Текст книги "Stone cold"

Автор книги: Robert B. Parker

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 11 страниц)

high narrow brick townhouse with a dark green door and gold-tipped wrought-iron fencing across the tiny front yard. Jesse rang the bell, and in a moment Rita opened the door.

“Criminal law pays good,” Jesse said as he stepped into the dark

red foyer.

“Better than working for the Norfolk County DA, which is what I

used to do,” Rita said.

They went into her living room. There was a fireplace with a fire going. The room was done in a strong yellow with gold drapes striped with dark red. Rita was all in ivory: pants and blouse, and three-inch ivory heels.

“I don’t know which is more

impressive,” Jesse said. “You or the house.”

“Me,” Rita said and took the champagne bottle from

him.

“Will you join me in some of this?” she said.

“No. I’ll have some club soda, with

cranberry juice if you have

it.”

“I noticed,” Rita said. “I also

have orange

juice.”

“I’ll start with the cranberry and

soda,” Jesse said. “If the

evening gets really rousing, I’ll step up to the OJ.”

“I expect it to get rousing,” Rita said.

She made Jesse’s drink and poured herself some champagne.

“How is my disgusting client doing at his community service?”

she said.

“He’s there every afternoon after

school,” Jesse said. “He and

Drake treat Feeney like the fink-out that he is, but they’re too

scared to do anything about it.”

“So what are they doing?”

“Make-work mostly. Wash the floors, clean the toilets, polish

doorknobs. Molly finds stuff for them.”

“They probably ought to get more punishment than that for

gang-raping a young girl.”

“They had good legal counsel,” Jesse said.

Rita smiled.

“You know the argument as well as I do. In order for the justice

system to work, every one has the right to the best legal representation they can get.”

Jesse nodded.

“Doesn’t mean I liked any of

them.”

“I don’t either,” Jesse said.

“How’s the girl doing?”

Jesse shrugged.

“She and I went out and adopted a dog for her.”

“You and she?”

“It belonged to one of the serial victims. I was trying to find

it a home.”

“Did that make her happy.”

“I don’t think it made her happy. It did give her something to

care about.”

“What would make her happy?”

“I don’t know,” Jesse said.

“Maybe a couple years with a good

shrink.”

“Is that going to happen?”

“I gave her a name,” Jesse said.

“My goodness,” Rita said. “Cop

for all seasons.”

“I know a shrink,” Jesse said.

“You think she’ll see the

shrink?”

“Most people don’t,” Jesse said.

Rita nodded.

“I did,” she said, “after my

last divorce.”

“You’ve had more than one?”

Rita smiled and poured herself more champagne.

“I’ve had three,” she said.

“And after each one, I was inclined

to fall deeply in love with the next guy I dated.”

“You still do that?”

“No,” Rita said. “But it

doesn’t mean I won’t.”

“After my divorce,” Jesse said,

“I wanted to fall in love with

someone else and couldn’t.”

“You’ve only been divorced once?”

“Yes.”

“The more it happens, I think,” Rita said,

“the more desperate

you get, and the more likely you are to grab at the first loser that strolls by, which makes it more likely that this marriage will fail, too.”

“And you’ve learned not to do

that.”

“Until now,” Rita said.

Jesse drank. The cranberry and soda seemed particularly insufficient for this moment. They were silent.

Finally, Jesse said, “Me?”

“It feels like it,” Rita said.

“Another loser?”

“No,” Rita said. “You are not a

loser.”

“Thank you, but I’m not so sure.”

“Because?”

“Because Jenn,” Jesse said.

Rita put her glass down and stood, and began to unbutton her blouse. When it was unbuttoned she slid out of it. She stepped out of her shoes and unzipped her pants, and slid them down over her legs and stepped out of them. Her lingerie was ivory. So it won’t show through, Jesse thought. She unsnapped her bra, slid

out of her underpants, and stood naked in front of him. Jesse smiled.

“A real redhead,” he said.

“Or a very thorough colorist,” Rita said.

She came to the couch and sat beside Jesse and tucked her feet under her.

“So?” Rita said. “Tell me about

Jenn.”

“It’s a little hard to

concentrate,” Jesse said.

“My point exactly,” Rita said.

