Susan was quiet.
“He hasn’t got any strengths,” I said. “He’s not smart or strong or good-looking or funny or tough. All he’s got is a kind of ratty meanness. It’s not enough.”
“So what do you think you’ll do about it?” Susan said.
“Well, I’m not going to adopt him.”
“How about a state agency. The Office for Children, say, or some such.”
“They got enough trouble fighting for their share of federal funds. I wouldn’t want to burden them with a kid.”
“I know people who work in human services for the state,” Susan said. “Some are very dedicated.”
“And competent?”
“Some.”
“You want to give me a percentage?”
“That are dedicated and competent?”
“Yeah.”
“You win” she said.
We turned onto Route 128. “So what do you propose,” Susan said.
“I propose to let him go down the tube,” I said. “I can’t think of anything to do about it.”
“But it bothers you.”
“Sure, it bothers me. But I’m used to that too. The world is full of people I can’t save. I get used to that. I got used to it on the cops. Any cop does. You have to or you go down the tube too.”
“I know,” Susan said.
“On the other hand I may see the kid again.”
“Professionally?”
“Yeah. The old man will take him again. She’ll try to get him back. They’re too stupid and too lousy to let this go. I wouldn’t be surprised if she called me again.”
“You’d be smart to say no if she does. You won’t feel any better by getting into it again.”
“I know,” I said.
We were quiet. I turned off of Route 128 at the Smithfield Center exit and drove to Susan’s house.
“I’ve got a bottle of new Beaujolais,” Susan said in the kitchen. “How about I make us a couple of cheeseburgers and we can eat them and drink the Beaujolais?”
“Will you toast my hamburger roll?” I said.
“I certainly will,” Susan said. “And who knows, maybe later I’ll light your fire too, big fella.”
“Oh, honeylips,” I said. “You really know how to talk to a guy.”
She handed me the bottle of wine. “You know where the corkscrew is,” she said. “Open it and let it breathe a little, while I do the cheeseburgers.”
I did.
CHAPTER 7
Patty Giacomin called me in April on a Tuesday afternoon at four o’clock. I hadn’t heard from her in three months.
“Could you come to the house right now” she said.
I had been sitting in my office with my feet up on the desk and the window open sniffing the spring air and reading A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman. I kept my finger in my place while I talked on the phone.
“I’m fairly busy” I said.
“You have to come,” she said. “Please.”
“Your husband got the kid again?”
“No. He’s not my husband anymore. No. But Paul was almost hurt. Please, they might come back. Please, come now.”
“You in danger?”
“No. I don’t know. Maybe. You’ve got to come.”
“Okay,” I said. “If there’s any danger, call the cops. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
I hung up and put my book down and headed for Lexington.
When I got there Patty Giacomin was standing in the front doorway looking out. She had on a white headband and a green silk shirt, a beige plaid skirt and tan Frye boots. Around her waist was a wide brown belt and her lipstick was glossy and nearly brown. Probably just got through scrubbing the tub.
I said, “The kid okay?”
She nodded. “Come in,” she said. “Thank you for coming.”
We went into the hall and up the three steps to the living room. Outside the picture window at the far end of the living room things were beginning to bloom.
“Would you like a drink?” she said.
“Same as last time,” I said. “I’ll take a beer if you have one.”
She went to the kitchen and brought me back a can of Budweiser and a beer mug.
“I don’t need the mug,” I said. “I’d just as soon drink from the can.”
Somewhere in the house there was a television set playing. It meant Paul was probably in residence.
Patty poured herself a glass of sherry. “Sit down,” she said.
I sat on the couch. She sat across from me in an armchair and arranged her legs. I looked at her knees. She sipped her sherry. I drank some beer.
She said, “Was the traffic bad?”
I said, “Mrs. Giacomin, I galloped out here to your rescue. Don’t sit around and talk at me about traffic conditions.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just that, well, now that you’re here, I feel a little foolish. Maybe I overreacted.” She sipped some more of her sherry. “But, dammit, someone did try to take Paul again.”
“Your husband?”
“It wasn’t him, but I’m sure he was behind it.”
“What happened?”
“A strange man stopped Paul on his way home from school and told him that his father wanted to see him. Paul wouldn’t go with him, so the man got out of the car and started after him, but there was a policeman at the school crossing and when Paul ran back toward him the man got back into his car and drove away.”
“And Paul came home.”
“Yes.”
“He didn’t say anything to the cop.”
“No.”
“He didn’t—I know it’s corny, but I used to be a cop—get a license number, did he?”
“I don’t think so. He didn’t say anything about it”
“And he didn’t know the man.”
“No.”
We were quiet. I finished the beer. She sipped some more sherry. I looked at her knees.
“Have you told the cops?” I said.
“No.”
“You figure he had some friend of his try to pick the kid up? And the friend was overzealous?”
“I don’t know,” she said. There was a little thigh beginning to show along with the knees. “He knows some terrible people. In his business he knew some very thuggy-looking people. I’m sure it was one of them.”
“Wide lapels? Dark shirts? White ties? Big hats?”
