Free Double Deuce by Robert B. Parker Page A

to shake hands.
    “Oh, sure.” Jackie was jollier than the hostess at a sock hop. “You’re the Chief, of course.”
    “This isn’t the time,” Albanese said. “But we don’t appreciate a couple of hired thugs trying to do our job for us. It’s vigilante-ism.”
    “Actually,” I said, “vigilante-ism would be if the residents banded together to do your job for you. This is more like consulting-ism, I think.”
    “We the Arthur D. Little,” Hawk said, “of hired thugdom.”
    “Go ahead,” Albanese said, “be funny. I’ve asked our counsel”-he nodded at Mr. Doyle, who was looking at us sternly-“to see if there may not be some violation of statute here.”
    Jackie clicked her tape recorder on very quietly while Albanese was talking. But he heard it. He was the kind of guy who spent his life listening for the click of tape recorders and the hum of a television camera.
    Without breaking stride he said, “I think what Ms. Eagen is doing will be a major television event, and I can tell you here and now that every resource of my office will be at your disposal. Gangs are the scourge of public housing. The few bad kids give a lot of decent hardworking citizens a bad name.”
    “And drank rapidly a glass of water,” I said.
    “Excuse me?” Albanese said.
    “A literary allusion,” I said, “e.e. cummings.”
    “Don’t know him,” Albanese said.
    I smiled politely.
    We all stood without anything to say for a while and watched Marge being filmed. When they were through, she came back over to us. Harry took some film of her with Albanese. The soundwoman followed along behind although no one was talking and as far as I could see there was no sound to record.
    Then it was our turn again. Marge was going to charm us. She gave us a very big smile and the full force of her large blue eyes.
    “Now,” she said, “what are we to do with you gentlemen?”
    “We could go bowling,” I said. “And maybe pizza after?”
    She shook her head the way a parent does to willful child.
    “We’d like you to be in this piece,” she said. “Both of you.”
    Hawk and I remained calm.
    “This series will make a real contribution to the most disadvantaged among us,” she said. “I’d like to get your slant on it, two men who have bridged the racial gulf and are teamed up to try and help others bridge it.”
    Hawk turned his head and looked over his shoulder. Then he looked back at Marge Eagen. “You reading that off something?” he said.
    “You don’t believe in what you’re doing?” she said.
    Up close I could see the small crowsfeet around her eyes. It didn’t hurt her appearance. In some ways I thought it helped, made her look like a grown-up.
    “I don’t believe much,” Hawk said, “and one of the things I don’t believe is that some broad in a Donna Karan dress gonna do much to liberate the darkies.”
    “Well,” Marge Eagen said, “there’s no need to be offensive.”
    “Hell there ain’t,” Hawk said.
    Marge Eagen said, “Jackie,” and jerked her head at the van, did a brisk about-face, and marched away. Everybody except Boc, the Authority Police Chief, hustled after her. Hawk and I watched them silently.
    “Don’t pay attention to Albanese,” Boc said. “We need all the help we can get down here, and if you can keep these fucking maggots quiet, you’re not going to get any shit from us.”
    Hawk nodded. He was still looking after Marge.
    “Good to know,” he said.
    Boc turned and went after the rest of them.
    After maybe five minutes Jackie came back from the van. Her face was very tight.
    “You asshole,” she said to Hawk. “She’s yanking me out of here. I don’t even know if we’re going to do the series.”
    Hawk nodded. Jackie got her purse out of Hawk’s car, put her tape recorder in it, and went back to the van. She got in the van. It started up and pulled away. The Housing Authority car and the police car followed and Hawk and I were alone again in the middle of