Promised Land Read Free Page B

to work on what I hired you for.”
    “Harv. Hawk means it. Hawk is a bad man. But he keeps his word. If you owe money, pay it. If you haven’t the money, tell me now, and we can work on the problem. But don’t bullshit me, and don’t bullshit yourself. If you’re dealing with Hawk you are in way, way, far way, over your head.”
    “There’s nothing to talk about. Now that’s it. There’s no more to say about it.”
    “You may even be in over mine,” I said.

Chapter 4
    I had a sense, call it a hunch, that Shepard didn’t want to talk about his dealings with Hawk, or King Powers or anybody else. He wanted to talk about his wife.
    “Your wife’s name is Pam, right?”
    “Right.”
    “Maiden name?”
    “What difference does that make?”
    “She might start using it when she took off.”
    “Pam Neal.” He spelled it.
    “Folks living?”
    “No.”
    “Siblings?”
    He looked blank.
    “Brothers or sisters,” I said.
    “No. She’s an only child.”
    “Where’d she grow up?”
    “Belfast, Maine. On the coast, near Searsport.”
    “I know where it is. She have friends up there she might visit?’‘
    ”No. She left there after college. Then her folks died. She hasn’t been back in fifteen years, I’d bet.“
    ”Where’d she go to college?“
    ”Colby.“
    ”In Waterville?“
    ”Yeah.“
    ”What year she graduate?“
    ”Nineteen fifty-four, both of us. College sweethearts.“
    ”How about college friends?“
    ”Oh, hell, I don’t know. I mean we still see a lot of people we went to school with. You think she might be visiting someone?“
    ”Well, if she ran off, she had to run somewhere. She ever work?“
    He shook his head strongly. ”No way. We got married right after graduation. I’ve supported her since her father stopped.“
    ”She ever travel without you, separate vacations, that sort of thing?“
    ”No, Christ, she gets lost in a phone booth. I mean she’s scared to travel. Anywhere we’ve ever gone, I’ve taken her.“
    ”So if you were her, no work experience, no travel skills, no family other than this one, and you ran off, where would you go?“
    He shrugged.
    ”She take money,“ I said.
    ”Not much. I gave her the food money and her house money on Monday and she took off Thursday, and she’d already done the food shopping. She couldn’t a had more than twenty bucks.“
    ”Okay, so we’re back to where could she go. She needed help. There’s not a lot you can do on twenty bucks, What friends could she have gone to?“
    ”Well, I mean most of her friends were my friends too, you know. I mean I know the husband and she knows the wife. I don’t think she could be hiding out anywhere like that. One of the guys would tell me.“
    ”Unmarried friend?“
    ”Hey, that’s a problem, I don’t think I know anybody who isn’t married.“
    ”Does your wife?“
    ”Not that I know. But, hell, I don’t keep track of her every move. I mean she had some friends from college, I don’t think ever married. Some of them weren’t bad either.“
    ”Could you give me their names, last known address, that sort of thing?“
    ”Jesus, I don’t know. I’ll try, but you gotta give me a little time. I don’t really know too much about what she did during the day. I mean maybe she wrote to some of them, I don’t know.“
    ”Any who live around here?“
    ”I just don’t know, Spenser. Maybe Millie might know.“
    ”Your daughter?“
    ”Yeah, she’s sixteen. That’s old enough for them to have girl talk and stuff, I imagine. Maybe she’s got something you could use. Want me to get her?“
    ”Yeah, and old phone bills, letters, that kind of thing, might be able to give us a clue as to where she’d go. And I’ll need a picture.“
    ”Yeah, okay. I’ll get Millie first, and I’ll look for that stuff while you’re talking with her.“ He hadn’t come right home and done it like I told him. Maybe I lacked leadership qualities.
    Millie didn’t look happy to talk with me.