Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins (A Spenser Novel)
This book was written in 2014 by Ace Atkins, an author who was retained by the estate of Robert Parker to continue to write the Spenser books after Parker’s death in 2010. Atkins’ writing style is close to the original author’s, which is probably why Ace - great name for a mystery writer - was brought on to continue the series.
This tale begins as Spenser, a Boston private investigator who doesn't use his first name, is meeting in the ritzy suburb of Chestnut Hill with Kinjo Heywood, a star football player with the New England Patriots. Kinjo is being followed by what he sees as bad dudes. So far, nothing awful has happened, but the player is concerned that he and his family could be in danger. Kinjo has done some bad things in his past, like threatening people and brandishing a gun, that might have irritated powerful folks enough to retaliate. The player also has strained relations with his ex-wife, Nicole, with whom he shares custody of their son, Akira. Kinjo’s current wife, Cristal, likes to drink and prance around while scantily clad. (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” muses Spenser.)
Spenser is trying to figure out who could be behind the harassment. Kinjo admits that he has a reputation for being a dirty player who has put members of opposing teams in the hospital with questionable hits. Kinjo admits, “I pissed a few folks off over the years,” so there are people who may be out to get him. Spenser agrees to look into the situation.
One anchor of the Spenser novels is his long-term relationship with Susan Silverman, a Harvard-educated psychologist who lives in Cambridge. They've been going out for decades and are happy to not move on to marriage. She always has a dog named Pearl. Clearly, after 50 years of these books, Pearl has been replaced by a newer version many times over the years. As he is wont to do, Spenser lets himself into Susan’s condo while she is finishing up with a patient. He starts to make dinner, chili in this case, while drinking beer.
Spenser tells Susan about his meeting with his new client, Kinjo. The ace private eye thinks that perhaps the football player is being a bit paranoid about a couple of cars that may have been following him, although he seemed to be really worried about his safety. As usual, Spenser and the shrink end up in the bedroom while the chili is cooking.
The next morning Spenser and Kinjo drive to Gillette Stadium, home of the Patriots, where they meet with Kinjo’s brother, Ray, to begin the investigation. Ray handles his brother's business affairs. Kinjo goes off to practice as Ray tells Spenser that he has no idea who's after his brother. Jeff Barnes, head of security for the team, comes in to meet Spenser. Barnes makes no secret of the fact that he doesn’t want Spenser meddling in team affairs. Ray confirms that Jeff is a jerk.
The next day, Spenser follows his client into Quincy Market in Boston where Kinjo and Akira will meet with the ex-wife, Nicole. We learn that Akira attends Beaver Country Day School, a very nice place to get an education. We also meet Nicole, who hugs Akira and then begins to berate her ex-husband about his messing up where they were supposed to meet. He denies it but they get to have a little spat, something Spenser realizes is normal for them. Akira is uncomfortable but soon his mother takes him away for the day. Spenser notices that a couple of grubby guys are watching Kinjo. The two men come over and Spenser goes into defensive mode. They just want an autograph but you can’t be too careful.
While his client goes off to a road game in Atlanta, Spenser goes to the Harbor Health Club, his favorite place to hang out in Boston. He meets Hawk, a large African American who is the investigator’s partner in many capers, and Zebulon Sixkill – Z – a Native American who sees Spenser as his mentor. Hawk is bald, big, and elegant. He, Z, and Spenser spend a lot of time hitting the heavy bag, working up a sweat, after which they chat. It’s all very manly. In the last novel, Z was severely wounded but by now he is back to normal - a big, powerful man who is good to have with you in a fight.
Spenser does some research on his client. He learns that Kinjo was involved in a fatal shooting in Manhattan two years earlier. Twenty-two years old, Antonio Lima, was killed. The family sued Kinjo but the suit was dropped. There was no physical evidence and Kinjo, while admitting he was at the nightclub, denied any involvement.
Spenser meets with his client and finds out that Nicole, a successful businesswoman, divorced Kinjo when she found him having sex with his girlfriend, not the best thing for marital stability. Kinjo says that his marriage was not working out, so he strayed. Kinjo tells Spenser that security director Jeff Barnes has convinced the team and Kinjo that there is no need for anyone to protect their player, so the PI is off the job. It’s not the first time Spenser has been let go.
The next day, Spenser is in his office in the Back Bay, having coffee with Z, who is working at the health club as well as being a bouncer at an upscale bar. Their chat is interrupted when Kinjo calls up and tells Spenser that he’s back on the case. Someone kidnapped Akira while Cristal was walking him to school.
