“Can’t you simply turn over what you have to Rita and her big law firm,” Susan said. “And let them get Ellis Alves out of jail?”
“I have knowledge. I have no evidence.”
“You know that the witnesses against Alves are cousins of Clint Stapleton,” she said. “You know that Clint Stapleton was the victim’s boyfriend. You know that that State Police Detective...”
“Tommy Miller.”
“Tommy Miller was involved in some kind of coverup and then was shot when you were threatening to find out what it was. You know that a man shot you, to prevent you from looking further.”
“And I know who it was,” I said. “But none of that proves that Alves was framed, and so far there is no demonstrable connection between the Gray Man and the Stapleton family.”
“But you know they hired him, don’t you? You know that you were shot right after you confronted Clint Stapleton.”
“I don’t think I can get a court to just take my word for it,” I said. “I think I have to be able to prove it. Especially with a guy like Alves. Even Gino Fish thinks the world is a better place with Ellis in jail.”
“So how can you prove it?”
“Keep pushing. Stapleton, his father, his mother, cousin Hunt and his wife Ms. Congeniality. They’re not pros. One of them will break.”
“But pushing them makes you vulnerable to the Gray Man.”
“So I’ll have to deal with him first.”
“You think you can find him through this lawyer?”
“Yes.”
“You have to do it alone?”
“The goal is to decommission the Gray Man. How is not as important.”
“Hawk would help you, and Vinnie. Chollo would come if you asked him.”
I nodded. We were lying in bed together in Susan’s bedroom. Pearl was draped diagonally across the foot, having been but recently allowed back in. The room was dark, lit only by the odd tangential light of the mercury street lamps on Linnaean Street.
“You’re going to do it alone, aren’t you?”
Susan’s head was on my shoulder, my right arm was around her. A Browning 9-mm. semiautomatic pistol lay unholstered right beside the alarm clock on the table next to the bed.
“We’ll see,” I said.
“Is it like being thrown from a horse? You have to get right up and ride it again so you won’t be scared?”
“Something like that, maybe.”
“Are you afraid?”
“It’s not a question I ask myself,” I said. “It’s sort of like flying. Most people I know, in fact, are a little afraid of flying. But you fly anyway because life’s too complicated if you don’t, and you don’t pay much attention, unless you’re phobic, to whether in fact you are afraid.”
“Do you intend to kill him?”
“I guess that’s up to him,” I said.
“You plan to give him a chance to surrender?”
“I’m not sure what I’m going to do, Suze. Some things become self-evident as they develop. Readiness is all.”
Susan raised up on her elbow and put her face very close to mine. Her voice was very soft, and very fierce.
“Fuck readiness is all,” she said. “And fuck Shakespeare. Don’t give the Gray Man a chance. Kill him as soon as you can.”
“Fuck Shakespeare?”
“And the whole English Renaissance for that matter,” Susan said.
“And you a Harvard grad?” I said. “A resident of Cambridge?”
“This isn’t some sort of knightly errand,” Susan said. “This is your life, our life. Bring Hawk with you, and Vinnie. Kill him on sight.”
“I’ll try to do it the best way I can,” I said.
Susan settled back down with her head on my shoulder again. We were quiet.
“Yes,” Susan said finally, “you will. Which is the way you should do it.”
Pearl got off the bed and went purposefully to the kitchen, where I could hear her lapping water from her dish.
“Have you noticed that I have no clothes on,” Susan said.
“This was brought to my attention quite forcefully,” I said. “About an hour ago.”
Susan ran her forefinger along the line of my biceps.
“I suppose, since you’ve been wounded, and since you are not as young as you were when we first met, that bringing it forcefully to your attention again would be too much.”
“Probably,” I said. “On the other hand, it seems a shame to waste all that nudity. Maybe we should fumble around a little and see what develops.”
Susan reached over and closed the bedroom door.
“Pearl won’t like being shut out,” I said.
“It’ll only be for a little while.”
“Maybe it’ll be a long while,” I said.
“One can only hope.”
I heard Pearl return to the closed door and snuffle a little, and sigh and lie down against it. She seemed to have figured out that there were times when we had to be alone. And accepted it philosophically.
“Well, for heaven’s sake,” Susan whispered. “Something seems to be developing already.”
“Strong,” I said. “Like a bull.”
Susan giggled a little bit.
“The resemblance ends there,” she said.