Hugger Mugger

TWENTY-FOUR

THE DAY WAS somewhat overcast, and not very hot. I strolled along on the other side of the street, watching Kate Malloy as she wheeled the stroller along Commonwealth, crossed at Dartmouth, and headed for the little park. She put the stroller beside her and sat for a while on a small bench, inside the black iron fence, and watched the children and their nannies, and occasionally, maybe, their mothers. No one stalked her. No one looked like they were going to stalk her. After a while Kate got up and took the stroller and walked down Commonwealth, the rest of the way, and turned left toward the river on Arlington Street. I went along too. We crossed the pedestrian overpass to the esplanade and began to stroll west along the river. If Kevin showed up I wasn't sure what to expect. I was ready. I had a gun on my belt, and a sap in my hip pocket, and if that didn't work, I could always bite him. Still, he seemed less monstrous when Kate talked of him than he did when Valerie talked of him. I was pretty sure I wasn't getting the whole story. I was used to it. I hadn't gotten the full story in Lamarr, Georgia. I never got the full story. There was probably something deeply philosophic going on. Maybe there was no full story. Ever.

We crossed a little footbridge over the lagoon and walked near the water. If anyone noticed that Kate was pushing an empty carriage they didn't show it. Bostonians are so reserved. There were a number of dogs being run by their owners, and a number of babies being strolled, and then there was a stalker. I didn't see him approach. He was just there all of a sudden, beside Kate, a big man wearing a tank top. His hair was in a crew cut shaved high on the sides. There were tattoos on each bicep. He took her arm. He was loud. And intense. As I closed on them I could hear him.

"I don't give a fuck about that. I need to see you. I love you."

I stopped beside them. He looked at me.

"Who the fuck are you?" he said.

He was fair-skinned and sunburned. He'd never tan darkly, but you could tell he was out-of-doors a lot.

"I'm with her," I said. "We need to talk."

"You need to take a fucking walk, pal."

He was sober, which was good news, since it was about eleven in the morning. There was no smell of booze, no slurring, none of the look around the eyes that drunks so magically achieve.

"Nope," I said. "The three of us. We'll sit down over there on that bench and we'll sort everything out."

Beside me Kate was like a rabbit, very still, quivering with-what? Expectation? Fear? Readiness? The guy was big and strong and had probably won most of the fights he'd had. But if experience made him confident, it also gave him perspective. I could see by the way he looked at me that he wasn't sure.

"You a cop?"

"Private," I said.

He snorted. I took it as an expression of contempt.

"Sort what out?" he said. "It's that bitch she works for that needs sorting out."

"How so?" I said.

"How so? Bullshit how so," he said.

Anger got the better of perspective, and he took a swing at me. It was a pretty good swing. He didn't lead with his right. He didn't loop the punch. But he got out in front of his feet, and it made him put too much arm into the punch, and not enough body. I picked it off with my right forearm. He followed with a right that I picked off with my left forearm. It didn't deter him, so I feinted at his belly with my right. He flinched, his hands came down, and I nailed him on the jaw with a left hook that turned him half around and put him on the ground.

Kate screamed "Stop it!" and jumped in front of me and wrapped her arms around my waist and tried to push me away from Kevin. Bells were ringing for Kevin. He got halfway up and sat back down.

"He'll be all right," I said. "He's just been jarred a little. But it would be better if we left it at this. Why don't you talk with him."

She turned toward Kevin, who was sitting upright on the ground, blinking his eyes. She dropped to her knees beside him, and put her arms around him.

"Stop it, Kevin. Please," she said. "For me. This man doesn't want to hurt you, or me. He'll help us, I know he will, if you'll talk with him. Talk with him, for me."

Kevin looked confused, but he let her help him to his feet and he walked pretty steadily with her toward the bench. When they weren't looking, I rubbed my knuckles. Every time I hit somebody my knuckles hurt. Tomorrow they'd be a little swollen, and a little sore. Occupational hazard. I couldn't go around all the time with my hands wrapped. The two of them sat on the bench. Kevin's eyes began to focus.

"Okay," I said. "We'll be friends, and I'll ask some questions, and you'll answer them and maybe we can work something out."

Neither one said anything. The hinges of Kevin's jaw were going to be very sore tomorrow.

"Don't feel bad," I said to Kevin. "You're a tough guy, but there's always somebody tougher."

"She didn't beg me," Kevin said, "we'd still be at it."

"Sure," I said. "Now, do you, Kate, love him, Kevin?"

"Yes."

"Do you, Kevin, love her, Kate?"

"For crissake, what's it look like? Of course I do."

"You ever hit her?" I said.

"Once."

"Hit her once, or on one occasion hit her a number of times?"

"Just once, total," Kevin said.

He didn't want to look at me. He didn't like me knocking him on his kazoo in front of his girlfriend.

"That right, Kate?"

"Yes. He hit me on the arm, up near the shoulder."

"I was drunk," Kevin said. "And she was driving me crazy."

"About what?" I said.

"About her freakin' job. That bitch she works for doesn't want me around her."

"I need that job," Kate said. "How'm I going to eat, I don't have that job?"

"I'll be working again, goddammit, I'm just between right now."

"What do you do when you work?" I said.

"Heavy equipment. Company I worked for went outta business. I'll hook on someplace pretty quick."

"That the way you understand it, Kate?" I said.

"Yes. I know he'll get another job. But we need to eat now."

"We?"

"Kevin and I," Kate said.

I looked at him. He didn't look back.

"You supporting him?" I said.

"Just for now," she said. "I give him a little money."

"That right?" I said to Kevin.

"Yeah."

"He'd do it for me," she said.

"And when he shows up while you're walking the baby, he's not stalking you?"

"It's the only chance we get," Kevin said.

"Except we always fight," Kate said.

"Because he wants you to leave your job, and you don't want to."

"Not until he's on his feet again."

I walked a few feet and stood at the riverbank and looked at the gray water. Behind me the two of them sat on the bench as if they were waiting outside the principal's office. After a while I spoke to them without turning around.

"Why don't you get another job, Kate? Where the boss is a little more flexible."

"That's what I keep fucking telling her," Kevin said.

"I don't have time to look," Kate said. "And…"

"And?"

"And it's the baby. I love her. I want to take care of her. Nobody else wants to take care of her. I… I don't want her to grow up to be like her mother."

There were some sailboats skittering about erratically on the basin, driven inconsistently by the wind off the land. I watched them for a while. Then I walked back to where Kevin and Kate sat on the bench.

"Okay," I said. "Kate, you'll have to save another kid from her mother, and let a new nanny save Miranda."

"How am I going to get another job?"

"I'm going to get you one, and Kevin too."

"I can get my own job," Kevin said.

"Yeah sure, you're tough as nails and proud as a peacock. Which, so far, has enabled you to screw yourself up with the woman you love."

"You think I'm not tough 'cause you got a lucky punch in?"

"We both know it wasn't lucky," I said. "I can help you, unless you insist on being an asshole."

"You really think you can get us both jobs?" Kate said.

"It's a booming economy," I said.

She nodded and looked at Kevin. He smiled at her.

"You want to do this?" he said.

"Yes."

"Then we'll do it," he said.