Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot

40

At six a.m., Hawk joined me.

We walked up to the convenience store in early light and then bounded up the steps. At the metal door, Hawk tested the doorknob, nodded, and we moved quickly inside without knocking.

We both carried our guns of choice. Hawk with his .44. I carried the Smith & Wesson auto I saved for special occasions.

Kevin Murphy was seated on a black leather couch in white-hot stage lights. A woman kneeled between his legs, practicing method acting.

The big guy ran the camera. When we entered, he stepped away from the camera, just a digital on a tripod, and said, “What the fuck, man?”

The girl discontinued performing Shakespeare in the Park and got to her feet. She had on a red G-string. The room was large and open, an old storage area with a wood floor and exposed brick walls. There were old desks and old chairs stacked against the far wall.

“You must be Moose,” I said to the big guy.

“And this motherfucker is Jughead,” Hawk said. “All ears, no brains.”

“What the fuck?” Murphy said. He was completely naked, wearing only what looked like a platinum bicycle chain around his neck.

“Moose already asked that,” I said.

Hawk stepped over to a chair and tossed the girl a pink robe. She was blond, petite, in her mid-twenties. She slid into the robe without a word.

“Archie know about you and Betty?” I said.

“If you aren’t cops,” Murphy said. “You two are dead.”

“Kevin, please sit down and shut up,” I said. “And please cover yourself before I get sick.”

I found a wadded-up pair of jeans and threw them at him.

“We don’t have any money here,” Murphy said. “Whoever sent you fucked up. We don’t keep cash laying around.”

“Why were you following Kinjo Heywood?” I said.

“What?” Murphy said. He wore a cocky, big-mouth grin until Hawk slapped him hard across the face.

Moose took a step forward. I simply shook my head. He stayed in place by the girl.

“I never followed him.”

“Mr. Heywood pulled a gun on Moose,” I said. “You recall that, Moose?”

Moose looked to Murphy, his mouth hanging open. He turned back to me, trying to tighten his jaw and appear mean. The girl wrapped her arms around herself and bit her lower lip. Her mascara had run down her eyes and her forehead was shiny with sweat.

“So, yes,” I said.

“Where’s the kid?” Hawk said.

“What?”

Hawk slapped Murphy across the face and then punched him in the gut. Murphy fell to his knees. Hawk gripped a lot of his greasy hair and tilted his chin upward. “Where’s the kid?”

Moose and the girl stared, openmouthed. Moose probably always had an open mouth. He looked as if you’d need a shovel to find his IQ.

“So the fuck what?” Murphy said from his knees. “So the fuck what if I was following my old girlfriend? That doesn’t mean jack shit.”

“It means jack shit when her stepson is missing a week later.”

“I don’t know nothing about that.”

“You never turn on the TV, the radio, or look at your phone?” I said. “Yes, Kevin. You’re the only one in Boston that hasn’t heard the news.”

“I didn’t take the kid.”

“But you followed Cristal,” I said.

“That’s between me and Cristal.”

Hawk lifted a hand. Murphy flinched.

Hawk stepped back and smiled.

“It looks like you have a first-class operation here, Kevin,” I said. “The glamour is overwhelming. Cecil B. DeMille of Dot Ave.”

He pushed up off his knees and stood. We let him. “I make more money in one day than you probably do all year,” Murphy said.

“Probably,” I said. “But then again, if I had talent the size of a gherkin, I wouldn’t want to broadcast it.”

The distraught girl snorted. Kevin’s face turned bright red. He rubbed at the tuft of hair under his chin and sucked in his gut.

“You want me to throw ’em out, Kev?” Moose said.

“Yeah, you do that, Moose,” I said.

“Anytime,” Hawk said.

Moose wiped his face and nodded at us. His toughness had dissipated.

We all stood together in a tightly knit group under the hot stage lights. Kevin nodded to the camera. “It’s all there, dumbasses,” he said. “Trespassing, harassment. I’ll own Kinjo Heywood’s fucking black ass.”

“And a bigot, too.”

Hawk took a short breath and exhaled. Bored, he held the .44 at belt level.

“And now destruction of property,” I said. I walked over to the tripod and ripped out the SIM card from the camera. If it had been the old days, I would have ripped the film from the camera and torn the strips from the canister. Pulling a SIM card had less gravitas.

“That’s a night’s worth of work,” Murphy said. “Do you know what this means?”

“I have spared many perverts the horror of seeing you naked?” I said. “Perhaps I have inspired them to recant and shut down the computer for the night.”

“I’m a star.”

Hawk laughed.

Moose put an arm around the young actress. She tilted her eyes up at him and tore away her shoulder. She did not seem impressed with the studio security.

“I don’t know why you’re even here,” Murphy said. “Two state cops came to see me a couple days ago. I told them the same thing. You come to me and fuck with me? That doesn’t change that I don’t know anything about Kinjo’s kid.”

“Why were you following them?” I said.

“Cristal owes me money.”

“For what?”

Murphy put a finger to the side of his nose and sniffed.

“Recent?” I said.

“Oh, yes,” he said.

“If you’re holding the kid,” I said, “it’s better to deal with us than the Feds. Kinjo might even make you a deal to walk away.”

“Do you not speak English?” Murphy said, scratching his neck. “I make flicks and do my thing. I don’t steal kids.”

“Man got to have ethics,” Hawk said.

“Yep.”

“I don’t have the kid,” Murphy said. “You see him around anywhere? You want to follow me for a while? Go check under my bed at the house? Ask my neighbors? Go ahead. You won’t find shit. I’m just trying to do my thing.”

I walked in close to Kevin Murphy. He smelled like someone had knocked over a piña colada in a locker room. His pupils were dilated to the size of quarters.

“If you’re connected, Kev,” I said. “You better hope the Feds get to you first.”

His shapeless, doughy chest had been shaved, as had his arms. Only the silly patch under his chin remained. It quivered a bit as he tried to stare me down.

I looked to the girl.

“You want to stay?”

She stared at us for a moment and then nodded. We took their movie but left.