When I went inside, Martin Quirk was sitting at my desk with his feet up.
Spenser, I said. Boy, youre much uglier than Id heard.
Quirk let his feet down and stood and walked around to the chair in front of my desk, the one for clients, when any came to my office.
You dont get any funnier, Quirk said.
But I dont get discouraged, either, I said.
Too had, Quirk said,
I sat behind my desk. He sat in the client chair. I said, Can you whistle, loud, like doormen do?
No.
Me either. You ever wonder why that is?
No.
No, I suppose you wouldnt, I said.
I swiveled half around in my chair and pulled out a bottom drawer and put my right foot on it. I could see out the window that way, down to the corner where Berkeley crosses Boylston. There were people there in large number, carrying packages. I looked back at Quirk. He always looked the same. Short black hair, tweed jacket, dark knit tie, white shirt with a pronounced roll in the button-down collar. His hands were pale and strong-looking with long blunt fingers and black hair on the backs. Everything fit, and since Quirk was about my size, it meant he shopped the Big Man stores or had the clothes made. Hed been the homicide commander for a long time, and he probably should have been police commissioner except that nothing intimidated him, and he wasnt careful what he said.
What you got on this TV killing? he said.
Babe Loftus?
Un huh.
Nothing directly. Jill is not an open book, I said. She sort of doesnt get it that Im working for her.
She doesnt get that about us, either.
What have you got? I said.
I asked you first, Quirk said.
I know shes had a relationship with a guy named Rojack, lives out in Dover.
Stanley, Quirk said. Got a big geek of a bodyguard named Randall.
Yes, I said.
Whom you knocked on his ass in front of the Charles one morning last week.
It seemed the right thing to do, I said.
It was, Quirk said.
Jills story is she doesnt know him, and anyway hes a creep.
Tell me about him, Quirk said. What you know.
I did, everything except the detail about Wilfred Pomeroy.
Dont underestimate Randall, Quirk said when I finished. Hes bad news.
Me too, I said.
Quirk nodded, a little tiredly. Yeah, he said. Arent we all. He scrubbed along his jawline with the palms of both hands. Across Boylston Street there were three or four guys in coveralls stringing Christmas lights around Louis.
Rojack is not exactly a wise guy, Quirk said, and hes not exactly Chamber of Commerce. Hes a developer and what he develops is money. Hes enough on the wild side to have a bodyguard. He gets to go to receptions at City Hall, and Im sure hes got Joe Brozs unlisted number.
I nodded.
You want something fixed, hes a good guy to see. People he does business with are shooters, but Rojack stays out in Dover and has lunch at Lockes.
Hes dirty, I said.
Yeah, hes dirty; but almost always its secondhand, under the table, behind the back. We usually bust somebody else and Rojack goes home to Dover.
Why would he shoot Babe Loftus? I said. Quirk shrugged.
Whats the autopsy say?
Shot once, at close range, in the back, with a three fifty-seven magnum, bullet entered her back below the left shoulder blade at an angle, penetrated her heart and lodged under her right rib cage. She was dead probably before she felt anything.
Think the killers left-handed? I said.
If he stood directly behind her, Quirk said, which he may or may not have done. Even if he is, it narrows the suspects down to maybe, what, five hundred thousand in the Commonwealth?
Or maybe he was right-handed and shot her that way so youd think he was left-handed.
Or maybe he was ambidextrous, and a midget, and he stood on a box, Quirk said. You been reading Philo Vance again?
So young, I said, yet so cynical.
What else you got? Quirk said.
Thats it, I said.
You think its mistaken identity?
I dont know.
You think Rojack did it, or had Randall do it?
No.
Why not? Quirk said.
Doesnt seem his style, I said.
Outside the light was gone. The early winter evening had settled and the artificial light in storefronts and on street corners had taken hold. Nothing like colored light to spruce up a city.
Why do I think you know more than youre telling? Quirk said.
Because youve been a copper too long. Its made you suspicious and skeptical.
Ive known you too long, Quirk said.
I was about to make a devastating response when my door opened and Susan came in, bringing with her a light scent of lilac. Quirk rose and Susan came and kissed him on the cheek.
If you are going to arrest him, Martin, could you wait until hes taken me to dinner?
If being a pain in the ass were illegal, Quirk said, hed be doing life in Walpole.
Hes kind of cute, though, dont you think?
Cuter than lace pants, Quirk said.
Chapter 20
It was one of my favorite times in winter, the part of the day when it is dark, but the offices havent let out yet. All the windows are still lighted, and people are at their desks and walking about in the offices-bright vignettes of ordinary life.