Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me

50

I was packed, with tickets for me and Hawk on a morning flight to Miami and from Miami to Exuma International Airport in the Bahamas. I’d made arrangements with Quirk to have Cambridge PD watch Susan’s house while we were away. Earlier that night, I’d cooked filets and asparagus wrapped in bacon for Susan and Mattie. After Mattie had gone off to sleep with Pearl, Susan and I made love quietly but with no less intensity.

“Wow,” I said.

“Back at you, cowboy,” Susan said.

“I think you have that backward,” I said.

“You know,” she said, “I think you’re right.”

We were naked and under the sheets, the window cracked and letting in cool night air off Linnaean Street. It was past midnight, and I had to be up at five to meet Hawk at Logan.

“What does Hawk think?” Susan said.

“He believes he’s the perfect human specimen,” I said.

“About this trip.”

“Did you know he’s a frequent visitor to one of the outer islands?”

“He never mentioned that before.”

“There are many things Hawk hasn’t mentioned.”

Susan was quiet. She turned to me and rested her head on her forearm. Her dark hair was wild and loose, splayed against her bare back. I reached to lift up the sheet for a better view, and she swatted my hand away.

“Does he think it’s a setup?” she said.

“All we know is that we don’t know.”

“But it’s worth a try.”

“I believe that Carly Ly is there,” I said. “I believe Peter Steiner and Poppy Palmer are there. And I believe there may be other girls he’s hoarding on his little island.”

“Can you imagine?” she said. “Owning an island?”

“I once bought a square foot of land in Ireland,” I said. “I was told it would make me a lord.”

Susan was quiet again, and I reached over to brush the hair from her eyes. The overhead fan was on, and the sweat began to cool from our bodies.

“I was thinking about that hill in Santa Barbara,” she said. “Where you and Hawk would go every day. You had to drag your leg up. I wasn’t sure if you’d ever make it to the top.”

“But I did.”

“You did.”

“Hawk wouldn’t let you do this if he thought you were outmatched.”

“Nope.”

“He has friends there.”

“It is home away from home.”

“And where is his home in Boston?”

“I have absolutely no idea,” I said.

“You had to keep squeezing that rubber ball in your hand,” she said. “You had to weave back your nerve endings that were separated by the bullets.”

“I was there,” I said. “I remember.”

“Six months,” she said. “We nearly lost everything. My practice. You.”

“I’ll bring you back a straw hat,” I said.

“And what about the baby?”

“Is she the baby now?” I said. “Again?”

Susan didn’t answer. She tugged the sheet up to her chin, changing from exhibitionist to prude in a matter of minutes.

“If something happens,” she said, “I will take care of her. I will love her. But be very angry at you.”

“Thank you.”

“Because if you believe she’s Pearl, then she’s Pearl.”

“I came to the same decision just the other day,” I said. “It’s what you shrinky types call an epiphany.”

“It’s called love, dumb-dumb,” she said. “If you love her, I will, too.”

“Even if it hurts to remind you of our other baby?”

“Even then,” Susan said.

I slowly peeled the cotton sheet from her nude body and surveyed the landscape. It was quite impressive. Susan didn’t try and stop me. She turned onto her side and held her head up with her hand. I traced over her thigh and hip and curved my fingers over her breast.

“You have to be up early,” she said. “I don’t want to wear you out.”

“Dear love, for nothing less than thee.”

“Does that mean you’re not tired?”

“My strength is the strength of ten.”

“Okay,” she said. “Saddle up, Lord Spenser.”

“Yee-haw.”