"Yes."

"Seven?"

"Fine."

She stood. I stood.

"Where is Kate now?"

"I sent her and Miranda to my mother's home in Brookline," Valerie said. "Until I could arrange for her safety. That's the address on the back of my card."

"I'll meet you there," I said.

She looked at me the way people look at racehorses before the auction.

"Well, you look as if you'd be formidable," she said.

"You should see me in my red cape," I said.

"I'm sure I should," she said.

TWENTY-THREE

I TALKED WITH Kate in the living room of a big half-timbered Tudor-style house on a side road off of Route 9 not very far from Longwood Tennis Club. Miranda made a brief appearance in joint custody of Valerie's mother and a Shih Tzu named Buttons. Miranda seemed overdressed to me, and mildly uneasy. But I was inexpert with sixteen-month-old kids. The Shih Tzu sniffed my ankles thoughtfully, and then followed Miranda and her grandmother from the room.

"The dog is a Shih Tzu?" I said.

Valerie said it was.

"Knew a woman in Ames, Iowa, had one of those."

"How nice," Valerie said.

"Dog's name was Buttons too."

Valerie smiled stiffly.

Beside Valerie, on the yellow-flowered couch in a bay of the overdecorated living room, was a plain young woman with red hair and very white skin. I sat on a hassock in front of the couch.

"You're Kate," I said.

"Yes, sir."

"And you are being stalked by a man named Kevin Shea," I said.

"Yes, sir."

"What's your relationship to him?" I said.

"We're not related."

"Were you lovers?"

"Yes, sir."

"And now you're not."

"No, sir."

"What does he do when he stalks you?" I said.

"He follows me around."

"Does he speak to you?"

"Yes, sir."

"What does he say?"

"He swears at me and stuff."

"Does he threaten you?"

"He says if he can't have me no one else will."

"Has he ever hurt you?"

"You mean now, when he follows me?"

"At any time," I said.

"Yes, sir."

Slow going. I felt that I'd had better conversations with Hugger Mugger.

"What did he do?" I said.

"He hit me once, when we lived together."

"Was he drunk?"

"Oh yes, sir. He drinks a lot. Says it's the only way to deal with the pain."

"What was it that attracted you to him?" I said.

"He loved me."

"And now, why is he stalking you, do you think?"

"Because he loves me. He can't bear to give me up."

Valerie said, "Kate, that's ridiculous."

"And how do you feel about him?" I said.

"I'm afraid of him. He's so crazy in love with me. I don't know what he'll do."

"How would you like me to handle this?" I said.

"I don't want him to get in trouble," Kate said.

Valerie was appalled.

"For God's sake," she said. "Kate!"

"Well, I don't," Kate said. "He loves me."

"How can you say that?" Valerie said. "He has beaten you. He threatens to kill you. This isn't love, it's obsession."

"I don't know about that psychology stuff. But I know he's crazy about me."

"He's crazy, all right," Valerie said.

Kate's small, pale face pinched up a little tighter. She wasn't going to give up the great romance of her life.

"So," I said. "If you care this much about him, why did you leave him?"

"Kevin wasn't working. There was no money. I needed this job."

I looked at Valerie Hatch.

"I told Kate that her responsibility was Miranda, and that she couldn't exercise that responsibility properly if her low-life boyfriend was hanging around."

I nodded.

"You live in?" I said to Kate.

"Yes, sir, in Ms. Hatch's place on Commonwealth Avenue."

"We have a large condominium," Valerie said. "Near the corner of Dartmouth."

"So if you live there, and Ms. Hatch doesn't want him around, you don't get to see him much."

"No, sir, hardly at all."

"When do you see him?"

"When I'm walking Miranda, or at the playground."

"Are you afraid of Kevin?" I said.

"Yes, sir, he's so angry."

"Why don't you quit this job and go back and live with Kevin?"

Valerie said, "Spenser, dammit…"

I put a hand up for her to be quiet. Surprisingly, she was.

"I need the money," Kate said. "And Miranda. I don't want to leave Miranda."

"You care about the kid," I said.

"I love her."

I nodded.

"I don't see where you are going with these questions," Valerie said.

"I never do either, until I ask them."

"Kevin Shea is an uneducated, unemployed drunk," Valerie said. "I don't want him around my daughter, or my daughter's nanny. And quite frankly, I don't want my daughter's nanny living with such a person."

"I think I can follow that," I said.

"I should hope so," Valerie said.

"Can you put me in touch with Kevin?" I said to Kate.

"I don't know where he's living now. He's not at the place we were."

"Is he likely to show up someplace where you are going?"

"The little park," she said. "I take Miranda there every day. He comes there a lot. And when I wheel her carriage along the river."

"You never led me to believe it was this regular," Valerie said.

"Why don't you and I go down to the park tomorrow?" I said to Kate. "And maybe walk along the river."

"I will not allow you to expose my daughter to this man," Valerie said.

"Perhaps she could stay with you," I said.

"I have a day filled with meetings tomorrow," Valerie said.

"Your mother?"

"Tomorrow is my mother's golf day."

"And I suppose Buttons isn't up to the job," I said.

"This is not a frivolous matter," Valerie said.

"See if your mother can forgo golf tomorrow," I said.

Valerie looked annoyed, but appeared ready to humor me.

"I'll meet you in front of the Commonwealth Ave. place at what, nineA.M.?" I said to Kate. "Is there a stroller or something that you normally use?"

"Yes."

"Bring it."

"Without the baby?"

"Yes."

"What if he tries to hurt me?" Kate said.

"I won't let him," I said.

"He's awfully big and strong," Kate said.

"Me too," I said.

"I don't want him to be hurt," Kate said.

"For God's sake, Kate. Listen to yourself."

Kate didn't say anything. She just stared at the rug in front of her.

"Okay," I said. "Tomorrow, you come out wheeling the stroller, and go where you usually go. Don't look for me. I'll be there, but I don't want to scare Kevin away."

"What will you do if he comes?"

"I'll reason with him," I said.

TWENTY-FOUR

THE DAY WAS somewhat overcast, and not very hot. I strolled along on the other side of the street, watching Kate Malloy as she wheeled the stroller along Commonwealth, crossed at Dartmouth, and headed for the little park. She put the stroller beside her and sat for a while on a small bench, inside the black iron fence, and watched the children and their nannies, and occasionally, maybe, their mothers. No one stalked her. No one looked like they were going to stalk her. After a while Kate got up and took the stroller and walked down Commonwealth, the rest of the way, and turned left toward the river on Arlington Street. I went along too. We crossed the pedestrian overpass to the esplanade and began to stroll west along the river. If Kevin showed up I wasn't sure what to expect. I was ready. I had a gun on my belt, and a sap in my hip pocket, and if that didn't work, I could always bite him. Still, he seemed less monstrous when Kate talked of him than he did when Valerie talked of him. I was pretty sure I wasn't getting the whole story. I was used to it. I hadn't gotten the full story in Lamarr, Georgia. I never got the full story. There was probably something deeply philosophic going on. Maybe there was no full story. Ever.