She shifted somehow and was in his lap, and then they were both

naked, and then, after a while they lay together on the couch with their arms around each other, waiting for their breathing to slow.

Finally, with her face next to his, Rita said, “So, tell me

about Jenn.”

“You are as good-looking a woman as I have ever met,” Jesse said

carefully. “And I’ve never had sex that I liked better.”

“Not even Jenn,” Rita said.

“She’s not better-looking than you

are,” Jesse said, “and she

doesn’t make love any better.”

“So, why her, not me?”

Jesse eased himself up a little so that his head rested on the arm of the couch. Rita adjusted so that she lay inside his right arm.

“Why her?” Rita said again.

Jesse laughed briefly and without amusement.

“God,” he said. “If I knew that,

I’d know

everything.”

“You’re sort of an addictive

personality,” Rita

said.

“Booze?” Jesse said.

“And Jenn.”

Jesse nodded slowly.

“And Jenn,” he said.

“You’ve stopped drinking,” Rita

said.

Jesse was silent, listening to his breathing, and Rita’s.

“I know,” Jesse said.

They lay still, passionless, their naked bodies touching pleasantly. Rita seemed perfectly comfortable without her clothes on.

“Maybe you can break the addiction to Jenn,” Rita

said.

“I love her,” Jesse said.

“Jesus Christ,” Rita said. “You

invoke that phrase as if you’d

discovered the double helix. Love is an emotion, like any other.

You can get over it, like you do anger or fear, or hatred.”

“I love her,” Jesse said. “If I

can be with her, I will

be.”

“So,” Rita said,

“what’s the plan? You fuck me until you can be with her?”

“Hell, Rita, I don’t have a

plan,” Jesse said. “I’m just hanging on.”

“That shrink you know,” Rita said.

“What does he say

aboutJenn?”

“He says that I do my job, that I have women I care about, who

care about me, that my life moves right along, so why do I need Jenn?”

“And your answer?”

“You won’t like it,” Jesse said.

Rita grimaced.

“‘Because I love

her’?” Rita said.

Jesse nodded.

“And you don’t love me,” Rita

said.

“Actually I do,” Jesse said.

“It’s just that I love Jenn

more.”

Rita was quiet for a time.

“If you and Jenn ever get together, why couldn’t we love each

other, too?” Rita said. “Part-time, so to speak.”

“Rita, I don’t know what’s going

to happen after I get off this

couch, let alone who I’ll be in a month or a year.”

“But it might be possible,” Rita said.

Jesse shook his head slowly.

“Maybe not,” he said.

62

The note was hand printed in big block letters with blue ink.

TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOUR SERIAL KILLER, BE AT THE FOOD COURT AT

NORTHEAST MALL AT 7 PM. THURSDAY.

ALONE!!!!!!!

The letters looked a little wavery, as if the writer were old.

“Probably printed it left-handed,” Jesse said.

“To frustrate the handwriting experts,”

Molly

said.

“Yep.”

“Is handwriting analysis really that effective?” Molly

said.

Jesse smiled and looked as if he thought it wasn’t.

“You know that mall?” Jesse said.

“I’m a suburban mother,” Molly

said. “Of course I do. Don’t

you?”

“I’m not a suburban mother,”

Jesse said. “I’ll go up there this

afternoon and scope it out.”

“You haven’t ever been there?”

“Only outside,” Jesse said.

“When I met Candace

there.”

“Hard to imagine,” Molly said.

“Do you think it’s

them?”

“Yep.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Show up,” Jesse said.

“It’s Tuesday,” Molly said.

“We have today and tomorrow to get

ready.”

“How crowded would it be on a Thursday evening,” Jesse

said.

“Quite,” Molly said.

“It’s crowded every night, and it’s time to

be buying the spring wardrobe.”

“Sure it is.”

“There are a bunch of exits from the mall,” Molly said. “Not

counting the ones that the stores use, you know for truck deliveries and stuff.”

“Be hard to cover them all.”

“I’m sure the state police will help, and the local cops will

give us some people.”

Jesse shook his head.

“Too many jurisdictions,” he said.

“I won’t be able to control

it.”

“We can coordinate through Vargas,” Molly said.

“These are smart people,” Jesse said.

“But surely they don’t think we

won’t try to catch them,” Molly

said.

“They probably like that,” Jesse said.