“I’m serious,” she said. “I think he knew some people on the wrong side of the law. Maybe he was on the wrong side sometimes himself.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Oh, I don’t know, just a sense. The kind of people he was with. How secretive he sometimes was.” She spread her hands. “Just a sense. Would you like another beer?”
“Sure.”
She went to the kitchen and got me one and popped the top for me and brought it to me. Then she poured herself another glass of sherry.
“Do you have a plan?” I said.
She was standing now with her legs apart and one hand on her hip looking at me. Vogue magazine.
“A plan?”
“You know, for me. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to stay here with us,” she said.
“Damn,” I said. “You’re the fifth beautiful woman today to ask me that.”
“I want you to guard Paul and, the truth, me too. I don’t know what Mel might do.”
“Are you suggesting that he’s capable of anything?”
“Yes. He is. I know you’re laughing at me, but you don’t know him. I’m afraid.”
She sat on the edge of the chair, her knees pressed together, her hands, one of them holding the sherry, were pressed together on top of her knees. She leaned forward toward me and moistened her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue. Vulnerable.
“You want me to move right in here and spend the night and all?”
She lowered her eyes. “Yes,” she said.
“That’s quite expensive. That means you pay me twenty-fou
r hours a day.”
“That’s all right, I have money. I don’t care. I need someone here.”
“For how long?” I said.
She looked startled. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.”
“I can’t stay here till the boy’s twenty-one. Guarding is a temporary measure, you know. You’ll have to find a better solution in the long run.”
“I will,” she said. “I will. But just for a little while. I’m frightened. Paul is frightened. We need a man here.”
I looked past her and at the head of the stairs, in shadow, Paul stood listening. We looked at each other. Then he tinned and disappeared. I looked back at his mother.
She raised her eyes. “Will you stay?” she said.
“Sure. I’ll have to go home and pack a bag.”
“We’ll come with you,” she said. She was smiling. “Paul and I will ride along. I’d love to see where you live anyway.”
“Well, I’ve got a sports car. There’s only room for two in it.”
“We’ll take my car,” she said. “That way we’ll be safe with you. And we can stop and get dinner on the way back. Or would you like a home-cooked meal? Poor man, you probably eat out all the time. Are you married? No, you’re not, are you. I think I knew that.” She called up the stairs. “Paul. Paul, come down. Mr. Spenser is going to stay with us.” She drank the rest of her sherry.
“We can get a sandwich or something on the way,” I said.
“No. When we get back I’ll cook supper for you. No argument … Paul, come on, we’re going to get some of Mr. Spenser’s things so he can stay.”
Paul came down the few steps from his bedroom to the living room. He had on a long-sleeved shirt with pastel flowers all over it, black corduroy pants, and the Top-Sider moccasins. If anything, he’d gotten thinner since January.
I nodded at him. He didn’t say anything. His mother said, “Get your coat, we’re going to drive Mr. Spenser home to get his suitcase.”
Paul put on the same pea coat he’d had in January. There were two buttons missing. But it was too warm to button it anyway. We climbed into Patty Giacomin’s stick-shift Audi Fox and cruised into Boston. We went into my apartment, where Paul sat down with his hands in the pockets of his pea coat and put on my television. His mother told me the apartment was beautiful and referred to it as a bachelor pad. She looked at Susan’s picture on the bookcase and asked about her. She remarked that the kitchen was spotless. I put some extra clothes and a shaving kit and a box of .38 ammunition in my suitcase and said I was ready. Patty asked if I didn’t get lonely living alone. I said sometimes I did. Paul stared at a rerun of My Three Sons. She said she supposed it was easier for a man, living alone. I said I wasn’t sure that it was, but that I had friends and I was often busy. I didn’t try to explain about Susan.
On the way back to Lexington we stopped at a Star Market and Patty Giacomin cashed a check at the courtesy booth and bought some groceries. Then we went back to her house and she cooked us dinner. Steak, peas, and baked potato, and a bottle of Portuguese rosé. Innovative.
After dinner Paul returned to the tube and Patty Giacomin cleared the table. I offered to help.
“Oh, no,” she said. “You sit right there. It’s a pleasure to wait on a man again.”
I looked at my watch. It wasn’t ten o’clock yet.
CHAPTER 8
The Giacomin house was on three levels. I had a room on the first. There was a lavatory with a shower across the hall from me. There was a family room with a Ping-Pong table next to me, and next to the lavatory across the hall was an office where Mel Giacomin had worked out of his house occasionally when he’d lived there. The next level was living room with a dining el and kitchen. The third level was a bathroom and three more bedrooms. Patty Giacomin slept up there and so did Paul.
The next morning I drove Paul to school at seven twenty-five. He didn’t eat any breakfast. When we left, his mother was in the bathroom with the door closed. I delivered him right to the school door.
When he got out, I said, “What time does school get over?”
He said, “Five after two, I guess. I don’t know exactly.”
I said, “When it gets out, I’ll be right here at this door. Don’t come out another one. Don’t go anywhere with anyone but me.”
