Early Autumn Part 21

"It scared me."

"I don't blame you. If you're not used to it, it's disturbing," I said. "In fact it's sort of disturbing even if you are used to it."

Paul was looking out the window.

"You change your mind," I said. "You want to stay with Susan for a while till I get this straightened out?"

"No. I want to go with you."

"Susan wouldn't mind," I said.

"Yes, she would," Paul said.

I didn't say anything. We went out Rutherford Avenue, across the Prison Point Bridge, and out onto Memorial Drive on the Cambridge side of the river. There were joggers on the riverbank and racing sh.e.l.ls on the river, and a rich mix of students and old people walking along the drive. Past the Hyatt Regency I went around the circle and up onto the BU Bridge.

"Where we going?" Paul said.

"To see Harry Cotton," I said.

"He's the man Buddy said."

"Yes. He's a bad man."

"Is he a crook?"

"Yes. He's a major league crook. If your father knew him, your father was in deep."

"Are you going to do the same to him?"

"As Buddy?"

"Yes."

"I don't know. I just go along and see what happens. He's a lot harder piece of material than Buddy. You sure you want to come?"

He nodded. "There isn't anybody else," he said.

"I'm telling you, Susan..."

"She doesn't like me," he said. "I want to stay with you."

I nodded. "We're stuck with each other, I guess."

CHAPTER 25.

Harry Cotton's car lot was up Commonwealth Avenue, near the old Braves Field, in an old gas station that no longer sold gas. There were colored lights strung around the perimeter of the lot and around the useless gas pumps. The overhead door to the repair bay was down. It had been painted with various paints in the gla.s.s panes. There was no sign to identify the business, just eight or ten lousy-looking cars without license plates jammed into the lot. There was no one on the lot. But the door to the office side of the gas station was open. I went in. Paul came in behind me.

In the office there was an old walnut desk, a wooden swivel chair, a phone, and an overhead light with a dozen dead flies inside the globe. There was an ashtray in the shape of a rubber tire full of cigarette b.u.t.ts on the desk. In one corner of the room a Chow with snarled hair and a gray muzzle raised his head and looked at me as I came in.

At the desk talking on the phone was Harry Cotton. Harry went with the office. He was scrawny and potbellied, with long dirty fingernails and yellow teeth. His hair was about the color of a Norway rat and parted just above his left ear. It was a lot thinner than a Norway rat's and while he tried to swoop it up and over, it didn't make it very well, and a lot of pale scalp showed through. He was smoking a menthol cigarette, which he held between the tips of his first two fingers. Apparently he always held his cigarette that way because the two fingers were stained brown from the top joint to the tip. To the right of the Chow a door opened into the maintenance bay. It was empty except for a metal barrel and three folding chairs. Three men sat on the folding chairs around the barrel playing blackjack. They were drinking Four Roses out of paper cups.

Harry hung up the phone and looked at me. He needed a shave. The stubble that showed was gray. He was wearing a red flannel s.h.i.+rt and over it a long-sleeved gray sweat s.h.i.+rt tucked into black sharkskin pants with s.h.i.+ny knees. His belt was too long and an extended length of it stuck out from his belt loop like a black tongue. He wore black high-top sneakers. With his feet up on the desk, his white s.h.i.+ns showing above sagging black socks, he looked like a central casting version of f.a.gin and he was worth maybe three and a half million dollars.

"What do you want?" he said. The dog stood and growled. Paul moved a little more behind me.

I said, "I'm in the market for a rat farm. Everyone says you're the man to see."

"Are you trying to kid me," he said. His voice was shrill and flat.

"Me?" I said. "Kid you? A big shot like you? Not me. The boy here just asked me to define cla.s.s and I thought it would be easier to bring him over here and show him."

The three card players in the garage looked up. One of them got up and moved to the office door. I wasn't sure he could fit through it.

"You want to get your a.s.s kicked," Harry said, "you come to the right place. Ain't he, Sh.e.l.ley? Ain't he come to the right place?"

From the doorway Sh.e.l.ley said, "That's right. He come to the right place." Sh.e.l.ley looked about the same size and strength as a hippopotamus. Probably not as smart, and certainly not as good-looking. His hair was blond and wispy and hung over his ears. He wore a flowered s.h.i.+rt with short sleeves and his arms were smooth and completely hairless. He burped quietly and said, "f.u.c.king anchovies."

"I'm trying to locate a guy named Mel Giacomin," I said.

"You see him here?" Harry said.

"No."

"Then buzz off."

"I heard you'd know where he is."

"You heard wrong."

"Listen up, Paul," I said. "You want to learn repartee. You're in the presence of a master."

Sh.e.l.ley frowned. He looked at Harry.

Harry said, "Do I know you?"

"Name's Spenser," I said.

Harry nodded. "Yeah. I know you. You're the one cleaned out Buddy Hartman and that woodchuck he brought with him a while ago."

