Now and Then

22.

Hawk and i were working out at the Harbor Health

Club. Probably out of some loyalty to his own past, and because he liked Hawk and me, Henry Cimoli kept a small boxing area in the club that was otherwise full of gleaming machinery and chrome-coated weights. Hawk was hitting the little double-end jeeter bag with his left hand and I was doing combinations on the heavy bag. The more repetitious the exercise, the more you are likely to coast. I concentrated on punching through the bag. Hawk seemed to hit the jeeter bag without any effort or thought, except he hit it square every time and it danced rhythmically. He shifted hands without breaking the rhythm.

“You know what be bothering me,” he said.

“The question of intelligent design?” I said.

“I already know that,” Hawk said. “What I’m thinking is that if Vinnie ain’t there to drill the mystery shooter, that everybody be assuming that her husband shot her and killed himself.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So maybe somebody set it up that way,” Hawk said.

“And Vinnie showed up and ruined it,” I said.

Hawk began to hit the bag alternately with both hands. The rhythm was uninterrupted. I paused and watched. It was Hawk in essence. Like everything he did, it seemed effortless, as if he were thinking of something else. And yet the perfectly focused energy seemed to explode through the bag.

“Not their fault,” Hawk said. “They had no reason to think he’d be there.”

I went back to working my combinations on the heavy bag.

“That theory might lead one to speculate,” I said between punches, “that Doherty was murdered too.”

“Would,” Hawk said.

“And one might wonder who was responsible.”

“Alderson seem to be the honky in the woodpile,” Hawk said.

“She went straight there after her husband kicked her out,”

I said.

“She in there ’bout an hour,” Hawk said.

“Plenty of time to tell him what happened,” I said. Hawk shifted his feet a little and went back to hitting the small bag with his left hand.

“So why didn’t she spend the night?” I said.

“Maybe Alderson only like to fuck part-time,” Hawk said.

“It would explain why she went to the hotel,” I said.

“Lotta rejection,” Hawk said. “And the next day, she dead, and her husband missing.”

“Probably dead by then too,” I said.

“She know ’bout you?” Hawk said.

“Yes.”

I put a fi nal fl ourish of combinations on the heavy bag.

“Epstein tells me they haven’t found that tape among Doherty’s possessions,” I said.

“Doherty got no reason to get rid of it,” Hawk said.

“No. Be useful in a divorce proceeding.”

“Maybe he knew there wouldn’t be none,” Hawk said.

“You mean he hired someone to kill her?”

“People do.”

“Not him,” I said. “Not his style. He might have shot her in a rage and then put the gun in his mouth. But he wouldn’t hire some guy with no ID to do it, and then drown himself later.”

“Okay,” Hawk said. “Maybe Alderson don’t want people to know he been fooling around with Jordan.”

“Killing two people to cover it up seems extreme,” I said.

“Maybe he don’t want people knowing other things,” Hawk said.

“If he does and he stole the tape he’ll be disappointed,” I said. “I edited it down to just the lovey-dovey stuff.”

“But you still got the original.”

“Yes, I do,” I said.

“Anybody know that?” Hawk said.

“Not yet,” I said.

“So maybe they think they got all there is,” Hawk said.

“Maybe.”

“On the other hand,” Hawk said, “they know somebody made the tape.”

“Yep.”

“So they ain’t free and clear yet,” Hawk said.

“Nope.”

“Unless Jordan told them ’bout you.”

“My guess is that she didn’t,” I said. “She was pretty desperate to get them back, more than she should have been, since her husband had already heard them.”

“She worried about Alderson,” Hawk said.

“Maybe.”

“So maybe she don’t tell him,” Hawk said.

“Maybe.”

“Doherty could have told them ’bout you before he died?”

“He was FBI,” I said. “They may have thought he did it himself.”

Hawk finished up with an elegant flurry of punches, and stepped away from the jeeter bag and looked at me. He nodded.

“They don’t know,” Hawk said.

“That’s my guess.”

“They knew,” Hawk said, “they would have made a run at you already.”

I nodded.

“So we’re probably under their radar,” I said.

“There you go with that we again,” Hawk said.

“I leave you out and you get sullen,” I said.

“I always sullen,” Hawk said. “You thinking about letting them know you got the tape.”

“It’s an option,” I said. “Let’s see what develops.”

“You could just give the tape to Epstein,” Hawk said. “Then there’d be no reason for them to come after you.”

“And there’d be no way to smoke them out,” I said.

“You won’t give Epstein the tape,” Hawk said.

I shrugged.

“It’s our only hole card. Otherwise these people have no reason to show themselves.”

“They might get Alderson arrested,” Hawk said.

“You heard them,” I said. “Did he ever say anything that would get him jail time?”

“No.”

“But as long as there’s a tape and he wants it,” I said.

“If he wants it,” I said.

“Mr. and Mrs. Doherty died for a reason,” I said. “And the tape’s missing.”

“’Less you buy it’s suicide,” Hawk said.

“You?” I said.

“No,” Hawk said.

“So it’s a working hypothesis,” I said.

“I got another one,” Hawk said.

“Which is?”

“They killed these people on your time,” Hawk said.

“You could think of it that way.”

“You could and you do,” Hawk said. “I know you a long time.”

“I’ve tried to be a good role model,” I said.

“So you want the one gets them be you,” Hawk said. “Not Epstein.”

“At least I want fi rst position,” I said.

Hawk smiled widely.

“’Course you do,” he said.