“They like it?”

“Raises the risk, makes it more exciting.”

“So why not be there in force,” Molly said. “Cover every exit,

have plainclothes people all over the food court.”

“They like risk,” Jesse said.

“But they don’t like certainty.

They don’t want to get caught. They only want the danger of getting

caught.”

“They want to be shot at and missed,”

Molly said.

“Exactly,” Jesse said.

“And you’re afraid that if there are too many different people

involved, somebody will give it away.”

“And we’ll lose them.”

“You’re assuming,” Molly said,

“that their purpose is to kill

you.”

“Yep.”

“So why do it this way. They know where you live.

Why not just

lurk around there and shoot you when you come home?”

“Same reason they’ve been flirting with me, buying me lunch,

being my pals,” Jesse said.

“They are, after all, crazy,” Molly said.

“I tend to forget

that.”

“So not everything they do is logical to us,” Jesse said. “On

the other hand crazy doesn’t mean stupid. They’ve chosen a public

place with many exits. The parking lot leads to many roadways that lead in many directions. It is a good place to escape from. It is an easy place not to be noticed. And it is a hard place for us to start shooting.”

“So we put our people there, early, around the food court,”

Molly said. “Suit and I can be there as a married couple shopping

for cruise wear.”

“You’re ten years older than

Suit,” Jesse said.

“Yes. But I do not look it.”

“True,” Jesse said. “But it

can’t be Suit. They know

him.”

“Well, me and Anthony then,” Molly said.

“We keep Suit out of

sight.”

“I don’t want it to be you,

Moll,” Jesse said.

“Why not?”

“You got kids and a husband,” Jesse said.

“And Anthony has kids and a wife,” Molly said.

“I was afraid you’d remember

that,” Jesse said.

“It’s because I’m a

woman,” Molly said.

Jesse was silent.

“It is, isn’t it,” Molly said.

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s lovely and chivalrous of you,” Molly said. “And I

know you do it because you care about me. But it still demeans me.”

“I know,” Jesse said.

“God, you’re irritating. I can’t

even fight with

you.”

“You and Anthony can be snacking in the food court,” Jesse said.

“Wear your vest.”

“You too,” Molly said.

Jesse nodded.

“Spring fashions,” he said.

63

They set up early Molly and Anthony deAngelo, in jeans and winter coats, arrived at 4:30 and began to shop the mall. Molly made several purchases, and Anthony carried her bags and looked bored. They saw no sign of Tony or Brianna Lincoln. Only Jesse and Suitcase Simpson had actually seen the Lincolns. The rest had detailed descriptions. But it was not the same. Outside the mall, Simpson dispersed the other cops, trying to keep all the exits in view. Only Steve Friedman and Buddy Hall were on duty in Paradise.

At 6:27, Molly and Anthony came to the food court. They put their bags down and sat at a table. They looked from where they sat at the various food stands, appeared to reach a decision, and Anthony stood up and went to get them some pork fried rice. The food court was nearly filled. Looking at the customers, Molly realized that several of them could be the Lincolns. At 6:48 Molly decided that she couldn’t pretend to eat the rice anymore.

She had

no appetite, and it was clear that neither did Anthony.

“I’ll get us some coffee,” she

said.

“Cream,” Anthony said, “two

sugars.”

At 6:57 Molly took a cell phone out of her purse and called Simpson outside the mall.

“Hello, honey,” she said.

“Molly?”

“Yes. Are you and your brother doing what Nana says?”

“Any sign of action?” Simpson said.

Anthony deAngelo looked like a man whose wife spoke often on the

phone, glancing aimlessly around the food court. Molly smiled.

“No, honey, Daddy and I are having coffee, we’ll be home in a

little while.”

“Do you want me to help you with this?”

Simpson said. “Pretend

I’m your kid?”

“Absolutely not,” Molly said.

“What have you and Nana been

doing?”

“I’ll just sort of hum, then, so

you’ll know the line’s open and

I’m still here.”

“That’s very good,” Molly said.

At seven o’clock Jesse, wearing a navy pea jacket over his

Kevlar vest, walked down the mall with his hands in the pockets and stood in front of the elevator, opposite the entrance to the food court.

“It’s seven o’clock,”

Molly said.

