"You speak English?" Hawk said to him.
The man didn't speak or move. He just kept looking at Hawk.
"He talked English to me," the shop owner said.
He was still holding the sawed-off bat, for which he had no use-and, in fact, never had. Hawk looked at the second white man. The white man looked back.
"Fadeyushka Badyrka?" Hawk said.
The man nodded.
"You know who I am," Hawk said.
The man shrugged.
"I was the guy protecting Luther Gillespie," Hawk said.
The man smiled faintly.
"I gonna kill you next," Hawk said.
The man continued to smile faintly.
"But not now," Hawk said.
He jerked his thumb toward the door.
"Beat it," he said.
The man shrugged slightly and walked straight past us and out the front door without ever looking at his partner on the floor. He beeped the car doors open and got in and drove away.
"I don't think we scared him," I said.
"No."
Hawk looked at the store owner.
"You been having any argument lately with Tony Marcus?" he said.
"I don't work with Tony anymore," the store owner said.
Hawk nodded.
"I gonna clean this up," he said. "But it gonna take a while. I was you I'd take the missus to a warm climate for a while."
"And what happens to my business?"
"Same thing will happen if you dead," Hawk said.
"You think they be back?"
"They be back," Hawk said. "I ain't always gonna be here."
The store owner nodded. His wife had stopped crying.
"We'll go to my sister," she said.
Her husband looked like dying might be better.
"Go there," Hawk said.
"It's in Arkansas," the store owner said.
Hawk grinned.
"Go there anyway," he said.
And we left.
In the car, I said, "That's why you didn't shoot him."
"What's why?"
"Because he wasn't scared," I said.
"Killing somebody ain't afraid to die ain't much justice," Hawk said.
"Or revenge," I said.
"I trying to get things back in balance," Hawk said. "That seem like justice to me."
"When you do it, it's revenge," I said. "When the state does it, it's society's revenge."
"Which it call justice," Hawk said.
"Exactly," I said. "Change places and handy-dandy."
Hawk grinned at me.
"Which be the justice," he said. "Which be the thief?"
"I think Shakespeare used is," I said. "Which is the justice."
"Shakespeare wasn't no brother," Hawk said.
"I knew that," I said.
30
HAWK AND I went back to my office and had a couple of beers together in the empty building, looking down from my window on the near-empty intersection.
"That didn't do much for anybody," Hawk said.
"Saved the storekeeper's ass," I said.
Hawk grunted.
"Storekeeper," he said. "Man runs a book out of there. Ukies didn't want the store, they wanted the book."
"What I haven't figured out," I said, "since this started, does Boots or whoever's running the enterprise think he can take over the crime commerce in an all-black neighborhood and staff it with white guys from Central Europe and the people will keep right on coming?"
"Maybe got a few Uncle Drobits for staffing," Hawk said. "Truth is, it don't matter. Some black people be more comfortable with a brother, but not all of them. Some black people figure you be a brother you can't be very good."
"You're so smart, why aren't you white?" I said.
Hawk nodded.
"And people need a bookie or a pimp or a guy to sell them blow, they generally need it bad enough so they do business with whoever's at the window. They want to place a bet and the only bookie there is Joseph Stalin"-Hawk shrugged-"they place the bet with Joe."
"The greater leveler," I said.
"Need," Hawk said.
"Yep."
We were quiet, sipping the beer, looking at the city-lit night.
"Now what," I said.
"We let the surviving Uke go back and tell what happened and we see what develops."
"Got anything longer-range than that?" I said.
"I thinking about taking Boots down, put a stop to the whole thing."
"And liberate Marshport?" I said.
"Yeah, sure," Hawk said. "That, too. You talk to Vinnie?"
"I've got him on standby."
"Might need him," Hawk said.
"I thought you didn't want him."
"Didn't want him protecting me," Hawk said. "Liberatin' Marshport be different."
"How Tony going to be feeling 'bout this?" I said.
Hawk stared at me.
"How come you talking funny?" he said.
"Been spending too much time with you."
"No such thing as too much time with me," Hawk said.
"So how's Tony going to react to this?" I said.
"Don't know," Hawk said.
"We don't want to fight a two-front war," I said.
" 'Less we have to."
"Think about it from where Tony's standing," I said. "He doesn't like Podolak any better than anyone else does. He's just allied so his son-in-law can feel like a big shot and his daughter won't be widowed."
"None of that my problem," Hawk said.
"So you knock off one of the Ukulele soldiers and Podolak will see it as not part of the deal."
"And Podolak get on Tony's case. Tony supposed to protect the Ukes, like Podolak s'posed to protect… what's that kid's name?"
"How could you forget," I said. "Brock Rimbaud."
"Yeah. But if I tell Tony I ain't killing no more street soldiers, Tony takes credit for it, and all be well."
"And when Podolak's ready to fall over," I said, "Tony might even help you push."
"So we don't fight Tony. We get him on our side."
"For the moment."
"Like Hitler and Stalin and the nonaggression pact," Hawk said.
"How you know about Hitler and Stalin," I said.
"Heard some white guys talking," Hawk said.
"Think Tony will buy it?" I said.
"Sure," Hawk said. "Easier than fighting us about it."
"You think?" I said.
"We hard to fight," Hawk said.
"But oh so easy to love," I said.
I went to the refrigerator and got out two more cans of beer. It was late. I stood beside Hawk and looked down at the quiet street. A yellow cab cruised down Boylston Street. Probably going to the Four Seasons.
"So if Tony buys it," I said, "all we got to do is go up to Marshport and take over the city."
"That be the plan," Hawk said.
"Any operational details?" I said. "Like, how?"
"I already give you the big picture," Hawk said. "You supposed to contribute something."
"How about I learn to say 'don't shoot' in Ukrainian?" I said.
31
WE ROLLED SLOWLY along Revere Beach Boulevard, looking for a parking spot. The spring was too early for there to be a lot of people at the beach, and Hawk pulled in half a block from the small pavilion on the beachfront where we were meeting Tony and Boots.
We sat in the car and looked at the meeting site.
"Tony buys it," Hawk said. "But he want to be sure Boots buy it, and Boots wants this meeting."
"Ty Bop and Junior," I said.
Hawk nodded.
"Leaning on the front fender of the black Escalade," he said. "Junior liable to break it."
A silver Mercedes sedan pulled up and double-parked by the pavilion. There were two Marshport police cars with it, fore and aft.
"That would be Boots," I said.
"With escort," Hawk said.
"He is the mayor of Marshport," I said.
Hawk grinned at me.
"So far," he said.
Four Marshport cops got out of the police cars and walked to the pavilion, and stood, one in each corner, and waited. Tony got out of the Escalade and walked to the pavilion with Leonard, the handsome black guy we'd met before. Leonard was wearing a dark cashmere overcoat that fitted him perfectly. You know you're with a clothes guy when he gets his overcoats made.
"Our turn," Hawk said. "Boots like to make the grand entrance."