“You don’t think so?”
“I’m just listening,” Jesse said.
“Open-shuttered and passive,” Hannah said. “Not thinking, merely recording.”
“Something like that,” Jesse said.
“You know where that comes from?”
“The open-shuttered stuff?” Jesse said. “No.”
“John Van Druten,” Hannah said. “ I Am a Camera.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Sorry,” Hannah said. “I’ve been a graduate student too long.”
“I don’t mind,” Jesse said.
“So,” she said, “Jesse. Tell me this. Are you in touch with your sexuality?”
“I was,” Jesse said, “when I was a teenager. But I was afraid it would cause pimples.”
Hannah smiled.
“That’s not quite what I meant,” she said.
“You’re in touch with yours,” Jesse said.
“Absolutely,” Hannah said.
“You’re a member of the Paradise Free Swingers,” Jesse said.
Hannah looked at him silently for a moment.
“Well,” she said. “You’re a little more subtle than I might have thought.”
Jesse nodded.
“You swing, I assume,” he said.
“I do,” she said. “My husband and I both do.”
“Tell me about it?” Jesse said.
“Why?” she said. “Light your fire?”
“Curious,” Jesse said.
“Professionally?” Hannah said.
“Sort of,” Jesse said.
“What do you mean ‘sort of’?”
“Well,” Jesse said. “We’ve found a possible connection between the man who does the home invasions and the Free Swingers.”
“So why isn’t that completely professional?”
“Personal,” Jesse said.
“And what is this connection?” Hannah said.
“Can’t talk about it right now,” Jesse said.
“And why choose to question me?” Hannah said.
“Well, in fact, we checked out everybody’s background and found out you were studying for a Ph.D. We figured you’d be smart.”
Hannah laughed.
“That shows how little you know of Ph.D.’s,” she said. “But on that basis, why not talk to my husband as well? He already has a Ph.D.”
“We will,” Jesse said. “Just arbitrarily chose you first. We’re a small department, you know.”
“Or you thought because I was a woman, you could bully me,” Hannah said.
“How hard have I tried that?” Jesse said.
“I’ll bet you don’t have any leads and you heard about the swingers, and decided to scapegoat us.”
“So how’s it work,” Jesse said.
“No,” Hannah said. “It’s a free and loving human experience, and I’m not going to let you make it into something else because you don’t know what else to do.”
Jesse nodded.
“Anyone else we should talk with?” Jesse said.
“Absolutely not,” Hannah said.
“Okay,” he said. “Tell your husband, if you would, that we’ll be checking with him, too.”
Hannah stood and looked scornfully at Jesse for a moment, then turned and walked away.
Jesse sat quietly and finished his coffee, and then he left.
41
“YOU GET anywhere with Hannah Wechsler,” Molly said.
“I got a handle on who she is,” Jesse said.
“She tell you about the Free Swingers?” Molly said.
“She told me it was a free and loving human experience,” Jesse said.
“Everybody knows that,” Molly said. “She tell you anything else?”
“She told me she’d find it exciting to have men looking at pictures of her naked.”
“Okay,” Molly said. “She’s got a good body.”
“I guess.”
“You don’t know?” Molly said. “You, an experienced investigator.”
“She was wearing some kind of dress that looked like a garment bag,” Jesse said.
“But her hair was good, and she wore makeup,” Molly said.
“How’d you know?” Jesse said.
“I, too, am an experienced investigator,” Molly said.
“And there is no woman in the Paradise Free Swingers club that doesn’t think about her appearance,” Jesse said.
“That too,” Molly said.
They were alone in the squad room. The conference table had several cardboard coffee cups lying on it, the wrappers from some fast-food cheeseburgers, and a couple of french fries that had escaped by nestling under the wrappers. As they talked Jesse cleaned up the table and put everything in the corner trash can. When he finished, Molly got a wet paper towel from the washroom and wiped down the table. Then they each got a fresh cup of coffee and sat down again.
“I hate a mess,” Jesse said.
Molly nodded.
“You find out anything that will help with the Night Hawk?” she said.
“No, but I didn’t expect to,” Jesse said. “She’ll tell her husband that I talked to her. If he’s our guy, it may pressure him a bit.”
Molly grinned.
“Squeeze his ’nads, so to speak,” she said.
“Wow,” Jesse said. “Moll, you’re really getting the lingo.”
“Makes me proud,” she said.
“You keep being a cop, you may turn into a guy,” Jesse said.
Molly had very big, dark eyes. She looked right at Jesse and batted her eyelashes.
“You think so?” Molly said.
Jesse smiled.
“No, Molly,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
“Me either,” she said.
“But if you’re ever looking for a free and loving human experience . . .” Jesse said.
“I’ll call you first,” Molly said. “What are you going to do about Seth Ralston?”
“I’m going to talk all around him. I’m going to interview everybody in the swingers club. I’m going to interview his colleagues. I’m going to study his academic record. I’m going to read his doctoral dissertation. I’m going to check his driving record.”
“But you’re not going to speak to him,” Molly said.
“Nope.”
“And you’re not going to accuse him of anything,” Molly said.
“Nope.”
“And you’ll be very careful not to say anything to indicate that he’s suspected of anything,”
Molly said.
“Careful,” Jesse said.
“But you’ll buzz around his life like a big green fly,” Molly said. “And drive him crazy.”
“That’s my plan,” Jesse said.
“And the Paradise Free Swingers?”
“Maybe I can find a way to make things work better for the Clark kids.”
She held her coffee cup in both hands in front of her mouth, watching the faint wisp of stream rise from it. Then she sipped some, and put the cup back down on the tabletop.
“That’s diabolical,” Molly said.
Jesse grinned at her.
“There’s more than one way,” he said, “to squeeze a ’nad.”
42
IT WAS Wednesday night. Jesse sat with Suit in Suit’s truck, outside Seth Ralston’s condo.
“So if you want him to know we’re watching him,” Suit said, “how come we don’t use a cruiser?”
“I figure this way,” Jesse said, “we have two chances. He spots you and it inhibits him, and squeezes him a little more. He doesn’t spot you and you may be able to catch him in the act.”
“Of what?” Suit said. “Peeping? I thought he’d moved on to his day job.”
“We don’t know that he’s not night and day,” Jesse said.
“Hell,” Suit said. “We don’t even know it’s him. All we got is that his wife works Wednesday nights.”
“And he’s in a swingers group,” Jesse said. “And he likes to watch.”
“Hell,” Suit said. “Just for the sake of discussion. Wouldn’t that be true of any member of a swingers group?”
“That they like to watch?” Jesse said. “I don’t know.”
“Well,” Suit said, “it sure don’t mean that you like to keep things private.”
“True,” Jesse said. “It doesn’t have to be Seth.”
“On the other hand,” Suit said, “who else we got?”
Jesse smiled and nodded slowly.
“There you have the essence of police work,” he said.