“Or says he doesn’t,” Jesse said.
“And another thing,” Suit said. “I can’t think of a way to attract more attention to this case. Kill them at the same time. Save the bodies. Then hang the famous one on a tree. And wait awhile, and put the other one in a Dumpster.”
Jesse smiled.
“Surprise,” he said. “The press is all over it.”
“For crissake,” Suit said. “It’s like the guy wants publicity.”
“That bothers me, too,” Jesse said.
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Jay Wade had longish blond hair that he combed straight back. His eyes behind the aviator-style glasses were pale blue. His jaw was firm.
“You still see Jenn?” he said.
“Yes.”
“You two together again?”
“No.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jay said.
Jesse nodded. Maybe Jay Wade had never slept with Jenn. Or maybe he had. He could feel the muscles in his shoulders and neck tighten. Calm down. She’s not my property.
H I G H P R O F I L E
If I were him, I’d have slept with her, too. The muscles continued to bunch.
“Jenn thinks you can tell me about Walton Weeks,” Jesse said.
Jay Wade nodded and leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head.
“Actually,” Jay said, “I knew Walton a little. I was political editor for a station in Maryland when he was doing weather.”
“Tell me about him,” Jesse said.
Jay smiled.
“Well,” he said. “Walton always had a good voice. People liked his voice. It projected well. He sounded like a guy from your neighborhood, but smarter. Walton always sounded smart.”
“Was he?”
“You know,” Wade said, “I don’t know. When I knew him he was a damn weatherman, you know. I never thought much about him being smart or dumb. After I left Maryland, and he got to be a national figure—I mean, who knows who wrote that column or the little editorial set pieces on his TV
show. He seemed quick enough on the call-ins and guest interviews.”
“So he has some staff support in all of this.”
“Sure.”
“You wouldn’t know any names?” Jesse said.
“No. I don’t want to mislead you. I once knew Weeks in a casual workplace way twenty years ago.”
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Jesse nodded.
“Did he ruffle a lot of feathers?” Jesse said.
“You mean back when I knew him or in his national celebrity phase?”
“Either way.”
“When I knew him everybody liked him. He was pleasant,” Wade said. “Now that he is, or was, a national figure, yeah, he ruffled a lot of feathers.”
“Conservative or liberal?” Jesse said.
“God, didn’t you ever listen to him?” Wade said.
“No.”
“My God, what do you do with yourself.”
“Mostly I’m a cop,” Jesse said. “When I have free time I follow baseball.”
“Jenn told me you used to play,” Wade said.
“Yep.”
“And you got hurt.”
“Yep.”
“Tough,” Wade said.
Jesse nodded.
“What about Walton Weeks?” he said.
“Walton’s a libertarian,” Wade said. “That probably brings him more in line with the right than the left. But basically he believed that government which governs least governs best. He believed in what he called the Eleventh Commandment.”
“Leave everyone else the hell alone,” Jesse said.
“Yeah. Guy like Walton Weeks,” Wade said, “it often depends on who’s ox he’s goring, you know? When he was 7 6
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hammering the tax-and-spend big-government liberals, the conservatives loved him and the liberals hated him. Now we seem to have spend-and-no-tax big-government conservatives in power, and he’s been hammering them, and now they are hating him. Maybe worse, because they feel betrayed.”
“You agree with him?” Jesse said.
“Currently I’ve tended to. But the problem with Walton is that he puts principle ahead of results.”
“Like?”
“Civil rights,” Wade said. “He believed completely in integration but felt the government should not impose it.”
“And you disagree,” Jesse said.
“A lot of us disagree. You think integration would have happened without government imposition?”
“No,” Jesse said.
“Then you disagree with Walton, too.”
“Not enough to kill him,” Jesse said.
“You think he was killed for political reasons?” Wade said.
“Just rattling all the doorknobs,” Jesse said. “I heard he was a womanizer.”
Wade grinned.
“He was married several times,” Wade said. “Me too. Depends on your perspective. You, ah, interact with a lot of women and you could be a womanizer, or you could just be very popular.”
Jesse tried not to think about Jenn.
“Walton interacted,” Jesse said.
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“Often. It was an open secret in the industry,” Wade said.
“Not that there was anything especially hypocritical about it. It’s not like you preach against drugs and you’re a junkie, or you preach celibacy and there’s nudies of you on the Web.”
“So there could be a jealous husband,” Jesse said.
“Sure,” Wade said.
This is too close. Jesse could hear himself breathing. This is too close.
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The law office was in a storefront in a strip mall. Jenn stood in the doorway with her microphone. Her cameraman focused. Sunny stood behind him, watching. She had seen no sign of the stalker.
“Rolling,” the cameraman said.
Jenn knocked on the door. It opened, but not very much.
“Attorney Marc LaRoche?” Jenn said.
Someone muttered something from behind the slightly open door.
“Channel Three, how do you respond to allegations that you have consistently failed to adequately represent female clients in divorce cases?”
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
Another mumble.
“No, sir,” Jenn said, “it is our business. The public has a right to know.”
There was something inaudible from behind the open door and then the door slammed shut. Jenn pounded on it.
“Attorney LaRoche,” she shouted. “Why won’t you address this issue? Attorney LaRoche?”
Jenn turned and looked into the camera, holding her microphone.
“Perhaps Attorney LaRoche has something to hide,” Jenn said. “Perhaps not. Clearly he doesn’t wish to speak with us. We’ll stay on this until all the truth is told. We don’t take no for an answer. Jenn Stone, Channel Three.”
The cameraman pulled back for a wide shot that showed a sign in the window: attorney marc laroche. Jenn kept looking into the camera until the cameraman said, “Okay, Jenn.” Then she lowered the mike and all three of them walked to the News 3 van.
“You gonna do a lead-in?” the cameraman said.
Jenn shook her head.
“No. John will do the lead-in from the anchor desk.”
“Okay,” the cameraman said, “then let’s go home.”
Back at the station, Jenn took the tape to the editing room and left it.
“We’ll edit this afternoon,” she said to Sunny. “Right now we need lunch.”
Sunny smiled.
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“I almost always need lunch,” she said.
As they walked across the vast brick plaza in front of City Hall, Sunny said, “Any sign of our stalker?”
Jenn glanced around and shook her head.
“Does he show up some places more than others?” Sunny said.