "I'll make sure they know you was talking."

"Everything I told you is the truth, so help me God."

"The whole truth?" Hawk said.

"So help me God," Husak said.

Hawk looked at me.

"Got a nice legal sound, don't it," Hawk said.