Free Promised Land by Robert B. Parker Page B

fact do very well. I have.“
    ”Me paternalistic? Don’t be absurd. Eat your steak and shut up or I’ll spank you.“

Chapter 12
    After lunch we took coffee on the terrace by the pool, sitting at a little white table made of curlicued iron shaded by a blue and white umbrella. It was mostly kids in the pool, splashing and yelling while their mothers rubbed oil on their legs. Susan Silverman was sipping coffee from a cup she held with both hands and looking past me. I saw her eyes widen behind her lavender sunglasses and I turned and there was Hawk.
    He said, ”Spenser.“
    I said, ”Hawk.“
    He said, ”Mind if I join you?“
    I said, ”Have a seat. Susan, this is Hawk. Hawk, this is Susan Silverman.“
    Hawk smiled at her and she said, ”Hello, Hawk.“
    Hawk pulled a chair around from the next table, and sat with us. Behind him was a big guy with a sunburned face and an Oriental dragon tattooed on the inside of his left forearm. As Hawk pulled his chair over he nodded at the next table and the tattooed man sat down at it. ”That’s Powell,“ Hawk said. Powell didn’t say anything. He just sat with his arms folded and stared at us.
    ”Coffee?“ I said to Hawk.
    He nodded. ”Make it iced coffee though.“ I gestured to the waitress, ordered Hawk his iced coffee.
    ”Hawk,“ I said, ”you gotta overcome this impulse toward anonymity you’ve got. I mean why not start to dress so people will notice you instead of always fading into the background like you do.“
    ”I’m just a retiring guy, Spenser, just my nature.“ He stressed the first syllable in retiring. ”Don’t see no reason to be a clotheshorse.“ Hawk was wearing white Puma track shoes with a black slash on them. White linen slacks, and a matching white linen vest with no shirt. Powell was more conservatively dressed in a maroon-and-yellow-striped tank top and maroon slacks.
    The waitress brought Hawk his iced coffee. ”You and Susan having a vacation down here?“
    ”Yep.“
    ”Sure is nice, isn’t it? Always like the Cape. Got atmosphere you don’t usually find. You know? Hard to define it, but it’s kind of leisure spirit. Don’t you think, Spenser?“
    ”I’ll tell you if you’ll tell me.“
    ”Susan,“ Hawk said, ”this man is a straight-ahead man, you know? Just puts it right out front, hell of a quality, I’d say.“
    Susan smiled at him and nodded. He smiled back.
    ”Come on, Hawk, knock off the Goody Two-shoes shtick. You want to know what I’m doing with Shepard and I want to know what you’re doing with Shepard.“
    ”Actually, it’s a little more than that, babe, or a little less, whichever way you look at it. It ain’t that I so much care what you’re doing with Shepard as it is I want you to stop doing it.“
    ”Ah-ha,“ I said. ”A threat. That explains why you brought Eric the Red along. You knew Susan was with me and you didn’t want to be outnumbered.“
    Powell said from his table, ”What did you call me?“
    Hawk smiled. ”Still got that agile mind, Spenser.“
    Powell said again, ”What did you call me?“
    ”It is hard, Powell,“ I said to him, ”to look tough when your nose is peeling. Why not try some Sun Ban, excellent, greaseless, filters out the harmful ultraviolet rays.“
    Powell stood up. ”Don’t smart-mouth me, man. You wising off at me?“
    ”That a picture of your mom you got tattooed on your left arm?“ I said.
    He looked down at the dragon tattoo on his forearm for a minute and then back at me. His face got redder and he said, ”You wise bastard. I’m going to straighten you out right now.“
    Hawk said, ”Powell, I wouldn’t if I was you.“
    ”I don’t have to take a lot of shit from a guy like this,“ Powell said.
    ”Don’t swear in front of the lady,“ Hawk said. ”You gotta take about whatever he gives you ’cause you can’t handle him.“
    ”He don’t look so tough to me,“ Powell said. He was standing and people around the pool were beginning to