Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me

21

Susan was at my apartment when I returned to the Navy Yard. She had Pearl out in the common area, sniffing the grass and getting used to going outside to take care of her business. After the puppy made a deposit, Susan bestowed praise befitting a Nobel Prize winner.

“You know,” I said, “she’s accomplished that task many times before.”

“Not with me,” she said.

“She hasn’t been locked up long,” I said. “I’ve only been gone a few hours.”

Susan scooped up Pearl in her arms and kissed her on the nose. “Too long for the baby.”

“Now she’s the baby?”

“She’s precious,” she said. “I just don’t know if she’s Pearl.”

I nodded and followed them up to my apartment on the second story of what had been a shipping warehouse. I refilled Pearl’s water dish and made a vodka gimlet for Susan and scotch for me, with lots of ice and lots of soda. Pearl had brought home the lost squeaky toy from my office and ran around in circles, tossing the toy up and down and growling at it.

“So,” Susan said, resting a hip against my kitchen counter. “Florida?”

“Boca Raton,” I said. “Steiner has a tropical retreat near there.”

“When?”

“We leave tomorrow morning.”

“We meaning—?”

“Me and Mattie.”

“I had assumed you and Hawk,” Susan said. “Or you and me.”

“Sorry,” I said. “This is all business.”

“I don’t mean to slight Mattie,” Susan said, “but Hawk is often a better companion in your line of work.”

“I investigate,” I said. “I don’t break glass unless there’s an emergency.”

“And you’re taking Mattie because this is her case?” Susan said.

“I’m coming along in an advisory role only,” I said.

“And in case she needs to break the glass.”

I nodded. I drank some scotch and walked to the freezer to fill a plastic baggie with ice. My hand had swollen into a fist that looked like I’d inflated it at the thumb.

“It’s awfully nice of you to foot the bill,” Susan said.

“There’s money left over from L.A.,” I said. “Gabby Leggett’s mother has been most grateful.”

“As she should be,” Susan said. “I heard Gabby’s doing much better. Back home with her family and taking therapy.”

Susan squatted to the ground and snatched away Pearl’s toy while managing not to slosh her drink. She tossed it far over the couch and Pearl chased it with much pep and vigor.

“Has Mattie ever been on a trip like this?” Susan said.

“Mattie has never left Massachusetts,” I said. “The farthest south she’s been has been Braintree on the Red Line.”

Susan nodded. “So there’s that, too.”

“We’re going to stay at the old hotel at the Boca Raton Resort,” I said. “Not a bad place to broaden her horizons. It will be good for her to travel. See the world outside the Commonwealth.”

“Sure you don’t need a sexy Jewish shrink on the trip as an adviser?”

“Quick trip,” I said. “I hope. I’ll drop the pup with Janet before our flight.”

Susan twisted her mouth and closed one eye, contemplating the situation for the next few days. “Or,” she said.

I drank some scotch. I leaned against the kitchen counter alongside Susan and waited.

“Maybe she could stay with me.”

“The Puppy with No Name.”

“Just for a few days,” she said. “Right?”

“The puppy howls when she’s in her crate,” I said. “There is much weeping and gnashing of teeth. What will your patients think?”

Susan set down her drink and reached for Pearl. She cradled the pup on her back up close to her breast. Puppy Pearl rewarded Susan with lots of kisses on the nose and eyes. Susan laughed and did not try to stop her.

“Fuck ’em,” she said.