Spenser and Z show up at Kinjo’s Chestnut Hill home which is surrounded by cops. The officers let Spenser in but Z is stopped at the door. He assures Spenser that it’s fine to be left outside – he’ll water the horses and get them some oats. Spenser smiles but the cops have no clue about why that’s funny. It’s because Z is an Indian/Native American!
Patriot's security director Jeff Barnes, who is talking to Kinjo, orders Spenser to leave but the star player overrules him. The state police officer on duty (a friend of Spenser’s) confirms that our favorite investigator indeed can stay.
Later, Nicole shows up, steamed at how stupid Cristal could have been to let Akira be kidnapped. Nicole accuses Cristal of being involved in it for money. Spenser and the police hope that it’s just a kidnapping for ransom. Spenser’s not sure. He wonders if the New York City shooting two years ago has something to do with this. He’s off to NYC. Spenser recruits Z to guard Kinjo’s family and for Hawk to be available for whatever. Since the client just signed a ten-million-dollar-a-year contract with the Patriots, everyone will be paid, which is not always the case with Spenser’s associates.
Naturally, Spenser is friends with the cop who runs the police station that covered the shooting two years ago. Detective Eugene Corsetti remembers the case as a complete mess, with very little clarity as to what actually happened. Corsetti says that the victim, Antonio Lima, was a bad kid from a good family - lots of people probably wanted him dead. An hour before the shooting, Kinjo and Lima exchanged words in the men’s rooms but it quickly died down.
Spenser visits the family’s store in Yonkers. The mother talks about what a good boy her son was. Spenser does not disabuse her of this fantasy, although the criminal record offers evidence to the contrary. The mother says that her other son, Victor, might know more. Spenser asks her to have Victor contact him if he wants to talk.
Corsetti said that there was a woman at the scene of the killing who might know something, so Spenser went off to find Lela Lopes who hangs out at a nightclub, Chrome. Spenser, who is much older than the club’s patrons, asks about. The bouncer, Hellboy, takes offense to the PI’s inquiries, but cooler heads prevail as Spenser convinces him that no harm will come to Ms. Lopes. Spenser passes his card out to the people at the bar and the waitresses and asks them about the incident two years ago when Lima was killed after a run-in with Kinjo. Hellboy says that there was no real scuffle, just a couple of mutual glares by two drunks.
Soon, Spenser gets a text on his phone telling him to go to the Red Planet bar in Times Square if he wants to talk to Lela. He’s off. Lela’s not there but Victor Lima, brother of the deceased, is there and trying to hide from Spenser, who tracks him down. They chat at a French coffee shop. Victor is sure that Kinjo shot Antonio. They were fighting over Lela. Spenser points out that the police report doesn’t say that, while Victor swears that the cops are lying to protect the football player. Victor also tells Spenser that Kinjo paid the Lima’s a huge financial settlement on the case which stopped the family from pursuing justice. Spenser still wants to talk to Lela.
Back in Boston, Spenser and Hawk realize that they have no idea what’s going on. Kinjo confirms that he did pay the Limas money to shut them up, but he affirms that he had nothing to do with Antonio’s death.
The state police tell Spenser that someone called a local sports talk radio show claiming to have kidnapped Kinjo’s kid. Spenser and Z go to the radio station and get the audio from the call.
Spenser tells Kinjo what Victor Lima said about what happened the night Antonio died. Kinjo brings in a teammate who was at the club that night who confirms that Victor’s story is just wrong.
Spenser listens to the audio from the sports talk show. It’s five seconds long. If it’s real, the kidnappers should follow up with a ransom demand. Spenser is not optimistic.
Jeff Barnes, the Patriots head of security, tries to fire Spenser again but Spenser soldiers on. His associate, Z, has been following Ray, Kinjo’s brother, and senses that something is off with the sibling. Being a good sleuth, Z put a GPS tracker on Ray’s car so that our private investigators can see what Ray is up to.
They follow him to the top of the Prudential Tower in Boston. Ray is waiting for someone who doesn’t show up. Spenser confronts Ray who got a message from the kidnappers who were to meet him at the Pru. No one ever showed up, but Ray got a message about going to another meeting place, South Station at 6 AM, with a lot of cash in a bag to ransom Akira.
Spenser and Z have cut out the Patriot’s team personnel and the state police as they meet with Kinjo to do the ransom drop. A guy picks up the bag of cash at the designated table at South Station and takes off, with Hawk, Z, and Spenser following him.
