Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me

34

“Does this look like a fucking doggie day care?” Henry Cimoli said.

“I’ve been a member here since Cotton Mather invented the reverse squat,” I said. “You’ve had some questionable clients over the years.”

Hawk and I sat in Henry’s private office at the Harbor Health Club. Hawk and Pearl were playing tug-of-war with a new rope toy.

“Well, just make sure the hound doesn’t take a crap under my desk,” Henry said. “Even keeping you two bozos around, I have standards.”

Henry shook his head, left the office, and closed the door behind him. Hawk tossed the rope toy into the corner, and Pearl romped over to fetch it. She shook it with all her tiny might. Had the toy been vermin, it would be quite dead.

“Security cameras?” Hawk said.

I shook my head. “Two men,” I said. “Dark clothes and wearing masks.”

“Car plates?”

“Car didn’t have plates,” I said. “White Dodge Charger.”

“Your boys from Miami?” Hawk said.

“Probably.”

“Explain the white car.”

I nodded.

“Who are these dudes?”

I told him the little I’d learned online. A multinational security company that provided bodyguards and investigative services for heavy hitters and major corporations.

“You must be getting real close to the center of that Tootsie Pop.”

I nodded. I picked up Pearl and rubbed her ears. She seemed not to pay any attention, chawing at her toy, slobbering onto my T-shirt. I didn’t mind. Nor did she. Hawk and I were both covered in sweat.

“You need to talk to Mattie,” Hawk said.

“I know.”

“Don’t care what she says or wants,” Hawk said. “This is some dangerous shit. This ain’t about trial and error.”

I nodded. I tried not to think about how those men might’ve treated Pearl while tearing up my apartment. I’d twice checked her over for injuries but could find none.

“What’s y’all’s end game?”

“Snoop until I have enough for Rita,” I said. “And enough for the Feds.”

“Simple enough.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I wish.”

Hawk leaned back in Henry’s old wooden office chair. It was the same chair Henry had used since he’d trained me back in the dark ages. A lot of the gym had changed over the years. Better and more modern equipment, the removal and then reinstatement of the boxing ring. But Henry’s office was Henry’s office, right down to the framed pictures of famous fighters from Massachusetts. From Willie Pep to Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

“Who’s backing this motherfucker?”

“Don’t have names,” I said. “But it appears Peter Steiner has great support from some cops and dirty politicians. He definitely had the former DA deep-six the charges against him from Grace Bennett and her sister.”

“Kid was fifteen.”

I nodded.

“Wouldn’t mind being in a locked room with this Petey,” Hawk said. “Might be able to knock some sense into him.”

“I’d be careful with his friend Poppy,” I said. “I think she has the ability to crack coconuts with her thighs.”

“Not these coconuts,” Hawk said. “Mine are made out of titanium.”

“Of course they are.”

Something in the corner of the room had caught Hawk’s attention. Pearl was squatting and leaving a growing stain on Henry’s new carpet.

“I won’t tell him if you won’t.”

I found some paper towels and cleaned it up. I sat back down across from Hawk. Maybe it was my imagination, but Henry’s office still had the faint trace of cigars. In the myriad framed photos, I’d nearly missed a new picture of Henry and Zebulon Sixkill. Henry and Sixkill out fishing somewhere off the coast of Revere.

“I’ll meet you back at your office.”

“Can’t pay you,” I said.

“When you ever pay me?”

“Mattie promises to be a handful.”

“Reason I like that kid.”

I nodded, got up, and walked over to Pearl. I slipped a harness over her neck and around her skinny body.

“These people aren’t like that crew that came over from Providence.”

“Think they badder than those Ukrainians in Marshport?”

“Maybe.”

“Badder than those military fucknuts we met up with deep down in Georgia?”

“Don’t know,” I said. “Guess we’ll find out.”

Hawk nodded and reached down and picked up Pearl. He rubbed her head, and she licked his face.

“Ain’t nobody mess with my little girl.”