On the phone Suit said, “Jesse there?”

“Un-huh.”

“Anything happening?”

“No, honey, not yet.”

“I kind of like the honey

thing. Will you call me honey

around the station, after this is over?”

“No.”

Behind Jesse the elevator door opened and a man and woman stood

in the door. They were wearing hats and scarves that partly hid their faces.

“Jesse,” the man said.

As Jesse turned toward them they each raised a long-barreled pistol and shot Jesse in the chest. The pistols made only a flat pop that was lost in the hubbub of the mall. Jesse stepped a half step back.

“It’s happening,” Molly said

into the phone and dropped it and

turned with her gun out. DeAngelo was on his feet as well, his handgun leveled.

The elevator door closed and the elevator went back up, taking the man and woman with it. People in the food court area were beginning to react. The result was confusion.

“There’s an escalator at each

end,” Jesse said, pointing.

“Molly, cover that one. Anthony, stay here.”

Then he turned and ran down the mall, forcing his way through the crowd, his gun held down against his thigh. When he reached the escalator, he slowed and opened his coat so that, as he went up the moving stairs, he could speak into the microphone clipped to his vest.

“Suit?”

“You okay, Jesse?”

“I am. It went down. We’ve got them

somewhere on the second

level now.”

“Shall we come in.”

“No. We’ll try to chase them to

you.”

“We’ll be here.”

“When we saw them they were wearing black watch caps pulled down

over their foreheads, and black or navy scarves wrapped up over their chins, like they were cold. She had on a fur coat. He was wearing a trench coat.”

“We’ll be looking.”

“Make sure everybody gets the message,”

Jesse said. “And they

could change, so don’t lock in on the coats and scarves.”

“Roger, Jesse.”

At the top of the escalator Jesse paused with the gun at his side, looking around. Most people didn’t notice the gun. The ones

that did looked quickly and moved swiftly away. Jesse made sure his badge, clipped to his vest, was visible. Don’t want somebody

calling 911, and end up shooting it out with the local SWAT

team. He looked down to the far end of the mall and saw Molly

standing at the top of her escalator.

On the first level, Anthony stood facing the elevator. His gun was in his hand, held down against his right thigh. The elevator came back down and the doors opened and several men and women got out. One of them was a good-looking woman wearing a paisley yellow silk scarf over her head, and an ankle-length yellow wool coat. She carried a small shopping bag, and smiled at Anthony as she headed past him toward the exit. Anthony was pretty sure she wasn’t the

one. Still, better to play it safe.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Anthony said.

She turned and took the gun from the shopping bag and shot him in the forehead. As Anthony went down, one of the men from the elevator stepped up and took the woman’s arm. He was wearing a

leather jacket and a long-billed low-crowned baseball hat.

By the time Anthony hit the floor the man and woman were walking

firmly past him and out the front door of the mall. As they reached the parking lot several people pushed past them, running toward a Paradise Police car. The people crowded around the car, all talking at once to Eddie Cox and gesturing toward the mall. The man and woman passed the crowd and got into a rented Volvo, and drove quietly away.

64

Jesse sat with Healy in the front seat of Healy’s unmarked

car.

“We found their other clothes in the washrooms,” Healy

said.

“Had the change of clothes in the shopping bags,” Jesse

said.

“Maybe you should have asked for help,”

Healy

said.

“We had all the exits covered,” Jesse said.

“Which means they walked right past one of your guys.”

“Simpson and I were the only ones really knew what they looked

like,” Jesse said.

“If you’d brought us in

…” Healy said.

“You wouldn’t have known what they looked like

either.”

“True, but we might have had more people at the elevator.”

“And your people couldn’t have started shooting,” Jesse said,

“any more than Anthony could. There were eight or ten people coming

off that elevator.”

“And he was probably a little less cautious because it was a

good-looking broad,” Healy said.

Jesse shrugged.

“Whether it would have gone better if you’d invited us in,”

Healy said. “It couldn’t have gone worse.”

“No. One of my guys is dead, and the Lincolns are gone.”

“You’re sure it was them,” Healy

said.

“It was them.”

“You recognized them.”

“It was them.”

Healy nodded and didn’t speak for a moment.

Then he said, “We’re covering their condo.

Their Saab is still

in their parking lot.”

