Part 31 (2/2)
”He will if I do what I signed on to do.”
”Get that schwartza out of jail?”
”Yes.”
”The world is a better place,” Gino said, ”with him in jail.”
”He didn't do what he's there for. I said I'd get him out.”
”And you keep your word,” Gino said.
”Yes.”
Gino nodded slowly, looking past me at the corner of the Public Garden that showed on the left at the end of the block. Then he looked at me. His eyes were pale blue and as flat as a couple of one-inch washers. Again he made the motion with his face that might have been a smile.
”I don't think the beard becomes you,” he said.
I got out of the car and watched as it pulled away and headed down Boylston. I watched it until it turned left on Charles Street and disappeared. Then I turned and went up to my office.
Chapter 43.
”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 cover-up 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 pus.h.i.+ng. Stapleton, his father, his mother, cousin Hunt and his wife Ms. Congeniality. They're not pros. One of them will break.”
”But pus.h.i.+ng 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 9mm. 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.
”f.u.c.k readiness is all,” she said. ”And f.u.c.k Shakespeare. Don't give the Gray Man a chance. Kill him as soon as you can.”
”f.u.c.k 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.
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