The Professional - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,53

out for him, but . . . I can’t treat him like a little kid.”

“He’d know it?” I said.

“It would be disrespectful,” Zel said.

I nodded.

“But . . .”

Zel drank some more beer and checked his cooking.

“But Boo can’t do time,” Zel said. “He’s okay if I’m with him, but if I ain’t, he can’t stand close places.”

“Claustrophobic?” I said.

“Yeah, that’s what he is, claustrophobic. ’Less I’m with him, he can’t ride an elevator. Can’t go in the subway if it’s crowded. Has to leave the window open in his room a crack, no matter how cold it is.”

“But he’s all right if he’s with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you worried about him doing time?” I said.

Zel checked his cooking again and shut off the heat under his pan.

“You ain’t here to sell him magazine subscriptions,” Zel said.

“You know why he would be having an argument with Beth Jackson?” I said.

Zel got another beer from the refrigerator. He held one toward me. I shook my head.

“Another thing,” Zel said, “about Boo. He gotta be a tough guy. It’s all he ever had, being a tough guy.”

“And he’s not so good at that,” I said.

“Not against somebody like you,” Zel said. “But for Boo, it almost don’t matter if he wins. He gotta fight, you know? He wins, or he shows he can take it. Either way, he gotta be a tough guy.”

Zel drank some beer.

“All he got,” Zel said. “He does time, he’ll be scared, and he can’t stand to be scared, so he’ll be a tough guy and he’ll get hurt bad. Don’t matter how tough you are. Inside, they can break you.”

“You’ve been inside,” I said.

“Uh-huh.”

“And Boo,” I said.

“What’s made him so . . . odd,” Zel said. “I mean, he started out with a lot of problems, and he was always kinda slow. But time in made all of it much worse.”

“You know what he’s doing with Beth Jackson?” I said.

“No.”

“You know who killed Chet Jackson and Estelle Gallagher?”

“No.”

“You think Boo was involved?” I said.

“Boo’s mostly a slugger,” Zel said.

“He had a gun when I was here last,” I said.

Zel nodded.

“So you think he was involved?” I said.

“No.”

“If he was, I’m gonna find it out,” I said.

“He wasn’t,” Zel said. “I’d know.”

“I think he was,” I said.

Zel nodded.

“He can’t do no time,” Zel said.

Chapter64

VINNIE CALLED ME at home from his cell phone. It was nine-eleven at night. I was watching the Celtics game.

“You might want to know this,” he said.

“I might,” I said.

I muted the sound on the television.

“Been watching Beth’s ass all day. Followed her home from the club, ’bout five-fifteen, watched her go in. ’Bout six o’clock the boyfriend comes home. I watch him go in. By seven I figure they’re in for the night, so I call it a day. I walk down Arlington to the Ritz, Taj, whatever the fuck it is now, and go in to take a leak. Then I’m in there, I figure I’ll go in the bar, have a couple pops, think about Beth’s ass, which I would now recognize at three miles in the dark. So I’m in there for maybe an hour or so, and I have a few, and then I go out and head down Arlington to get my car. I know a guy works the door at The Park Plaza, and he’s holding my car for me.”

“Uh-huh,” I said.

The Celtics were up four on the Wizards late in the first half.

“And I see the pug,” Vinnie said.

I shut off the television.

“Boo?” I said.

“Same guy had the argument with Beth a while back,” Vinnie said. “He’s walking along Arlington same direction I am, like he could have been down at Beth’s place. He’s on the other side of the street. So I slow down and sort of let him get ahead of me and I see what he does. He crosses over in front of me at Boylston and goes into the subway. So I chuck along after him and go down, too.”

“Was it crowded?” I said.

“Naw,” Vinnie said. “Place was empty. So he goes through the turnstile and waits on the outbound platform, and I don’t see any reason to waste two bucks, so I go back upstairs and get my car. On my way home I swung by Beth’s building, but everything looked, you know, copacetic, so I kept going.”

“Thank you, Vinnie,” I said.

We hung up.

I dialed Gary Eisenhower’s number. After four rings the answering machine picked up.

“Hi, it’s Beth. Neither Gary nor I can come