Rough Weather: A Spenser Novel

aware that, in those rare moments when you are perfectly serious, you lose your accent.”
    “I am,” Hawk said.
    Susan smiled.
    “So if she knows all this stuff, and won’t tell you, then doesn’t that mean she’s complicit?”
    “Be my guess,” I said.
    “But exactly what is she complicit in?” Susan said.
    “I don’t know for sure,” I said. “And it’s all guesswork and intuition. The courts do not welcome intuition.”
    “But …” Susan said.
    “But there’s an awful lot of money in the mix.”
    “Cherchez la bread,” Hawk said.
    “Wow,” I said. “Multicultural, too.”
    “But,” Susan said. “Why all this huge huzzarah on the island? Kidnapping, shootings, and all that?”
    “I been thinking about that, too,” I said. “When I’m not admiring Hawk’s linguistic range. I tried it from the other end, so to speak. If the deal on the island is so not Rugar, then who is it? If one were to throw a kidnapping, who would throw one like that?”
    “Heidi,” Susan said.
    I looked at Hawk.
    “See,” I said. “Not just another pretty face.”
    “No,” Hawk said. “Got nice legs, too.”
    “It is just the kind of overproduced extravaganza that people like Heidi would throw,” Susan said. “Maybe she didn’t expect all the killing. Certainly she couldn’t have planned the hurricane. But …”
    “Like a kidnapping thrown by a party planner,” Hawk said.
    “Yes,” Susan said.
    “But why would Rugar go along with it?” I said.
    “Money?” Susan said.
    “Always a good guess,” I said. “But it is so against his nature.”
    Hawk nodded.
    “Had to be something in addition to money,” Hawk said.
    “And what would be in addition to money?” Susan said.
    “And you a shrink,” Hawk said.
    “Love,” I said.
    Hawk nodded. Susan nodded, too. We were silent.
    “Rugar and Heidi?” Susan said after a while.
    I turned my palms up. Hawk said nothing.
    “Nothing is proven,” Susan said.
    “But some of it can be,” I said. “Sooner or later we’ll find out if Heidi knew Rugar. Sooner or later we’ll get a look at her finances. Sooner or later we should be able to find out if Adelaide was abused and by whom.”
    “If she’s alive,” Hawk said.
    I nodded.
    “If she’s alive,” I said.
    “You think she is?” Susan said.
    “I don’t know that she isn’t,” I said.
    Susan nodded. She cut up a leaf of romaine lettuce and ate part of it, and drank some wine.
    “Do you think Rugar killed Bradshaw?”
    “Who in this mess more likely?” I said.
    “Tony Marcus?”
    “Nope, I believe him. I think he had Ty-Bop ace Leonard to sever himself from the whole business, and to remind his employees of the zero-tolerance rule.”
    “Why would Rugar kill Bradshaw?”
    “Don’t know. But if there’s a connection back to Bucharest, we might be able to find out,” I said.
    “If Heidi is in collusion with Rugar,” Susan said, “and if she tells him the truth, Rugar is smart enough to know that youhave a handle on this whole thing, and that eventually you may be able to unravel it.”
    “Yes,” I said.
    “And he must know you well enough to know that you will stay with it, however long it takes.”
    “Yes.”
    “Which means he may decide it is time to take decisive action.”
    “Yes,” I said.
    “Why am I hanging around?” Hawk said.
    “The two of you are formidable,” Susan said.
    Hawk and I both nodded.
    “But so is Rugar,” she said to me. “He almost killed you once.”
    “I wasn’t around when that happened.”
    “True.”
    “I am around now,” Hawk said.
    “Yes,” Susan said.
    “Him against both of us?” Hawk said. “I like our chances.”
    Susan nodded slowly. She looked at me. I smiled and nodded. She looked back at Hawk.
    “And you’ll continue to hang around,” she said.
    “I will,” he said.
    “Until it’s over,” she said.
    “Until there’s no need for my skill set,” Hawk said.
    The waiter brought Susan a second glass of wine. For Susan, that was a binge. She sipped some of it and put the glass down.
    “Hawk,” she said, “in regard to me having nice legs?”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Thanks for noticing.”
    Hawk grinned at her.
    “My pleasure,” he said.

 
    I was reading
the morning
Globe
in my office with my feet on the desk. I had made coffee and was drinking some. It was a bright day outside, temperature in the forties, and the sun reflecting off the windows of the office tower across the street made my office