They trace the perp to a house in Charlestown where he lives with his two drug-dealing buddies. It turns out that these guys, who demanded a ransom for the kid, didn't have the kid. They were just scamming Kinjo and figured that they could make some easy money by claiming to be the kidnappers.
Spenser and his associates are not happy with the scammers. Instead of beating up the perps, they call the address into the state police drug unit.
The state police lieutenant is not happy that Spenser and crew winged it on the scam, but since it was a scam all is forgiven and the staties get an easy drug bust.
Susan goes to meet with Nicole, Kinjo’s first wife and mother of Akira, to help her get through all of this. Nicole, who hates Cristal, points out that we only have Cristal’s word about what happened in the kidnapping. Maybe this is an inside job.
Back in his office, Spenser gets a visit from a very irritated local FBI agent, Tom Connor, who yells at Spenser about not being a team player. (Note: Spenser is a team player, but he plays on his team.) Connor is fat and florid, and he is a jerk. It is not likely that Spenser will drop the case because the agent yells at him.
Spenser meets with Kinjo, who confirms that Spenser is still on the case. Spenser asks his client about how he met Cristal, his current wife, at a strip club. Spenser also informs Kinjo that Cristal used to date a very sketchy character, Kevin Murphy, who was into producing borderline hardcore porn movies with underage girls.
Spenser is getting nowhere with the case so he does what he always does in these books. He gets help from some of Boston’s most interesting criminals. This time he seeks out Gerry Broz, who used to run a bunch of sports bars/criminal enterprises in Boston. Semi-retired now, he owns a tropical fish store in Brookline. Spenser asks him about Cristal’s ex, Kevin Murphy. Broz confirms that Murphy is a punk who actually could pull off a kidnapping.
Spenser and Z stake out Murphy’s place of business in Dorchester. He’s not there. They leave when Hawk calls them to announce that ex-wife Nicole is in a Cheesecake factory bathroom pointing a gun at girlfriend Cristal, demanding to know what she did with Akira. Hawk, who is shadowing Cristal, left them alone to see if Cristal would give up valuable information. She didn’t. Spenser talks to Nicole, calming her down.
Spenser takes Cristal to a bar in Brookline and they drink. Spenser asks Cristal about her former boyfriend, Kevin Murphy. Cristal flips out and goes off to the bathroom. Spenser orders the charcuterie plate with pickles. Cristal comes back and admits that she had been in some of Murphy’s porn flicks a long time ago. Kinjo had seen her in those and wanted to meet her. That’s how the relationship began.
Murphy tried to blackmail Cristal. He wanted $50,000 to be quiet about Cristal’s porn career. Since that’s what got Kinjo interested in her, the demands went for naught.
Spenser goes back to relieve Z at the stakeout at Kevin Murphy’s business. Murphy finally shows up. He is short and fat and resembles the person Kinjo said was harassing him earlier. Spenser invites Hawk to join Spenser in visiting Murphy. After Hawk glared at him, the pornographer remembered that he indeed did follow Kinjo in an effort to get Cristal back. He swears that he had nothing to do with the kidnapping.
Z, Hawk, Susan, and Spenser take in the Patriot’s game at Gillette Stadium. Kinjo had received word from the kidnappers that they would make a demand during or after the game. At halftime, Jeff Barnes sought out Spenser and semi-apologized to him for being a jerk. It turns out that one of Spenser’s former clients is good friends with Bob Kraft, owner of the Patriots. Mr. Kraft told security chief Barnes that Spenser was to remain on the case and that the team would cooperate with him.
Right after the game, Kinjo got a private message demanding $5 million in ransom. The FBI thinks that it will be involved in the drop, but Kinjo and his brother, Ray, want Spenser to be there.
Kinjo and his crew, including Spenser’s gang, go to Kinjo’s bank and count out $5 million in cash which was taken back to Kinjo’s house to wait for word from the kidnappers. After a few hours, Kinjo received a Twitter image of Akira, confirming that he was alive. At some point Kinjo got frustrated and took off to go to the sports talk radio station where he made a plea that he would give $5 million to anyone who returned Akira to him. He was going off the script developed by the FBI and state police to pay the ransom.
Kinjo and Spenser meet a few hours after the radio appeal went out. The player has no regrets about what he did. He wants his son back but he’s pretty sure that Akira is dead. Kinjo also asks Spenser to track down who did it no matter how long it takes.
Spenser discussed the case with Susan, who now is counseling Nicole, Kinjo’s ex-wife. The kidnappers have been silent for two days and there is little hope that Akira is still alive.
