Walking Shadow

CHAPTER 18

I met Hawk in a parking lot behind the Port City Theater. It was drizzling, and the rain had made puddles on the uneven asphalt surface. Oil leaching into them made unpleasant-looking color spectrums on the surface of the dirty water. Hawk was wearing a black cowboy hat and a black leather trenchcoat, which he wore unbuttoned. He was leaning on his Jaguar, and beside him in a leather jacket and a tweed sc ally cap was Vinnie Morris.

"Vinnie," I said.

"Spenser."

"Assistance," Hawk said in his mock WASP accent, "in combating the yellow peril."

"You mention to Vinnie the fee?" I said.

"Told him he'd get what I'm getting."

"You back with Joe?" I said.

"No."

"Things are a little slow."

"Yeah. I got some dough put aside, but I'm sick of going over the dump every day, shooting rats."

"Good to keep your hand in," I said.

"Hawk tell you the deal?"

"Un huh."

"Need to know anything else?"

"Who pays for my ammunition," Vinnie said.

"I do," I said.

"It's a fringe benefit."

"Man, my career is taking off," Vinnie said.

The drizzle was becoming more insistent.

"We smart enough to get in out of the rain?" Hawk said.

"You bet," I said.

"Want coffee?"

"Pick some place we don't like," Hawk said.

"So it get shot up we won't feel bad."

"I got to meet Jocelyn Colby over here in something called the Puffin' Muffin."

"Fine."

Vinnie looked at Hawk.

"The Puffin' Muffin?" he said.

Hawk shrugged.

"Get used to it," he said.

The Puffin' Muffin, in the theater arcade, was one of the many shops in Port City designed for affluent Yankees, and located in places where affluent Yankees never went. When they did come, it was for an evening of theater at which time they were rarely hungry for muffins.

"Got a nice big picture window," Hawk said.

"Yeah."

"Let's not sit in it," Hawk said.

We took a seat against the rehabbed brick wall.

There was a counter across the back of the place and a display case full of muffins. On the walls there were pictures of muffins; the pictures were interspersed with theater posters from the Port City Stage Company. The furniture was blond. Including the muscular waitress, with her long hair gathered in a geyser on top and tied with a pink ribbon. She poured us coffee from a thermos pot.

"Is it possible to get a muffin with my coffee?" I said.

She didn't smile. People never thought I was as funny as I did.

"Blueberry, bran, corn, banana, carrot, pineapple orange, cherry, raspberry, apple cinnamon, maple nut, lemon poppy seed, oat bran, cranberry, and chocolate chip," she said.

"Corn," I said.

"Toasted or plain?"

"Plain."

"Butter or margarine?"

"Neither."

"You want jelly with that?"

"No."

"Honey?"

"No."

She looked at the other two.

"Same," Hawk said.

Vinnie nodded.

The waitress went away.

"Any sign of anyone following Jocelyn?" I said.

Hawk grinned.

"Same guy following the Greek."

"You," I said.

"Un huh."

"Nobody else."

"Nobody," Hawk said.

The waitress came back with three corn muffins and put them down in front of us. She freshened our coffee.

"Can I get you anything else?" she said.

"No, thank you," I said.

She1 nodded and ripped a check from her pad and put it facedown on the table. Vinnie passed it to me.

"For cris sake I said, "ammunition and coffee?"

"I want the full ride," Vinnie said.

"It's working out good up here, isn't it," Hawk said.

"Yeah. If people weren't trying to shoot us, we'd have gotten nowhere."

I sampled my muffin.

"Long time no corn stalk," I said.

Across the room Jocelyn Colby came in wearing full foul weather gear. She had on a long, yellow slicker, green rubber boots, and a green sou'wester with the brim turned up in front like a model in a cigarette ad. She saw me at the table and came straight over.

I introduced her to Vinnie. I could tell from her expression that she would have preferred to meet me alone. But she was a trouper.

"Have you caught him?" she said. She had big, violet eyes, with big lashes, and she knew it. She did a lot with them.

"We haven't seen him yet," I said.

The eyes widened.

"My God," she said.

"He must have spotted you."

I nodded at Hawk.

"He didn't spot me," Hawk said.

Vinnie was looking for ways to improve his corn muffin. He broke off a piece and dunked it in his coffee, and ate it.

"Any improvement?" I said.

"Still tastes like a Frisbee," Vinnie said.

"Are you sure?" Jocelyn said to Hawk.

"Yes."

"Well, he's there. I've seen him."

"When did you see him last?" I said.

"Last night, after the play. He was there, in the shadows, at the corner of my street."

I looked at Hawk. He shook his head.

"You must have missed him," I said to Hawk.

"Sho 'nuff," Hawk said, his eyes full of amusement. Jocelyn wasn't looking at Hawk. She was giving me the all-out eye treatment.

"I'm frightened," she said to me.

"Of course you are, I don't blame you. He ever threaten you?

Make any phone calls? Anything like that?"

"Yes. There've been… calls."

"What did he say?"

She shook her head.

"They were, ah, dirty. Vicious and dirty."

"Sexual threat?" I said.

"Yes. He said he was going to… do things to me."

I nodded. Hawk nodded. Vinnie was surveying the room. The waitress showed up and poured some coffee unasked into Jocelyn's cup.

"Want a muffin?" she said.

Jocelyn shook her head.

"We got bagels, you want some. Or we can make you some toast." Jocelyn shook her head.

"Frozen yogurt?"

Still studying the room, Vinnie said, "Beat it."

The waitress opened her mouth. Vinnie looked up at her. She closed her mouth and left. Jocelyn paid no attention. She was looking at me.

"How long have these threats been coming in?" I said.

"They just started. Just last night, after I went in the house, right after I saw him in the shadows."

"And could you describe him again?"

"Dark slouch hat, dark coat. He looks like the same one following Jimmy," she said.

"I'm sure it's the same man. I'll bet it's someone jealous of Jimmy and me."

"You and Christopholous are an item?"

She looked down at the tabletop. She didn't say anything.

Hawk was looking at the door, his coat open, leaning back a little in his chair. Vinnie's jacket was unzipped. His eyes ranged the room. The only people besides us were two middle-aged women in sweat clothes sharing a dish of frozen strawberry yogurt. I waited. She was silent.

"You and Christopholous?" I said.

She shook her head.

"I didn't mean to say that."

I waited.

"I can't talk about it."

I waited some more. She raised her amazing eyes toward me and gave me the full charge.

"Please," she said.

"I simply can't."

"Sure," I said.

Her eyes were very intense.

"Imploring" was how she probably thought of it.

"You will protect me?" she said.

"Of course," I said.

"We'll be there every minute."

"Could you, I mean no offense to anyone, but could you do it yourself."

"It would be my pleasure," I said.

"We'll have to take turns, in fact. But it never hurts to demand the very best."

Hawk and Vinnie both glanced at me for a moment, and then went back to looking around the room and watching the door.

"Are you on your way to the theater now?" I said.

"Yes."

"Then I'll start my shift now. I'll walk you there."

Hawk dropped a ten on top of the check.

"Big tip," Vinnie said.

"Reward for remembering all those muffins," Hawk said.

"They're coming too?" Jocelyn said.

"Just to watch," Hawk said.

"Find out what makes him the very best."

"Won't do you any good," I said.

"It's a white thing."

"Good," Vinnie said, and held the door open while Hawk went out and we followed him.