Swan Dive

was broke ‘cause of the way the lights from the yards across there didn’t shine off it. I brought one of them, the Guinness guy was with you yesterday morning, I brought him up to twelve-oh-two and let him in. He told me to stay outside, and I did, but I could see the girl, down by the bed there.” Patch swung his index finger left to right from the bed up to the wall near the closet door. ”So much blood and the way she was lying, you could tell she was dead.”
    I walked around the room one more time. It wasn’t telling me anything. I thanked Patch and left.

I got back to the condominium about 4:00 p.m. My office answering service gave me the same two messages that my home tape machine had. Hanna Marsh and J.J. Braxley. I called Hanna first at the Swampscott number.
    ”Hello?”
    ”Hanna, this is John Cuddy, returning your call.”
    ”Oh, thank you. Two men come here to see me.”
    ”Who?”
    ”Two black men. They say that Roy was in business with them.”
    Here we go. ”When was this?”
    ”This morning. Before lunch.”
    ”What did they want?”
    ”They want something they said Roy had. They didn’t say the drugs, but I knew that was what they meant. I told them I knew nothing, I was not with Roy then or before even. The man with kind of funny hair just smiled. The other, he didn’t say nothing but he smelled so bad.”
    ”Did they threaten you?”
    ”No. Well, no, they didn’t make to hit me or nothing. I looked through the window when they ring the bell, so I send Vickie upstairs where they can’t see her.”
    Out of sight wasn’t exactly out of mind. ”What did they do?”
    ”Nothing I could tell the police or anybody. Just that they wanted the—the smiling one called it ‘the material’—the material back or else they would have to ‘pursue other alternations’ or something like that.”
    ”Hanna, listen. If they’re willing to visit you in broad daylight, they’re not planning on doing anything just yet. They also probably expected you to call me, which means they’ll want to give me time to find the drugs for them.”
    ”So you think Vickie and I are safe?”
    ”For a while, anyway. Still, better keep Vickie around you a little closer than usual, okay?”
    ”Okay. John?”
    ”Yes?”
    ”I thank you for helping us, but please don’t get hurt again.”
    ”Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.”
    I rang off and dialed the number J.J. had left. A crusty voice said, ”Yeah?”
    ”Can I talk with J.J. Braxley?”
    ”Who want him?”
    ”The guy he called.”
    ”J.J., he call lotsa folk.”
    It didn’t sound like Terdell, so I said, ”Look, pal, tell you what. You tell J.J. that the guy he wanted to talk to spoke to you and you fucked it up. Or I can mention it to J.J. the next time I see him.”
    ”You lookin’ to end up—”
    ”Because I’m pretty sure he’ll know it was you, since he really needs to talk to me and he left me this number to call, which means he probably knows that you’re always around to answer it.”
    Some hesitation, then barely civilly, ”He got the number you at?”
    ”He’s got two of them. Let him guess which one’ll be good for fifteen more minutes.”
    ”Hey, I don’t—”
    I hung up on him. No more than five minutes later, the telephone rang.
    ”This is John Cuddy.”
    ”Mon, you think you a pretty slick dude.”
    ”Let’s just say I’m not too impressed by the quality of your staff.”
    ”My staff, huh? My staff Terdell, he like to know exactly what happen last night.”
    ”Hard to say. I was delirious.”
    ”Terdell, he not too smart to start with. Last night didn’t improve things none.”
    ”They can do wonders nowadays with learning disabilities.”
    ”Oh, mon. Two quality players like you and me, we shouldn’t be all the time fighting. We got lots of things to talk about, be beneficent to both of us.”
    ”I guess I wouldn’t have called last night so beneficent.”
    ”My mistake. Don’t like to admit to such things generally, but I approach you all wrong. Didn’t realize your depth.”
    ”Why don’t we cut the crap, all right? I’ve got other calls to make.”
    ”I expect you do at that. I want another meet, try a different approach this time.”
    ”What about?”
    ”I tell you when I see you.”
    ”You’re wasting my time, J.J.”
    ”You pick the time and the place. And I guarantee it won’t be no waste.”
    ”Okay. Half an hour. Bar on Boylston Street called J.C. Hillary’s.”
    ”I be