Swan Dive

huge Styrofoam cup of coffee in the corner. He hadn’t offered me any.
    Holt said, ”For a guy who got the shit kicked out of him last night, you’re pretty fucken chipper.”
    ”I had it coming, Lieutenant. I got drunk, then got angry at the wrong guy.”
    ” ‘Tender at the bar here, we already talked to him. He says you only had two drinks tops at his place.”
    I shook my head. ”If that was all I had, I would have been all right. But I started at like four, down in Chelsea somewhere.”
    ” Chelsea .”
    ”Right. Guinness there knows where it is, right, Guinness? That’s as far north as you’ve ever been, you told me.”
    Guinness just stared at me.
    Holt said, ”Where in Chelsea ?”
    I described the place, then took him through the rest of the odyssey, but vaguely, skipping around a little, then backing and filling.
    Holt let out a breath. Guinness muttered, ”Bullshit.”
    I said, ”What’s the problem?”
    Holt said, ”Your friends J.J. and Terdell.”
    I closed my eyes and said quietly, ”Not Hanna and Vickie?”
    Holt waited till I opened my eyes again. ”No. J.J. and Terdell themselves.”
    ”Dead?”
    Guinness said, ”You expect us to believe this is news to you?”
    Holt silenced him with a look. ”Cuddy, somebody set something up last night. We like you for it.”
    ”Set up what?”
    ”The construction project where they worked you over. Somebody hit J.J. and Terdell there last night.”
    ”How could you know where it was they worked me over?”
    Guinness said, ”Lieutenant. I gotta leave. I stay, I’m gonna clock him.”
    Holt said, ”Go.”
    When the door closed, I said, ”Where’s Dawkins?”
    ”What’s it to you?”
    ”Nothing. I just figured he’d be in on this with you.”
    ”Maybe we couldn’t reach him.”
    ”I thought he was shadowing J.J. I thought that’s how you all knew that J.J. had taken me to the construction site in the first place.”
    Holt didn’t say anything.
    I said, ”Well, it’s probably just Saturday night. Dawkins, I mean. You know, him having the weekend off and all.”
    After a few seconds, Holt said, ”You gonna stick to this pub-crawling story?”
    ”It’s no story, Lieutenant.”
    ”I already got your gun, Cuddy, remember? Now I’m going after your investigator’s license.”
    ”On what ground? You know I didn’t kill Marsh or Teri Angel. You’re also gonna find out that I spent the afternoon intoxicating myself and the evening embarrassing myself. So now two pieces of shit turn up dead in some dirt pile that’s not even in your jurisdiction. If I remember right, back from when we were discussing protection for Hanna and Vickie, you’re real concerned about the limits of your jurisdiction.”
    Holt put both of his hands flat on the table and heaved himself up from the chair. ”You get away with this, it’s only gonna be because you didn’t do it in Boston , get me?”
    ”Can I get out of here, at least?”
    Holt said, ”If the Marblehead cops don’t want you, I sure as hell don’t.”
    He opened the door and turned back to me. ”You look like shit. I hope you’re gonna clean up before the wake.”
    ”Thanks, Lieutenant, but I’m afraid they’re going to have to send J.J. and Terdell to the great beyond without me.”
    Holt looked at me kind of funny, then said, ”You don’t know, do you?”
    ”Know what?”
    He gave me a smile, a heartless, hard smile. ”Your friend, Christides the lawyer. He got up yesterday morning and ate his gun for breakfast.”

    I knocked on the front door of the house instead of the garage. Fotis answered. He didn’t want to let me in, especially the way I looked. I made him understand that I thought Eleni would want to talk with me. He told me to wait and closed the door. He came back a minute later and told me to come in.
    She was in the kitchen, sipping coffee, both hands around the cup. When she saw my condition, the tic in her eye cranked into high gear. Putting down the cup, she said something quickly to her cousin in Greek, and he left us.
    ”John, my God, your face and—”
    ”I’m all right, Eleni. Just a little fight.”
    She seemed to relax. ”You heard.”
    ”The police told me. Eleni, I’m so sorry...”
    She dismissed that tack with a flick of her hand. ”No, John, you do not be sorry. What happen here had to happen.”
    ”I don’t understand.”
    ”He told me. After you leave Friday night. He finally come to me and told me. About the Marsh animal, about