“Yes.”
“And Lima had plenty of chances to let that be his revenge.”
I nodded. Susan continued to rest her head on my shoulder. As I set my arm around her, I spotted Steve Rosen barreling around the corner with a rail-thin woman with a lot of blond hair and very large teeth.
Rosen walked up to me and stuck out his hand. He wore his khaki pants very high and a blue polo shirt at least a size too small. His black hair was slicked back and camera-ready.
“Nice, Spenser,” he said. “Nice job.”
I shrugged.
He introduced the woman as a very important sports journalist who covered Boston for ESPN. I introduced Susan as a very important shrink who covered Cambridge and greater Boston.
“Is he in there?” Rosen said, nodding to the door reading CHIEF.
“Yep.”
Rosen licked his lips and reached for the doorknob. I caught him by his wrist.
“Hey,” Rosen said. “Jesus.”
“You open that door and I’ll break your arm,” I said.
“And then I’ll kick your ass,” Susan said.
“This is a big day,” Rosen said, smiling. An old and close friend of the family. “This is happy, huge news. Kinjo has dedicated the game to his son. It’s being picked up by CBS now. We have the Today show live from Gillette tomorrow. I promised an exclusive here, and to be direct, this doesn’t have a fucking thing to do with you, Spenser. So let me in and talk to Nicole. I’ve known Nicole since she was nineteen years old.”
“Hard to sign checks with a broken hand,” I said.
“Hard to sit down with a broken ass,” Susan said.
I shrugged. “People from Cambridge have fancy ways of speaking.”
Rosen snorted. “You want to be paid? Who do you think will write you your check on this thing? Don’t be stupid. Open the door. Is your head that freakin’ hard?”
Susan stepped up to Rosen. They were about the same height. “You have no idea, buddy,” she said.
I tapped my skull with my knuckles.
The blond woman with the big hair and the big teeth kept smiling as if her face had frozen. Her eyes switched from me to Rosen and back.
I pulled Rosen’s fingers from the door and moved to block the entrance.
“I’ll talk to the cops,” he said. “You got no power here. I’ll get the chief fucking sideline passes.”
“He’s downstairs getting ready for a press conference,” I said. “Tell him I sent you.”
Rosen turned and huffed off. The reporter looked to both of us, openmouthed, but then nodded and smiled and followed.
“Is he just learning you’re hardheaded?” Susan said.
“Apparently so.”
“Do we have to stay any longer?”
“No.”
“Can Nicole take Akira?”
“The Pats sent a private car,” I said. “It’s waiting out back. I spoke to the driver and told them I’d be walking them out.”
“Are you okay?” Susan said.
“Dandy.”
“Something’s still bothering you about this?”
“A lot.”
“Even though Akira is home safe?”
I nodded. We sat in the hall and waited until Nicole and Akira were ready to go home. As we walked out into the daylight, pictures were made and questions shouted. Sometime in the last few hours, the rain had stopped and the sun shone very bright.
65
The next morning, Ray Heywood knocked on my office door and walked inside.
He held a large Nike gym bag in his hand and set it on the floor.
“We need you to deliver this,” he said.
“Old jockstraps?”
“A half-million dollars,” he said.
“Price has gone up on jockstraps,” I said.
“Kinjo is a man of his word,” Ray said.
I leaned back in my office chair. “He promised all five million.”
“You don’t think your guy will be happy with this?” he said, smiling. “Isn’t he wanted by the cops?”
“Yep.”
“So this should help him get out of town.”
“Sure.”
Ray was still standing. He shifted from one leg to another. He was wearing a gray rollneck sweater with a matching scally cap. A large diamond glinted from his right earlobe.
“You’ll be paid, man,” Ray said.
I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my desk. I put my right hand to my face and rubbed my jaw. My contemplative look was stunning.
“We straight?”
I reached out and closed my morning paper. I covered the top of my fresh large coffee with the plastic lid. I looked right up at Ray Heywood and said, “Nope.”
“Nope?” he said. “What do you mean fucking ‘nope’?”
“I mean I don’t deliver bounties,” I said. “I agreed to bring back Akira. Akira has been brought back.”
“To his mother, man,” Ray said, snorting. “Shit. You should have waited until Kinjo flew back. Do you work for Nicole or for us?”
“Neither,” I said. “Our business is done.”
Ray bit in his cheek. He started to turn around and then caught himself. He turned to me with his index finger outstretched. “I see how it is. Now you’re through with us. Don’t need shit from the Heywood brothers anymore.”
I tilted my head and nodded a bit. “Only one thing.”
Ray crossed his fat arms across his fat body. “What’s that?”
“You were with Kinjo the night Antonio Lima was killed.”
Ray’s eyes wandered over my face. He stared at me for a while and then broke the glance and shook his head with disgust. “What are you trying to say?”
“Why would you keep on paying Lela Lopes and not tell Kinjo?”
“’Cause that’s what I do,” he said. “I look out for my brother so he can keep his head right for the game. And that’s all I need you to do, is look out for us and pay off this piece of shit like we agreed.”
“You shot Antonio Lima,” I said. “Didn’t you?”
“Bullshit.”
“You never showed up in the reports.”
“’Cause I wasn’t there.”
“Kinjo had three men with him at the club,” I said. “Sometime later, that third man disappeared from the stories of Kinjo and his teammates. A few witnesses remembered but thought you were another player. Why wouldn’t he tell police you were with him?”
Ray looked at me for a while. I leaned back in my chair and waited. It was a beautiful day on Berkeley Street, and the sunlight filled all of my office.
“You crazy.”
“Sure,” I said. “But that’s beside the point.”
Ray shook his head some more but did not deny it. “Will you take the money?”
“No.”
“How will the man get paid?”
“That’s your problem,” I said.
“Must be nice to be blameless, man,” he said. “Spotless and clean.”
“Nobody is clean in this,” I said.
Ray picked up the Nike bag and left in a huff. He didn’t even bother to shut the door behind him.
I reached for my coffee, removed the lid, and watched the steam roll out. I opened the newspaper and resumed reading the argument between Arlo & Janis.
66
I never knew, nor ever asked, if the bounty was delivered. It took more than two months for my invoice to be paid in full by Steve Rosen Enterprises. I searched within his envelope for a thank-you card or hair-styling tips but came up empty.
It was late November, Thanksgiving week, and I left my office for the Harbor Health Club. I changed in the locker room and walked out to find Z and Henry Cimoli wearing identical white golf shirts with the club logo.
I smiled.
“Don’t say shit, Spenser,” Henry said.
I lifted up my hands. I wore an old pair of blue running shorts and a gray sweatshirt cut off at the elbows and neck. “I was about to compliment you both on the professional attire,” I said.