Silent Night: A Spenser Holiday Novel Read Online Free Page B

into a small room where a man was working at a laptop. “Just talking about you,” Jackie said. “Spenser, this is Pablo.”
    The man stood up. He was squat, with hair dyed the color of dark blue ink, wearing what looked like pale blue silk pajamas.
    “Hello, Pablo,” I said.
    “Hi there.” He gave me a smile that showed a lot of gold. “Jackie, I gotta talk to Juan. These books are a mess. You got to try to keep better records, kid.”
    “Can we do it later?” Jackie said. “I’m showing Spenser around right now.”
    Pablo sat back down and looked at what I recognized was a QuickBooks program.
    Jackie led me through the house. There was one big central space upstairs with several beds set up dormitory-style and six other bedrooms, along with three decent-looking bathrooms. Downstairs was a kitchen, where some men were cooking tortillas. The air was rich with their smell.
    Another room held a small gym with a couple of stationary bikes, an ancient treadmill, and a couple of punching bags.
    “These get much use?” I motioned to the bags.
    “Some,” Jackie said. “I’ve been trying to get some guys around here to volunteer time to give the boys some pointers on boxing and wrestling, that sort of thing,” Jackie said.
    “For sport, or protection?”
    “Both,” Jackie said. “Some of the boys need to toughen up a bit. Others need their aggression channeled into something with rules and finesse.”
    “Ever hear of Harbor Health Club, Henry Cimoli’s place? Henry’s a friend. He can probably get you some equipment, if that would help. Headgear, gloves, mitts, mouth guards, that kind of thing.”
    “That would be terrific, Spenser.” Jackie looked sincere and enthusiastic, but it was hard for me to tell. He had an open, boyish face, which gave away little. “I’m guessing you did some boxing. You any good?”
    “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,” I said. “Of course, the broken nose might tell you otherwise.”
    Jackie grinned. “I wasn’t going to mention that.” He made a halfhearted jab at a speed bag. “Any chance I could convince you to come by sometime and show the boys how it’s done?”
    “They probably already know how to get their noses broken,” I said. If I was to find out who was trying to close down Jackie’s business and why, spending some time on the premises might be a smart idea. And I liked Jackie’s spirit. Upbeat. Relentlessly so. “But I’d be happy to teach them how not to.”
    “That would be great!” Jackie said.
    We walked back into the front hall. The worn wooden floorboards creaked beneath our feet.
    “No girls here?” I said.
    “No,” said Jackie. “We’re trying to instill structure and discipline here. Boys reach a certain age, being around girls too much is counterproductive to the goal.”
    “Boys need to learn how to act around girls sometime.”
    “First things first, Spenser,” Jackie said. “A young man must learn to respect himself before he can learn to respect others.” His voice was solemn. I couldn’t tell if he was parroting a self-help book or recounting a painful experience.
    He walked me to the door. A scruffy, heavy-set guy dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt stood just inside the open door, inhaling a cigarette. About thirty pounds of unnecessary stomach spilled over the jeans.
    “This is Joe,” Jackie said. He sounded and looked as happy to see Joe as I did to hear “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
    “Joe,” I said.
    Joe didn’t speak. He exhaled enough smoke to double the carbon footprint of metropolitan Boston. Then he flicked his cigarette out the front door. It bounced off the steps and fell into the snow.
    “You know I don’t allow smoking in this house,” Jackie said.
    “Bite me,” Joe said.
Wow, class act.
The kind of guy you want around impressionable young boys.
    “You’d better leave, Joe. I don’t want you around the kids. You’re nothing but trouble,” Jackie said.
    “I ain’t your