Jesse nodded. “Maybe a rental,” he said.

“We’ll be checking the rental agencies, but it’s,” he glanced at

the digital clock on his dashboard, “two twenty-six in the morning.”

“If they used their own names,” Jesse said.

“Have to show a credit card.”

“These are people who could have had a whole other identity

waiting around in case they needed it,” Jesse said.

“Want to go take a look at their home?”

Healy

said.

“Warrant?” Jesse said.

“Already got that covered,” Healy said.

“Why you get the big bucks,” Jesse said.

“First I have to go see

Betty deAngelo.”

“The widow?” Healy said.

Jesse nodded.

“Lucky you,” Healy said.

“She has five kids,” Jesse said.

“Hard,” Healy said.

Jesse nodded.

“I’ll meet you at the Lincolns’

condo,” he said.

Jesse got out of the car and walked across the empty parking lot

to where his car sat alone near the east entrance of the mall.

Behind him Healy’s car drove away. Healy was right, Anthony would

have hesitated before shooting at a good-looking woman. And Healy was probably right about including the state cops. Jesse should have brought them in. He didn’t have enough people. He had more

people, maybe it wouldn’t have been Anthony. Maybe it wouldn’t have

been anybody. Maybe they’d have caught the Lincolns. His footsteps

were loud in the empty darkness. Maybe he overestimated himself and his men. Maybe thinking about it wasn’t useful. He unlocked his car

and got in and started it up. The headlights underscored how still and abandoned the parking lot was. He put the car in gear and drove.

He didn’t know the names of any of

Anthony’s children. There was

probably an Anthony Junior. He hoped the children wouldn’t be there

when he had to talk with Betty.

65

When Jesse got to the Lincolns’ condominium at 4:15

in the

morning, the state crime-scene people were beginning to wind down.

A couple of state homicide detectives were poking about.

“Talk to the widow?” Healy said.

Jesse nodded. Healy nodded with him.

“You ever see the den, here?”

“Lot of equipment,” Jesse said.

“Take a look,” Healy said and walked with Jesse into the

den.

On the computer screen was a candid head shot of Jesse that looked as if it had been taken when he was leaving the Paradise Police Station. The picture had apparently been cropped and blown up so that the background was hard to be sure of.

“We found it on the screen just like this when we came

in.”

“They thought I’d be dead,”

Jesse said.

“Yep.”

Healy turned and called into the living room.

“Rosario.”

One of the crime-scene technicians came into the room.

“Run these pictures through,” Healy said.

Rosario looked at the picture on the computer screen, and then at Jesse.

“Captain’s afraid of computers,”

Rosario said.

“I can’t even download porn,”

Healy said. “Run

them.”

“Yessir, Captain,” Rosario said and

clicked the

mouse.

A picture of Abby Taylor came up. Rosario clicked again. A picture of Garfield Kennedy. Click. Barbara Carey. Click. Kenneth Eisley. Click. Back to Jesse.

“They’re all blowups of candid

shots,” Rosario said. “One of

those digital cameras. You plug it into the computer and process it however you want.”

“And my picture was on the screen just like that when you came

in?”

“Yep.”

“Anything else interesting?”

“On the computer?” Rosario said.

“Nothing I can find. But maybe

the guys in the lab …”

“Make sure you don’t lose

anything,” Healy said, “when you shut it down.”

Jesse went back to the living room with Healy.

“Anything else interesting?” Jesse said.

“Place is immaculate. No sign of flight. Clothes, toothbrushes,

hair spray, all in place. Checkbooks show money in the bank. Couple credit cards in the drawer. Food in the refrigerator. Expiration dates suggest it was bought recently. Concierge doesn’t remember

them leaving yesterday. But you can take the elevator from their place direct to the lower level, and go out the side door to the parking lot.”

“Why are the pictures on the computer screen?” Jesse

said.

“I know,” Healy said. “It

bothers me too.”

“It incriminates them,” Jesse said.

“Decisively,” Healy said.

“So why display them?”

“They didn’t expect us to be

here?” Healy said.

“Or they did.”

Healy walked to the window and looked out. There was nothing to

see but himself and the room reflected in the night-darkened glass.

“They wanted us to know?” Healy said.

“Maybe.”