Spenser heads off to Gillette Stadium to check in with security director Jeff Barnes, who is now actually trying to help. Kinjo has left the team and is getting sharply criticized by some fans who took his radio statement as giving up on getting Akira back alive.
Spenser goes back to Boston to talk to FBI Special Agent Connor to see if anything has developed in the case. Connor also has had a change of heart about Spenser and is also trying to be helpful. The FBI learned that Akira’s clothes, with blood on them, were dropped off at Kinjo’s house, a cruel tease to Kinjo who is distraught.
Spenser goes to his office and finds Z and Ray, Kinjo’s brother, waiting for him. Ray, who is really hung over, tells Spenser that Antonio Lima’s family never forgave Kinjo who they believed killed Antonio. Even the money they received (including extra payments from Ray) didn’t stop them from pursuing vengeance. Ray also says that the mystery woman, Lela Lopes. Is in Boston, where she has lived for most of her life.
Spenser finds Lela’s – now known as Eva – address. He and Z go there but the subject isn’t home so Z kicks the door down. Our sleuths don’t find much, except that Lela/Eva works at the House of Blues. Someone comes into the apartment as they are tossing it. He sees that it’s occupied and runs away. Z and Spenser chase him until an old Pontiac pulls up and the runner jumps in and gets away. Spenser recognizes the man who came to the apartment. He’s Victor Lima, Antonio’s brother. He’s in Boston although he lives in New York City.
The plot thickens.
Spenser tells Kinjo that Lela Lopes and Victor Lima are in Boston, which surprises the player. Kinjo says that Cristal walked out angrily and that he wants Spenser to find her. Kinjo thinks that she might have gone to Kevin Murphy’s place. Hawk and Spenser head there. Cristal is there, semi-naked and buzzed on drugs. She insists that Kevin has connections to the underworld and that he’ll use those to get Akira back. When queried by Hawk, Kevin admits that he has no criminal connections but that he was bragging to impress Cristal.
The next day, Boston Police hotshot Martin Quick, a constant character in these books, calls up Spenser and informs him that they did find Lela Lopes - dead and stuffed into a barrel in East Boston. Quirk tells Spenser that the late Lela is the half-sister of Jesus DeVeiga, the biggest gangbanger in Roxbury. Spenser checks in with the head of the police gang unit who confirms that the late Antonio Lima from NYC and the very much alive gangbanger DeVeiga did a lot of bad business together.
Since the gang unit can’t find DeVeiga, Spenser does what he always does. He goes to a major local crime boss to get some help. Hawk sets up a meeting with the reclusive African American criminal, Tony Marcus, who knows everybody who's doing illegal things in Boston. They meet at Marcus’s restaurant/headquarters, Buddy’s Fox, which happens to have the best barbeque ribs in the area. Marcus plays hard to get, but Spenser calls in a favor – he saved Tony’s daughter after a rival crook had kidnapped her – so the criminal entrepreneur will see what he can do to find DeVeiga and the kidnap victim, Akira. Restaurateur Marcus gives Spenser and Hawk a nice order of ribs before they leave.
A few hours after eating the ribs, Spenser gets a call from Tony Marcus. DeVeiga will meet Spenser in Franklin Park, a big green space in Boston. Naturally, the get-together will be at night. Hawk opines that meeting a gang leader in Franklin Park at night is a good way to get killed. They will meet by the old bear dens. (I have fond memories of visiting there with my parents as a young youth. Back then there were bears there. Not now.)
Hawk accompanies Spenser to the meeting. DeVeiga is more impressed with Hawk than with Spenser, so Hawk takes the lead. DeVeiga knows that his half-sister, Lela, is dead. He says she was hanging with the wrong crowd. He also says that he’s heard that Akira is dead. The meeting breaks up.
As Spenser and Hawk leave, someone shoots DeVeiga. The shooter also took out one of DeVeiga’s bodyguards. The other one had the good sense to run away. Hawk goes to help the downed gang lord. Spenser goes after the sniper.
He finds him. The shooter is Victor Lima who sneaks up behind Spenser. Victor will tell Spenser what’s going on before he kills him. DeVeiga was behind the kidnapping and also had Lela killed. Just as Victor is about to shoot our hero, a shot rings out and Victor goes down. Wounded, he gets up and runs away. Z, who was acting as a back-up insurance policy, has come through and saved Spenser’s life.