"That's me," I said. "The woodchuck's name was Harold, I think. He had a blackjack."

Harry nodded. He was looking at me while he dragged hard on the short cigarette, making a long glowing coal reach almost to his fingers. He dropped the b.u.t.t on the floor and let it smolder. He exhaled slowly, letting the smoke seep out of each corner of his mouth.

"I'm one of the guys that threw one of your people in the river off the Ma.s.s. Ave. Bridge too," I said.

Sh.e.l.ley was chewing tobacco. He spit tobacco juice on the floor behind him.

"What makes you think it was one of mine?" Cotton said.

"Aw, come on, Harry. We both know they were yours. We both know you're tight with Mel Giacomin and you were doing him a favor."

Harry looked at Paul. "Who's the kid?"

"He's a vice cop, undercover," I said.

"That Giacomin's kid?"

I put my hands in my hip pockets. I said, "What's your connection with Giacomin, Harry?"

"I got no connection with Giacomin," Harry said. "And I don't want you sticking your nose into my business. You unnerstand?"

"Understand, Harry. With a D. Un-der-stand. Watch my lips."

Harry's voice got a little shriller. It sounded like chalk on a blackboard.

"Shut your f.u.c.king mouth," he said. "And keep your f.u.c.king snoop nose out of my f.u.c.king business or I'll f.u.c.king bury you right here, right out front here in the f.u.c.king yard I'll bury you."

"Five," I said. "Five f.u.c.k's in one sentence, Paul. That's colorful. You don't see color like that much anymore."

The other two card players were standing behind Sh.e.l.ley. They weren't Sh.e.l.ley, but they didn't look like tourists. Harry took out his handkerchief and blew his nose. He examined the results, then folded the handkerchief up and stuffed it back in his right pants pocket. Then he looked at me.

"Sh.e.l.ley," he said. "Throw the b.u.m the f.u.c.k out, and make it hurt." There was a faint touch of pink on his cheeks.

Sh.e.l.ley spit another batch of tobacco juice on the cement floor behind him and took a step toward me. I took my gun out of its hip holster and pointed it at him.

"Stay right there, Sh.e.l.ley. If I put a hole in you, the s.h.i.+t will seep out and you'll weigh about ninety-eight pounds."

Behind me I heard Paul breathe in.

"Harry," I said. "I can see you out of the corner of my eye. If your hands go out of sight under the desk, I'll shoot you through the bridge of your nose. I'm very good with this thing."

Everyone was still. I said, "Now what was your connection with Giacomin, Harry?"

"Go f.u.c.k yourself," Harry said.

"How about I shoot off one of your earlobes?"

"Go ahead."

"Or maybe one of your kneecaps?"

"Go ahead."

We were all quiet. The Chow had stopped growling and was sitting on his haunches with his jaw hanging and his purple tongue out. He was panting quietly.

"Paul," I said. "You see before you an example of the law of compensation. The little weasel is ugly and stupid and mean and he smells bad. But he's tough."

"You'll find f.u.c.king out how tough I am," Harry said. "You may as well stick that thing in your mouth and pull the trigger. 'Cause you're a dead man. You unnerstand that. I'm looking at a dead f.u.c.king man."

"On the other hand," I said to Paul. "I am handsome, good, intelligent, and sweet-smelling. And much tougher than Harry. Let's go."

Paul went out the door. I backed out after him. The Bronco was right in front of the station. "Go around," I said, "and go fast. Get in the other side and crouch down."

He did what I told him and I followed, backing, my gun steady at the open door. Then we were in the car and out of the lot, and heading toward Brighton on Commonwealth Avenue.

Beside me Paul was very white. He swallowed several times, audibly.

"Scary," I said.

He nodded.

"Scared me too," I said.

"Did it really?" he said.

"Sure. Still does. But there's nothing to be done about it. Best just to go ahead with your program. Being scared is normal, but it shouldn't change anything."

"You didn't seem scared."

"Best not to," I said.

"Why would he let you shoot him? If he's doing something with my father, he must really want to keep it quiet"

"Maybe. Or maybe he's just stubborn. Won't be pushed. He didn't get to be as big a deal in this town as he is by being a piece of angel cake. Even garbage has pride sometimes. Maybe you need to have more if you're garbage."

I U-turned where Commonwealth curves off toward BU and headed back downtown.

"What did you get out of that?" Paul asked.

"Found out a little," I said.

"What?"

"Found out that your father's connection to Harry Cotton is worth covering up."

"Maybe that other guy was lying," Paul said.

"Buddy? No. If he lied, it wouldn't be like that. If Cotton ever heard that Buddy had fingered him, he'd have Buddy killed. Buddy would lie to get out of trouble. But not that way."

"If that guy Cotton is so rich and everything," Paul said, "why is he so junky?"

"I suppose he figures it doesn't attract attention," I said. "Maybe he's just thrifty. I don't know. But don't let it fool you."