He nodded and walked into the school. I noticed his hair wasn’t combed. I sat in the car and watched him until he was out of sight, then I turned and drove back to Emerson Road. Patty Giacomin was out of the bathroom, bathed and powdered and shiny with makeup. She had on a red apron with yellow flowers and underneath it a maroon silk blouse, white tapered pants, and white sandals. There was polish on her toenails. Coffee was perking in an electric pot, bacon was frying. Toast was in the toaster. The dining room table was set for two and the orange juice was all poured. There was jam out and butter on a plate.
“Sit down,” she said. “Breakfast is almost ready.”
“Paul doesn’t know what he’s missing, going off to school like that,” I said.
“Oh, he never eats breakfast. Hates it I’m glad actually. He’s such a grouch in the morning. How do you like your eggs?”
“Over easy.”
“Sit,” she said, “It’s almost ready.”
I sat.
“Drink your orange juice,” she said. “Don’t wait I’ll sit right down in a minute.”
I drank my orange juice. Frozen. The toast popped. Patty Giacomin put the four slices on a plate, put four more pieces of bread in to toast, and put the plate on the table.
I said, “You want me to butter it?”
“Yes, thank you.”
I buttered the toast. Patty put four strips of bacon and two eggs, over easy, on my plate and put my plate in front of me. She served herself one egg and two strips of bacon. Then she sat down and drank her orange juice.
“This is very nice,” I said.
“Well, if you’re going to be stuck here with a woman and a kid, I felt you should at least be treated right.”
I poured some coffee first into her cup and then mine.
“You men will have to rough it this weekend though,” she said.
I ate a piece of bacon and a bite of egg.
“I’ll be going away for the weekend,” she said.
I nodded.
“I’m going to New York to visit friends.”
I nodded again, and ate some more.
“I go down every month, go to the theater, to a museum exhibit. It’s very stimulating.”
“Yeah,” I said. I finished up my eggs.
She ate a small bite of her egg. “Do you know New York, Mr. Spenser?”
“I know what everyone means when they say that. I know midtown Manhattan.”
“Yes, I suppose that’s true, isn’t it. That is what we mean by New York when we go to visit.” She drank some coffee.
“Who stayed with Paul before when you’d go? Pinkerton man?”
She smiled at me, “No, I hired a woman, Mrs. Travitz, normally. Sometimes Sally Washburn would come in. I always got someone.”
“You think Paul will mind staying alone with me?” I said.
She looked a little startled, as if I’d asked a dumb question.
“Oh, no. Paul likes you. He understands that I have to get away. That I must find some fulfillment of my own. He realizes I can’t just be a mother, as I couldn’t just be a wife.”
“Of course,” I said.
“It’s remarkable, I think, how long it took women to realize the value and need of self-actualization” she said.
“Isn’t that amazing,” I said. “How long it took.”
“Yes, New York is my safety valve in a sense.”
“Get a chance to shop while you’re there,” I said.
She nodded. “Yes, usually I spend a day on Fifth Avenue.”
“Ever take Paul?”
“Oh, God, no. He wouldn’t have any fun and he’d just drag along. No, he’d spoil it. You don’t have children
, do you?”
“Nope.”
She made a little snorting laugh. “You’re lucky,” she said. “Twice lucky, you’re a man and you have no children.”
“What about self-actualization and stuff?” I said.
“I meant it. I struggle for that. But what good is it for a single woman?”
“Why is being married so important?” I said.
“Because that’s where the bucks are,” she said. “And you know it”
“I’m not sure I know that, but I’ve never been married.”
“You know what I mean. Men have the money. A woman needs a man to get it”
“I wonder if Gloria Steinem makes house calls,” I said.
“Oh, that’s crap” Patty Giacomin said. Her color was high. “You probably mouth the liberal line like everyone else around here, but you know what’s reality all right. Men have the money and the power and if a woman wants some, she better get hold of a man.”
I shrugged. I was beginning to see where Paul had picked up the habit
“I know some folks who might argue with you,” I said. “But I’m not one of them. I’m too busy counting my money and consolidating my power.”
She smiled. “You do look quite powerful,” she said. “Do you lift weights?”
“Sometimes,” I said.
“I thought so. My husband, my ex-husband, used to.”
“Not enough,” I said.
“That’s right, you’ve seen him, haven’t you. He’s gotten fat. But when we met he was really quite good-looking.”
“You really think he’ll make another try for Paul,” I said.
“Absolutely,” she said. “He’s, he’s …” She groped for words. “I don’t know, he’s like that. He has to get even. He can’t stand to lose.”
“Capture the flag,” I said.
“Excuse me?”
I shook my head. “Just musing aloud.”
“No, please tell me. You said something. Do you disapprove of me?”
“It’s not my business to approve or disapprove,” I said. “It’s my business to see that your kid is okay.”
“But you said something before. Please tell me.”
“I said capture the flag. The kid’s like a trophy you two are fighting for.”
“Well, that son of a bitch is not going to get him,” she said.
Early Autumn Page 4