Jesse walked over and stood beside Healy, staring at the darkness.

“So how did they know we’d be

here?” he said.

“They had no reason to think they wouldn’t kill me,” Jesse

said.

“And if they had killed you,” Healy said,

“they had no reason to

think we’d suspect them.”

“But they left what amounts to a confession in plain view,”

Jesse said.

“To five murders,” Healy said.

“Or so they

expected.”

Behind them the specialists were packing up.

“We’re about done here,

Captain,” Rosario said.

Healy nodded. He spoke to one of the detectives.

“Leave a couple of uniforms here,” he said. “Case they come

back.”

“I’ll stay a while,” Jesse said.

“Sure,” Healy said. “You want to

be alone?”

“Yeah.”

“I like to do that too,” Healy said.

“Sort of listen to a crime

scene. By myself.”

“Something like that,” Jesse said.

“Okay. Paulie,” Healy said to the

detective. “Tell the troopers

to stay in the vestibule until Stone leaves.”

When everyone was gone Jesse stood in the thick silence and looked slowly around the room. The place had been measured, searched, photographed, inventoried, dusted. The computer had been removed. He walked to the bathroom. Two toothbrushes stood in holders. A barely squeezed tube of toothpaste for sensitive teeth lay on the counter. The soap in the soap dish was new. A full bottle of shampoo stood on a shelf in the shower stall beside a fresh bar of soap. On a shelf above the bathroom sink were matched jars and tubes of makeup, all barely used, all in order by size and shape. The bed seemed freshly made. He turned back the spread. The sheets seemed newly washed and ironed. He opened bureau drawers.

Tony’s shirts were carefully laid out by color, still in their

transparent envelopes from the cleaner. His socks were rolled.

Brianna’s bureau was equally immaculate. The kitchen was spotless.

The counters were washed. The refrigerator was clean and organized.

A place for everything and everything in its place. The dining room table was set with good china. The whole place looked as if they were expecting company … They were. That’s why they had left

the evidence displayed. A farewell. See how much smarter we are

than you are. They would simply disappear and, in time, someone would notice they were gone, or maybe there would be an anonymous tip. And the cops would come and there would be the confession on the computer screen. They had never planned to come back. And they were too compulsive to leave the place un-immaculate for the company to see. Even had they successfully killed him they were moving on. He was to be the final triumph.

Here.

66

Jesse talked to the press the next morning on the front steps of

the Paradise Police Station. Yes, a Paradise police officer, Anthony deAngelo, had been killed last night. Yes, they had identified two suspects: Tony and Brianna Lincoln. No, they did not know the whereabouts of the suspects. Yes, the search was continuing. When they had asked all the questions Jesse could stand to hear, the news conference ended and Jesse went inside.

Molly nodded toward his office.

“Jenn,” Molly said. “She came in

the side.”

Jesse nodded and walked into his office. Jenn was sitting on the

edge of his desk, looking through Jesse’s side window at the turmoil of media that surged around the front lawn of the police station. Jesse closed the office door behind him.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi.”

Jesse went around the desk and sat in his chair. Jenn shifted on

the edge of his desk so she was looking at him, her right leg resting on the ground, her left draped over his desk,

“Are you okay?” she said.

“Physically? Sure,” Jesse said.

“Small caliber, good

vest.”

“Still, someone tried to kill you.”

“I know.”

“And they did kill one of your men.”

“Yes.”

“And they got away,” Jenn said.

“So far,” Jesse said.

Jenn was quiet for a moment.

“You must feel awful,” she said.

“I try not to feel too much,” Jesse said.

“How’s the drinking?” Jenn said.

“I don’t drink anymore,” Jesse

said.

Jenn nodded.

“Did you have to tell Anthony’s

family?”

Jesse nodded.

“His wife,” Jesse said.

“Was it bad?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re sure you don’t feel

awful?” Jenn

said.

Jesse shrugged and looked out the window at the press scrum.

Then he took in some air, and looked back at Jenn and said,

“Yes. I guess, in fact, I do.”

“Of course you do,” she said.

“May I say

something?”

“If I said no, you’d say it

anyway.”

Jenn smiled.

“Yes,” she said. “I suppose I

would.”

She paused and pressed her face for a moment into her semi-cupped hands and rubbed her eyes, as if she were very tired.