Hawk had probably saved DeVeiga’s life, so the wounded hood told Hawk who to talk to in order to find out about the kidnapping. At a local Burger King, they meet with a young man, Papa B, who wants some money before he gives out any information. Hawk convinces him to talk first before Hawk makes him wish he had been more informative. Papa B gives our guys the address of a motel in Foxboro, near Gillette Stadium.
Z joins his buddies in the rain as they case the motel to see what’s going on. The motel is pretty empty but a TV is blaring in one of the rooms. Spenser gives the motel manager a $100 bill and gets the key. They go into the room and find Victor Lima with a gun in his hand, dead from a gunshot wound.
They also find a set of keys to a car in the parking lot. They find Akira in the trunk, tied up, but otherwise fine. Spenser calls his police and FBI associates and then gives Kinjo and Nicole, Akira’s mother, the good news. Kinjo is with the Patriots in Denver, but Susan Silverman drives Nicole to be reunited with her son.
While kidnapped, Akira was bounced around from place-to-place over the past week. Lila Lopes and Victor were the main perpetrators. They wanted revenge against Kinjo, who they still blamed for Antonio’s death, so they didn’t provide anyone much information about Akira’s status. But they also wanted the money.
There was a third person involved, the one who sent the Papa B to the Burger King with the Foxboro address. This third person was technically entitled to the five million dollars. Kinjo’s brother, Ray, asks Spenser to arrange to deliver the money. Spenser refuses, saying that he’s off the case now that Akira is home. Spenser has also figured out that Ray, not Kinjo, was the one who shot and killed Antonio Lima that night two years ago at the club in NYC.
A few weeks later, Spenser is working out at the Harbor Health Club. Hawk informed him that someone shot and killed Papa B.
Spenser and Hawk visit DeVeiga who has recovered from being shot. He tells our sleuths that he thinks Papa B was the third person involved in the kidnapping, but that there was a fourth person, a cop, who was orchestrating everything. Spenser thinks he knows who that is.
A week before Christmas Spenser hands FBI Special Agent Connor a manila envelope with a list of dozens of phone calls between Connor and Papa B, setting up the caper. Connor denies everything but Spenser tells him that he has tapes. Connor gets very nervous and walks away. Of course, there are no tapes, but all Spenser could do is make Connor think that there were tapes so that maybe Connor would do something incriminating down the road.
One of Spenser’s verities is that you can only do what you can do.
Bob’s Take
Over the past five decades, Spenser has assembled a very diverse gang of lovable rogues who are all extremely loyal to each other. He and Hawk connected in the 1970s and over the years the Spenser gang expanded to include Hispanics, gays, a Native American, high-end lawyers, and all sorts of law enforcement personnel. Various characters keep showing up in different novels. They play by the rules, but the rules sometimes get stretched a bit based on the bad guys’ actions.
Susan Silverman and Spenser have been in each other's lives for fifty years. The characters have aged a little, but the relationship has been consistent. They love each other but not being married makes the relationship work better.
Spenser describes his office at the corner of Boylston and Berkeley Street as a great place to hang out and get work done. The description of Spenser’s office reminds me of the office I had at 73 Tremont Street in Boston. It was small and neat and a fun place to hang out and see clients. I’d bring very young Lindsey and Caroline in as needed when I was taking care of them. When you work for yourself, like me and Spenser, you can do those very memorable and important things.
Boston is a character in the Spenser books as is the case in Dennis Lehane’s early novels. The books feature nice descriptions of various places in and around the city.
I met Robert Parker twice. The first time was in 1975 at the Paperback Booksmith on Boylston Street in Boston. I saw this scruffy-looking guy in an Army jacket sitting at a table waiting for people to buy his latest work, Mortal Stakes, in which Spenser helps a Red Sox player overcome some problems. Parker was absolutely alone so I wandered over. I had tricked a client into paying me to take pictures at the New England Boat Show which was being held across the street, so I had two Nikon cameras around my neck and a camera bag over my shoulder. We started to talk about cameras. He was a photographer in the Army and he loved Nikons. We talked for a long time since he wasn’t being swarmed by people buying his book. I ended up buying Mortal Stakes which he signed. Also, twenty years later at a fundraiser I said hello to Parker and his wife, Joan, and she signed the book. The bookstore meeting was a lot more memorable.
Ace Atkins has captured Robert Parker’s writing ethos very well. Some of the later Spenser books weren’t as good as the earlier ones. Like many authors who write many books with the same lead character, things get stale after years of cranking out much of the same stuff. This book is like a classic Spenser mystery. It is well written, with interesting characters and a good plot.
Despite the unevenness of the books over the later years of Robert Parker’s Spenser novels, I really enjoy these books
