Cold Service by Robert B. Parker Read Free Book Online

heavy oil paintings of the city's ancestry, who for all I knew could have been the entire Marsh dynasty. The mayor's office was on the second floor, facing the big stairwell. We went in and announced to the several blue-haired staff ladies that we wanted to see the mayor. I gave my name. Hawk smiled warmly, which seemed to fluster the closest staff member a little.
    She got up and went into the mayor's office and came out shortly with Boots Podolak behind her.
    "Spenser," he said loudly, "you son of a bitch."
    "Nice to be remembered, Boots."
    "You still on the cops?"
    "Nope. Private now."
    "Then get the fuck out of my building," Podolak said.
    He looked at Hawk.
    "And take Sambo the fuck with you."
    "Sambo," Hawk said to me.
    The blue-haired staff pretended he hadn't said that. All of them appeared to have typing to do.
    "We've come to discuss Duda and Husak," I said. "Esquire."
    "I think they both Esquire," Hawk said.
    "You think I should have said Esquires?"
    "I dunno," Hawk said.
    He looked at Podolak.
    "You think, does one Esquire cover both lawyers?" Hawk said to Podolak.
    "What the fuck are you talking about."
    "Your attorneys," I said. "Duda and Husak."
    Podolak was a tall, bony man with a sparse gray crew cut, and a thin gray 1930s movie villain moustache. He wore rimless glasses, and his arms were long. He was narrow and hard-looking. He wore no coat, and under his tan cardigan sweater an incongruous potbelly pressed out, as if he was hiding a soccer ball.
    "In the office," he said, and stepped aside so Hawk and I could walk through the door. Podolak shut the door behind us and walked the length of the vast office and sat behind a vast desk. There were four other men sitting around at the near end of the office. Podolak didn't say anything to them, nor did he introduce anyone. He took a long, thin cigar from a leather humidor and got it lit, turning it slowly in the flame of a pigskin-covered desk lighter. Hawk and I sat in a couple of chairs near his desk and watched the operation. When he was happy with the way it was burning, Boots looked at us through the cigar smoke.
    "So what's this shit about Duda-dooda?" he said.
    "You hired him and Husak to represent some Ukrainians with names I can't pronounce," Hawk said. "If I could remember them. And you tell them, make sure nobody rolls on nobody."
    "You think so, huh."
    "We do," Hawk said. "And we want to know why."
    Boots puffed his cigar for a moment, looking at Hawk, then at me.
    "Where'd you get him?" Boots said to me.
    "Bought him from a guy in Louisiana," I said. "Then came emancipation and I'm stuck with him."
    If Boots thought I was funny, he didn't show it. Which happens to me a lot.
    "So who told you I hired Duda and whatsis?" Boots said.
    The four men in the far corner of the room had stood up and were watching us.
    "Whatsis," Hawk said.
    "Well, he's full of shit, whoever he is. I need a lawyer, I don't need to go into Boston."
    "Why you think they from Boston?" Hawk said.
    Boots pulled on his cigar for a moment. Then he took it out and admired it. Then he looked straight at Hawk.
    "What I don't need," he said, "is some smart-ass fucking nigger coming in here and talking to me like he's white."
    Hawk smiled at him warmly.
    "Ah know," he said. "Ah know… and yet, here ah is. You got something going with Tony Marcus?"
    "Who the fuck is Tony Marcus?" Boots said.
    Hawk made a dismissive gesture with his hand.
    "Lemme ask you this," Hawk said. "You don't know anybody named Duda and Husak. You don't know nobody named Tony Marcus. You don't want us here. You the mayor. You got four, ah, retainers standing around down the other end of the room, lookin' terrifying. Whyn't you just throw us out?"
    "These men are Marshport police officers," Podolak said with dignity.
    "Oh, good," Hawk said. "I was afraid for a minute they be real cops."
    "You want to go to jail?" Podolak said.
    Hawk looked at me. Then he looked down the room at the four men. Then he looked at Podolak,