CHAPTER 20
When I got to the lobby, Hawk was sitting on a bench against the wall, arms folded, feet thrust straight out, crossed at the ankles. The rain had made little impact on his polished cowboy boots. Vinnie was standing at the glass doors, looking out at the rain. He was a medium-sized guy with good muscle tone, and even features; and maybe the quickest hands I've ever seen. Hawk could catch flies with his hands. In fact, so could I. Vinnie could catch them between his thumb and forefinger. I sat beside Hawk. Vinnie kept staring out at the rain.
"Nobody following that broad," Hawk said.
"I know."
"We going to stay on her, anyway?"
"Yeah."
Hawk looked at me for a moment.
"Well, 'spite what everybody say, you not a moron."
"You're too kind," I said.
"I know. So I figure you going to follow her around for a while, see if she had any special reason for wanting you."
"And then I'll see what she does when I stop following her around," I said.
Hawk nodded.
"And then maybe we know something," he said.
"That'll be a nice change."
"Christopholous says he never had any kind of affair with her."
"She say he did."
"So we have a lie," I said.
"I'm betting it's the broad," Hawk said.
"I think she whacko."
"She seems a better bet to be lying than Christopholous," I said.
"But at least it's an allegation can be tracked. If they were romantically involved, somebody must have noticed."
"So you ask around."
"Yep. Hawk says she was hot for the Director, Lou Montana."
"And me and Vinnie stay in the area, case the Chinks strike again."
"Asian Americans," I said.
"I forgot," Hawk said.
"How much time you be spending in Cambridge?"
"Ever alert," I said, "for racial innuendo."
"Wasn't there a petition over there, keep the nigger kids out of that school on Brattle Street?"
"Of course," I said.
"Everybody signed it, but no one ever called them niggers."
"Sensitive," Hawk said.
"Absolutely," I said.
"Everybody knows words have the power to hurt."
"They do that."
Hawk grinned.
"But not like a kick in the balls," he said.
"No," I said.
"Not like that."
We were quiet. Actors and stage technicians, dressed very informally, came and went through the lobby.
"So I'll follow Jocelyn a couple of days," I said.
"Make her think I'm protecting her. And while she's rehearsing or whatever I'll ask around about her romantic interests, and you and Vinnie hang around in case the Chinks strike again."
"Good plan," Hawk said.