Then she raised her head and took a breath.

“I am very sorry I tried to impose upon our relationship to get

a break on this serial killer story,” she said.

“You didn’t need

that. You shouldn’t have had to address that. I was wrong and stupid to ask.”

Jesse smiled faintly.

“Wrong and stupid?”

he said.

“Yes. I was thinking only about myself. I should have been

thinking about you. I’m very sorry.”

Jesse said nothing for a time.

Then he said, “Thank you, Jenn.”

“You’re welcome.”

She was wearing perfume. Her hair was well cut and perfectly arranged. Her makeup was bright and expert. Her clothes were very immediate. There was a kind of physical brightness about her that was just short of flamboyant.

“Would you like to talk about it?” she said.

“Off the record?”

Jenn hung her head a little.

“I’ll never tell anyone,” she

said, “what you say to me unless

you ask me to.”

Jesse smiled at her.

“Besides,” he said. “You

don’t even have B-roll for

this.”

Jenn smiled back at him.

“Hell,” she said. “All there is

in this case, is

B-roll.”

“There’s two of them, husband and wife.

Their goal was to kill

me, but I was wearing a vest. We tried to trap them at the shopping center but they killed Anthony and got away in the crowd. Probably should have brought the state cops into it, but coulda, shoulda. We searched their condo, found a computer with my picture on it and, in the sequence of their deaths, the other victims.”

“Like a confession,” Jenn said.

“Seemed so. The apartment was empty. No sign of flight, but no

sign of them returning either. Their car is still in the garage.

They probably had a rental. Staties are checking that now. My guess is that these people have already prepared another identity and the Staties won’t find anybody named Lincoln renting a car.”

“So you think you were going to be the pièce de

résistance?” Jenn said.

“Yes.”

“And they planned to disappear after they shot you?”

“Yes. The house is anally cleaned for us. The pictures on the

computer are waiting for us to find them. See how much smarter we are than you shitkickers.”

“And you don’t know where they

went,” Jenn said.

“No idea.”

“How did they get to the car?”

Jesse stared at her.

“They had to pick up the rental car,” Jenn said. “How did they

get there?”

“How did they get the car,” Jesse said.

67

“Maybe one of them drove the

other one over,” Simpson

said. “To get the rental car.”

“Did they stash the rental at their

condo?” Jesse said. “After

they picked it up?”

“Where?” Simpson said. “All the

parking spaces are assigned. If

they put it in somebody else’s spot it would draw attention.”

“Which they don’t want to do,”

Jesse said. “Maybe on the

street?”

“It’s a tow zone on both sides of the road,” Simpson

said.

“Side road.”

“In theory,” Simpson said,

“that’s resident parking

only.”

“How often do we enforce that?”

“Not often,” Simpson said.

“But they don’t know that,”

Jesse said.

“So anything they did with the rental car would risk drawing

attention, which, obviously, they needed to avoid.”

“Or they parked it at the mall, earlier in the day,” Jesse said.

“And took cabs.”

Simpson said, “You think they’re dumb enough to take a

cab?”

“They think they are brilliant,” Jesse said. “And they think

we’re stupid.”

“So they could have.”

“Yes.”

“Paradise Taxi is the only one in town,”

Simpson

said.

“Go see them,” Jesse said.

“Now?”

“Now.”

When Suit was gone, Jesse swung his chair around and put his feet up on the sill of his back window and looked out at the fire trucks parked in front of the fire station. The phone rang. Jesse answered.

“Captain Healy,” Molly said, “on

line two.”

“Bullets match,” Healy said.

“The one they took out of Anthony?”

“Yep. And the ones that were trapped in your vest.”

“We knew they would,” Jesse said.

“How about the car rental

companies.”

“The rental companies are an air ball,”

Healy said. “We checked

in a fifty-mile radius, including Logan Airport. Nobody named Lincoln rented a car.”

“How about the ones that deliver?”

“You thought of that, too,” Healy said.

“We’re a small department,”

Jesse said. “But we try

hard.”

“There’s only two companies in the

fifty-mile radius that

deliver,” Healy said. “Neither one of them has delivered to

Paradise.”

“You get any print matches from their condo?” Jesse

said.

“Nope. They’re not in the system that we can find. You know it’s