The Professional Part 13

"And Gary did three in s.h.i.+rley."

Susan had put her menu down.

"So what happened to her?" Susan said.

"I thought you and I could go out to Hartland and find out."

"You and I?"

"Yeah."

"Will we visit the Basketball Hall of Fame?" Susan said.

"Sure."

"How about the Springfield Armory?" Susan said.

"Absolutely."

"Anything else?"

"When we weren't investigating, and sightseeing," I said, "we could frolic naked in our motel room."

Susan stared at me for a while.

"I am a nice Jewish girl from Swampscott," she said. "I have a Ph.D. from Harvard. Do you seriously think I would wish to frolic naked in a motel room outside of Springfield?"

"How about Chicopee?" I said.

Susan looked at me in silence for a moment while she took another sip of her martini. The she nodded her head slowly and smiled.

"Springfield it is," she said.

Her smile was like sunrise.

Chapter20.

SPRINGFIELD IS A CITY of about 150,000 on the Connecticut River in Western Ma.s.s, near the Connecticut line. Hartland is a small town about fifteen miles upriver. We checked in to the William Pynchon Motel on Route 5, outside of Hartland, which made Susan look a little grim.

"I'm not sure about the naked frolicking," she said. "I agreed to Springfield."

"No need to decide now," I said. "Hartland is nice."

We drove into the town to look for Clarice Richardson, the woman who had put Gary Eisenhower in jail.

"Trees," Susan said.

She had the same look of gladiatorial grimness that she'd had looking at the motel. We who are about to die salute you.

"Later we can have lunch," I said. "I spotted a dandy little tearoom."

"Oh, G.o.d," Susan said.

Parking in Hartland was not an issue. We left the car right across from the wrought-iron archway that led to the college campus.

"Should we start at the college?" Susan said.

"Don't know where else to start," I said.

"It's breathtaking sometimes," Susan said, "to watch you work."

"It's one of the reasons I brought you," I said. "Give you a chance to watch me in the field."

"The excitement never stops," she said.

We got directions to the president's office and spoke to the secretary in the outer room.

"I'm trying to locate Clarice Richardson," I said.

"Do you have an appointment?" the secretary said.

"With Clarice Richardson?" I said.

"Yes, sir," the secretary said. "Do you have an appointment with President Richardson?"

I took out one of my cards, the plain, elegant one with only my name and address, no crossed pistols, and handed it to her.

"Please tell President Richardson it's about Goran Pappas," I said.

She took my card.

"Please have a seat," she said, and went off down a short corridor.

"Brilliant," Susan said, "how you ran her to ground."

"Who knew," I said.

"Makes me think well of the school," Susan said.

"Yes," I said.

The secretary returned.

"President Richardson will see you shortly," she said, and went back to her desk.

Susan and I sat. The outer office was paneled in oak, with a big working pendulum clock on the wall and a wine-colored Persian rug on the floor.

"You think it's politically correct," I said to Susan, "to call that a Persian rug?"

"Iranian rug doesn't sound right," she said.

"I know."

"How about Oriental?" Susan said. "More general."

"I think Oriental may be incorrect, too," I said.

"How about a big rug from somewhere east of Suez?"

The door opened to the outer office and a strapping woman came in carrying a gun and wearing a uniform with a Hartland College police emblem on the sleeve. She glanced at us and went on down to the president's office, knocked, opened the door, went in, and closed the door.

"She's kind of scary," Susan said.

"Yeah, she's big," I said. "But for simple ferocity, I like your chances."

The secretary stood and said, "President Richardson will see you now."

Chapter21.

CLARICE RICHARDSON stood when we came in. I had no real idea what a standard-issue college president looked like, but I was pretty sure Clarice Richardson wasn't it. She had to be in her early fifties, but she looked ten years younger. She had the kind of patrician face that you see around Harvard Square and Beacon Hill, and sandy hair cut short. She was wearing a cropped black leather jacket over a pencil skirt, black hose, and black boots with two-and-a-half-inch heels. She wore very little jewelry, except for a wedding ring, and her makeup was understated but expert. Especially expert around the eyes. She had big eyes, like Susan, and she crackled with a warm, intelligent s.e.xuality that would call to you across a crowded c.o.c.ktail party. She wasn't quite Susan, but together in a relatively small room, Susan didn't overpower her.

The big female cop stood against the wall behind and to my right of Clarice's big modern desk. There was a modern credenza in the bay behind the desk, in front of the big picture window. On it were pictures of a gray-haired man with a beard, two young women, and a white bull terrier.

"Mr. Spenser?" Clarice said.

"Yes, ma'am, and this is my a.s.sociate, Dr. Silverman."

If you have it, you may as well flaunt it.

"Susan," Susan said.

"Really," Clarice said. "Doctor of what, Susan?"

"I have a Ph.D. in psychology," Susan said. "I'm a therapist."

"Where did you do your doctorate?"

"Harvard," Susan said.

"Really? I did, too," Clarice said. "In history. When were you there?"

Susan told her. Clarice shook her head.

"I was there before you," she said.

"But we're both really smart," Susan said.

Clarice smiled.

"We must be," she said, and looked at me. "Because you said you wished to discuss a very charged subject, I have taken the liberty of asking Officer Wysocki to join us."

Officer Wysocki nodded. I nodded back. I had the strong impression she didn't like me.

"May I speak freely?" I said. "President Richardson."

"You may," said Clarice. "And please, call me Clarice."

"I'm a private detective," I said. "In Boston. I was employed recently by a group of women to locate a man who is blackmailing them. He was using the name Gary Eisenhower, but his real name as far as I can tell is Goran Pappas."

"Susan works with you?"

"Susan is with me," I said. "I thought she might be helpful in our conversation. And in truth, when she's not around, I miss her."

Clarice nodded. I looked at the photographs on the credenza.

"Your husband?" I said.

"Yes."

"Your daughters?"

"Yes, and our dog, Cannon. The girls used to call him Cannon Ball, but we shortened it to Cannon."

"And you're all together?" I said.

"Yes," she said.

"And you are still the president of this college," I said.

"Yes."

"So standing up to Pappas may have cost you a lot, but it didn't cost you everything," I said.