Now and then - By Robert B. Parker Page 0,20

he heard the tape,” I said. “It would fi gure.”

“So where’d she go?”

“Ask around at the college?”

“Nobody knows.”

“Hotel?” I said.

“We’re running that now,” Epstein said. “Just thought you might save us a little time.”

I shrugged.

“Sorry,” I said.

Epstein sat quietly looking at me. Outside my window it was dark, with a lot of wind which drove short occasional bursts of rain against the glass.

“I talked with Martin Quirk about you,” he said. “Known you a lot longer than I have.”

“He’s always admired me,” I said.

“Sure,” Epstein said. “He told me you get sort of flighty upon occasion.”

“His admiration sometimes shades into jealousy,” I said.

“We agreed that you sometimes operate under the illusion that you’re Sir Lancelot.”

“Explains why my strength is as the strength of ten,” I said.

“That was Galahad,” Epstein said.

“Wow, a literate bureaucrat.”

“We also agreed that you were pretty good at this work and could go places and do things that cops are barred from,” Epstein said.

“Fewer rules,” I said.

“Mostly none, according to Quirk.”

I shrugged.

“And we agreed that you usually came out on the right side in the end,” Epstein said.

“When possible,” I said.

“At the end of this,” Epstein said, “you better be on the right side, which is to say, mine.”

“Do what I can,” I said.

“You better,” Epstein said. “You get the full force and credit of the U.S. government on your ass . . . we’ll win that one.”

“Eeek,” I said.

24.

It would have been helpful if Vinnie hadn’t shot the mystery man,” Susan said. I was driving, Susan beside me. It was dark. The wipers were moving gently. It embodied most of what I wanted in life, alone with Susan, going someplace, protected from the rain.

“It would be helpful if the tooth fairy came by,” I said, “and left a note under my pillow explaining everything.”

“I guess it was just Vinnie being Vinnie,” Susan said.

“Yes,” I said.

“It wouldn’t occur to him that the gunman might be a valuable witness.”

“It wouldn’t,” I said.

“And if it did?” Susan said.

“He wouldn’t care,” I said.

“Some nice friends,” Susan said.

“I’m not sure Vinnie is a friend, exactly,” I said. “But if I need him he shows up. He’s not afraid of anything. He keeps his word. And he’s a really good shooter.”

I was in Kendall Square, looking for a parking spot close to the college. Susan would hate walking in the rain. Unlike myself.

“Who seems to be without regard,” Susan said, “for any of the rules.”

“He has some rules,” I said.

“Like Hawk,” Susan said.

I spotted an unoccupied hydrant across the street from Concord College.

“Some,” I said. “He’s not as smart as Hawk.”

“Most people aren’t.”

“And he doesn’t have Hawk’s, what, joy?” I said.

Susan laughed.

“Oddly, joy is about right for Hawk,” she said. I let the traffi c pass, and U-turned back toward my hydrant.

“It’s almost as if we were talking about you,” she said.

“Which is kind of frightening.”

“I have more rules,” I said.

“I know.”

“And I have you.”

“Yes,” she said. “You do.”

I parallel-parked so adroitly that I was looking for applause. Susan had no reaction. She’d expected it. That was, after all, a kind of applause. We got out and headed across the street.

Susan had an umbrella. She offered me shelter under it. I declined, of course.

“This lecture,” Susan said from under her umbrella. “It’s by the man that Jordan whatsis was having an affair with?”

“Richmond,” I said. “Yes. Epstein gave me the FBI file on Alderson, or at least as much of it as Epstein felt I should see.”

“That’s cynical,” Susan said.

“You bet,” I said. “According to the fi le, Alderson is a visiting professor at Concord, and part of his deal is to give two public lectures per academic year.”

“And we’re going to assess him?” Susan said.

“Got to start somewhere,” I said.

“And you brought me along to help with the assessment?”

Susan said.

“Yes.”

“Not because it was going to be so boring you couldn’t stand to do it alone?”

“Boy,” I said, “you shrinks!”

We went into the college and found our way to the lecture hall. We sat in the last row. I put my feet on the back of the chair in front of me. No one else was within three rows of us. Susan smiled.

“Childhood habits persist,” Susan said.

“I was always a little rebellious in school,” I said.

“I’m shocked,” Susan said. “Shocked, I tell you.”

It was a big lecture hall, and could probably hold more than one hundred people. There were maybe thirty of us scattered 100 around the room. A professor in an ill-fi tting corduroy jacket came out onto the stage and