“I guess we have to assume he might,” he said aloud in the empty stillness. “We got to assume he might.”
He drank some more.
37
SUITCASE SIMPSON came into Jesse’s office carrying a large paper bag.
“Seth Ralston,” Suit said.
He took a large Italian sandwich out of the bag and unwrapped it on Jesse’s desk.
“Is that a sub I see before me?” Jesse said.
“From AJ’s sub shop,” Suit said. “The best.”
“You have Daisy Dyke right up the street, who makes her own bread, and you’re buying mass-produced submarine sandwiches at AJ’s?”
“Yeah. I got one for you, if you want it.”
“You bet I do,” Jesse said.
Suit handed him a second sandwich, and Jesse unwrapped it on his desk.
“Seth Ralston?” Jesse said.
“And Hannah Wechsler,” Suit said. “Got ’em both for you.”
“And still managed to pick up some subs,” Jesse said. “What have you got.”
“I gotta get a Coke first,” Suit said. “You want one?”
“Just some water,” Jesse said.
Suit went out and returned in a minute with a Coke and a water from the refrigerator in the squad room.
“Seth Ralston lives in one of those new condos on Beach Plum Ave., near the beach.”
“I know the place,” Jesse said.
They both paused to eat a bite of sandwich.
“Lives there with his wife, Hannah Wechsler. She kept her maiden name.”
“Kind of figured that,” Jesse said.
“Been there five years. Married for seven. No kids. He’s a college professor. Taft University in Walford. She used to be his graduate student. She’s still in grad school, and she also teaches some night classes at Taft.”
“After seven years?”
“She’s been in grad school for ten,” Suit said.
“Slow learner,” Jesse said. “What’s he a professor of?”
Suit glanced down at his small notebook.
“English and American literature,” Suit said.
“And that’s what she’s doing her graduate work in?”
“Uh-huh. She got a master’s. Now she’s working on a Ph.D.”
“An English professor is just the kind of guy who would use a phrase like ‘cri de coeur,’ ”
Jesse said.
“What?”
“He used it in one of his letters to me,” Jesse said.
“What’s it mean?” Suit said.
“Something like a cry from the heart,” Jesse said.
“Latin?”
“French,” Jesse said.
“Wow, no wonder you made chief.”
“I looked it up,” Jesse said.
“What’s the missus teach?”
“Freshman English,” Suit said. “On Wednesday nights.”
“How ’bout him?” Jesse said.
“He don’t teach any nights,” Suit said. “Matter of fact, he don’t seem to teach much at all.”
“What’s his rank?” Jesse said.
“Rank?”
“You know, academic rank,” Jesse said. “Is he a professor?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind?” Jesse said.
“Kind?”
“He a full professor?” Jesse said.
“I guess so,” Suit said.
“That’s why he doesn’t teach much,” Jesse said.
Suit finished his sandwich and wiped his mouth and hands on one of the napkins.
“So I’m thinking,” he said, “here’s a guy likes to watch. And his wife’s out every Wednesday night, so I go back over all the Peeping Tom reports . . . and they all took place on a Wednesday night.”
“Before he started working days,” Jesse said.
“I wonder what she does days,” Suit said.
“Maybe you should find out,” Jesse said. “Especially the days of the photo shoots.”
“Great idea,” Suit said. “Another reason you’re the chief.”
“I’m chief,” Jesse said, “because some years back Hasty Hathaway assumed if he hired me I’d be a useless drunk and he could run the town as he wished.”
“And where’s Hasty now?” Suit said.
Jesse smiled.
“Excellent point,” he said.
38
THEY SAT in the squad room, just the three of them, with the door closed.
“I’ve asked Steve to come in and run the desk,” Jesse said. “Me and the rest of the guys will run the department, and you will be the Night Hawk task force.”
“Me and Molly?” Suit said. “Ain’t a hell of a big task force.”
“I’ll be involved,” Jesse said. “But with a twelve-man department, how big a task force do you think we can put together.”
“Besides,” Molly said, “we’re worth several ordinary task forces.”
“There’s that,” Suit said.
“What did you find out about Hannah Wechsler’s daytime activity?” Jesse said.
“No pattern,” Suit said. “No pattern to the photo sessions, except they were all on week-days.”
“As they’d need to be anyway,” Molly said. “Have to have the husband and kids out of the house.”
“And no daytime obligations for Hannah,” Suit said. “That I can find out about.”
“I wonder if he’s still peeping at night?” Jesse said.
“We’ve been assuming he’s moved on to home invasion,” Suit said.
“But it isn’t necessarily either or,” Molly said. “He could do both.”
“Any reports of peeping?”
“No, but people don’t always notice,” Molly said.
“And even if they do,” Suit said, “they don’t always report it.”
“They would now,” Jesse said. “With the home invasions being talked about.”
“Still,” Molly said. “They might not always know. I mean, that’s one of the points about peeping, isn’t it? That the person being peeped doesn’t know it?”
Jesse nodded.
“You have the file,” Jesse said to Molly.
She patted the big brown envelope on the desk in front of her.
“Good, you keep it. Share it fully with Suit as needed, and no one else.”
“You worried about the pictures?” Suit said.
“I am,” Jesse said. “I don’t want them circulating. These women have been through enough without having a bunch of people looking at them naked.”
Suit nodded.
“You think I’d circulate them?”
“No,” Jesse said. “I think you might examine them closely, as I did, but you’re a good cop and a good guy. You’ll be fine.”
“And Molly got no interest in them, being a straight woman,” Suit said.
Jesse nodded.
“Okay,” Suit said. “I see that.”
Jesse smiled.
“Thank you,” he said. “We got no real evidence that this guy is our man.”
“But you think he is,” Molly said.
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“The Wednesday-night thing could be a coincidence,” Molly said.
“Could be,” Jesse said. “But if I decide it is, where does that get me?”
Molly and Suit both nodded.
“What do we do?” Suit said.
Jesse inhaled audibly. Then he was quiet for a bit.
Finally, he said, “I think he’s feeling some pressure. His last letter, after Gloria Fisher chased him away, sounded a little hysterical.”
“What’s he feeling pressure about?” Molly said. “He has no reason to think we’re getting close to him.”
“I think it’s the pressure of his craziness,” Jesse said. “I think he knows his behavior is obsessive, and he’s afraid of where it will take him.”
“And he won’t be able to stop himself,” Molly said.
“I think that’s his fear.”
“So this thing he does, because he needs to do it, because he seems to get pleasure from it, is also a torment and could lead him to disaster,” Molly said.
“You’ve read the letters,” Jesse said. “That’s my sense.”
“Christ,” Suit said. “He’s like a victim, too.”
“Of himself,” Molly said.
“This may be getting too deep for me,” Suit said.
Molly grinned at him.
“You should be used to that,” she said.
Suit grinned.