Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me

39

“We can offer Grace Bennett protection,” Quirk said. “And I will personally reach out to the police in Revere about this missing kid. Jesus, Spenser. Anything else we can do for you?”

“I put on a pork roast this morning,” I said. “Could you send over a prowl car to check on it?”

Quirk didn’t respond. I stood at the open door of his office, with Captain Glass and Detective Lee Farrell seated close to his desk. Farrell had been recently reassigned to Sex Crimes. He was a slender man of medium height with blondish receding hair and a neatly trimmed mustache. I’d known him a long time.

“I’d like to interview Bennett and her sister,” Farrell said. “And all these kids Mattie has rounded up. She’s good.”

“Tenacious,” I said. “She’s tenacious.”

“And she wants to be a cop,” Glass said.

Quirk raised his eyebrows and offered a look of approval from behind his desk. “No kidding,” he said. “Tell her to come talk to me sometime. Her IQ can only improve the sooner she shakes working for Spenser.”

Glass grinned. Farrell, being a true friend, did not.

“What else do you have?” Quirk said.

I told him about the Gray Man.

“You sure?” Quirk said.

“Uh-huh.”

“Have you told Susan?” Farrell said.

“Nope.”

“Christ,” Quirk said.

“Who’s the fucking Gray Man?” Glass said.

Quirk gave her the CliffsNotes version. “Some weirdo assassin that has a hard-on for Spenser,” he said. “Shot Spenser in the back on the Weeks Bridge. Spenser fell into the river and nearly died.”

“Terrific,” Glass said. “You think he’s on the payroll of the security company?”

“I’ve never known his real name,” I said. “Or his nationality. But what I’ve gathered, he’s exactly the type they like to employ. Peter Steiner and Poppy Palmer know I’ve been making inquiries, and they’re not comfortable with anyone they can’t threaten or bribe.”

“I tried to find the old case file at the DA’s office,” Glass said. “You’ll be shocked to know it disappeared.”

“What about our records?” Quirk said.

“Not a trace,” Glass said.

“Christ,” Quirk said. He got up from his desk and walked to his window, fingering open the blinds and looking out into the parking lot. “No reason we can’t nail this pervert and let Rita Fiore sue his balls off at the same time.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” I said.

“And Poppy Palmer?” Farrell said. “What about her?”

“Rita’s suing her, too.”

“She’s the roper?” he said. “She procures the girls.”

“She’s assaults them, too,” I said. “They work as a team.”

“That’s a new one,” Farrell said. “A man and a woman pedophile team. Might be something Susan could figure out.”

“It might take all the shrinks in Harvard to make sense of those two.”

“Thank God that’s not our job,” Quirk said. “I don’t give a damn about Steiner’s money or his motivation. Or who the fuck he spends time with on the links. I want these sickos locked up.”

Quirk was a man of great clarity. Farrell and Glass stood, and she walked past me out the door.

“Sorry about Pearl,” Farrell said.

I nodded.

“How’s the new pup?” he said.

“Even more,” I said. “Stop by and meet her sometime.”

Farrell shook my hand and left. Quirk and I were alone. He looked up at me from his desk, his bricklayer hands folded before him. “Close the door.”

I did.

“Sit.”

I sat.

“This isn’t a fucking joke,” he said. “Or a goddamn game. You need to warn Susan.”

“I will.”

“She needs to know this fruit case is back,” Quirk said. “We can send some guys to watch her, too.”

I nodded.

“And don’t you dare quote me on this, Spenser,” Quirk said, lifting his eyes to me. “But if that nut job comes for you, you got to put him down fast. All that chivalry and knighthood bullshit doesn’t mean jack squat.”

I nodded. “Hawk agrees with you.”

“Me and Hawk in agreement?” Quirk said. “What’s the world coming to?”