Rough Weather Part 31

"Would they disapprove?" I said.

"I don't think so," Valerie said. "Plus, h.e.l.l, they knew. Anyone who spent time with my brother would know."

"They talk with you about it?"

Still appraising Hawk, Valerie nodded her head.

"Sure," she said. "Not, did I think he was gay? More, did I know his friends? Did he have any girlfriends? Was he happy?"

"You and your brother get along?"

"Yeah," Valerie said. "I liked him. He was really sweet. We could talk. More like having a sister than a brother, I guess. Except we didn't have to compete for dates."

"Did he date?"

"No."

"Men or women?"

"No. I don't know for sure if he ever had s.e.x with anyone," she said.

"Did he tell you he was gay?"

"Not in so many words," Valerie said. "But we both knew that we both knew, if you know what I'm saying."

"I do," I said. "How did he end up with Adelaide Van Meer?"

"School. He was a junior when she was a freshman. They got to be friends. Not boyfriend, girlfriend. Just friends. Except for me, she might have been his first close friend. Two lost souls, I guess . . ."

Valerie stopped for a moment and looked at the tabletop. Her eyes were teary, but she didn't cry.

"Poor Maurice," she said finally.

"Adelaide was lost, too?" I said.

"Yeah. She was sort of withdrawn and, like, fearful, and mad, all at the same time. Conflicted, maybe," Valerie said. "I'm not sure if she was straight." Valerie smiled and sort of shrugged. "I'm a psych major."

"No shame in it," I said.

She nodded and finished her wine and looked toward the bar.

Hawk stood and said, "Chardonnay?"

She smiled at him and nodded. He went to the bar.

"So how did it develop from friends.h.i.+p to marriage?" I said.

She shrugged.

"I guess they started going to, you know, parties together, and people started to treat them like a couple. And one day he brought her home for the weekend. I don't remember the occasion. Maybe one of those big rowing events on the Schuylkill."

Hawk returned with her wine. She smiled very brightly at him. She was a nice-looking kid in the way that rich kids can be. Nice teeth, nice skin, good body, good haircut. I was never clear how I could tell, but money always seemed to show. She drank some wine.

"Anyway, my mother and father, well, I guess, more my mother, went crazy," Valerie said. "Maurice had a girlfriend! You know?"

"Did she push him into it?"

"My mom can be a little pushy, but I don't know. I went away to school, and whatever developed developed without me."

"He didn't talk about it?" I said.

"To me? Not really. He said he felt bad for Adelaide. That she'd had a pretty bad childhood, but he never said exactly what."

"You think he married her to help her out?" I said.

"I don't know. I mean, I wasn't around. I was pretty busy here. Cla.s.ses and dating and all," Valerie said. "h.e.l.l, he was queer, she might have been a lesbian, maybe they thought they could be each other's beard. You know?"

I nodded. Hawk and I had finished our beer. Valerie was almost through her second wine. She looked at Hawk.

"Are you a detective, too?" she said.

Hawk smiled at her.

"No, ma'am, ah jess come along to carry his luggage," Hawk said.

"He doesn't seem to have any luggage," Valerie said.

"Easy job," Hawk said.

Valerie smiled again, staring at him directly now.

"You spending the night in town?" she said.

"Uh-uh," Hawk said.

"Want to buy me dinner?" Valerie said.

"How old are you?" Hawk said.

"I'll be twenty in the spring," she said.

"And I won't," Hawk said.

"So what?" Valerie said.

Hawk smiled at her again and shook his head.

"You good-looking and you nice," Hawk said. "But you too young."

"You'd be surprised," Valerie said.

"No doubt that I would," Hawk said. "And I thank you for the offer. But I be having dinner with my age mate here. He's boring, but he's boring about things I know."

She shrugged.

"No harm trying," Valerie said.

"None," Hawk said.

"Boring?" I said to Hawk.

54.

I was back in Boston, in my office, discussing with Hawk the official weekday start of the c.o.c.ktail hour. in my office, discussing with Hawk the official weekday start of the c.o.c.ktail hour.

"You don't have to wait for no d.a.m.n time," Hawk said. "You want a drink, have a drink."

"At ten in the morning?" I said.

"That when you want it, yes."

"How uncivilized," I said.

"I is of African heritage," Hawk said. "'Course I uncivilized."

"True, while I am a descendant of Irish kings."

"Which be why you wanting a drink at ten in the morning," Hawk said.

"Not always," I said.

"So what we talking about?" Hawk said.

"It's four-thirty," I said. "Half-hour to go."

Hawk shook his head.

"Weird," Hawk said.

"How about yesterday?" I said. "You wouldn't respond to a good-looking college girl who came on to you."

"Too young," Hawk said.

"She's a full-grown woman, almost twenty, anatomically correct. What's too young."

"She talked funny," Hawk said. "You know, like they all do. High voice, nasal, talk very fast. Grating."

"Well, yeah. But how much talking were you expecting?"

"She say dinner," Hawk said. "That be chitchat. She say want me to come to your room now? Be different."

"Man," I said. "I didn't know you had limits."

"Like to have s.e.x with women who was at least born when John Carlos and Tommie Smith was in Mexico," Hawk said.

"Wow," I said. "And here I am thinking you required only a pulse."

Hawk grinned.

"Also depends what else I got on my plate at the time," he said.

"Glad it's going well for you," I said.

"Yowzah," Hawk said, with the accent on the zah zah.

My phone rang. It was Bradshaw.

"I gotta see you," he said. "Now."

"Where are you?" I said.

"Wagner Motel on One twenty-eight in Burlington," he said. "Across from the mall."

"What do you need?"

"I need help," he said. "I'm in danger. You need to come right now."

"Okay," I said.

"I'm in room two-oh-three, under the name Bailey."

"Here we come," I said.

"We?"

"My a.s.sociate Hawk will be with me. Big man, black, don't panic if you see him."

"n.o.body else," he said. "No one knows I'm here."

"Mum's the word," I said.

"Hurry up," he said. "Just get here quick."