“Except some people might be dead,” Jesse said. “Including you.”
“What’s the fun in winning,” Crow said, “you got no chance to lose?”
68.
The easy late-summer rain had emptied the beach. Jesse sat with Jenn on the bench in the small pavilion watching the raindrops pock the surface of the ocean.
“Can we walk on the beach?” Jenn said.
“Umbrella?” Jesse said.
“No. I’d like to walk in the rain and get wet.”
“And your hair?” Jesse said.
“I’ll fix it when we get home,” Jenn said.
The phrase pinched in Jesse’s solar plexus. Home.
They stood and began to walk down the empty beach. The rain was steady but not hard. There was no wind.
“So the gang from Marshport,” Jenn said. “They think Crow has been set up by Amber and is expecting to meet her on the causeway, where instead they will shoot him dead.”
“Correct,” Jesse said.
“God, I wish I could use some of this,” Jenn said.
“Maybe someday,” Jesse said.
“And Amber’s father thinks Crow will deliver his daughter to him in the middle of the causeway,” Jenn said.
“Correct.”
“And you hope to provoke conflict between the two groups and arrest them all.”
“Exactly,” Jesse said.
“Is any of this plan legal?” Jenn said.
“I may be able to make it look so,” Jesse said.
“But you know who most of the villains are already,” Jenn said.
“Plus, I know Crow killed a guy in Marshport, and certainly a couple guys here,” Jesse said. “Though I can’t prove it.”
“But you’re not trying to catch Crow,” Jenn said.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not sure,” Jesse said.
“Can you trust Crow in this?”
“Probably not,” Jesse said. “And I know that Esteban Carty and the Horn Street gang killed Amber’s mother. And I know they have a contract on Crow, but all I have is secondhand information from a known felon, who would probably say anything he thought would serve him.”
“What do you suppose Crow is up to in all this?” Jenn said.
“He may be looking out for the girl,” Jesse said. “He may have an issue I don’t know about that he’s resolving with Francisco. But to tell you the truth, I think he’s just playing.”
“God,” Jenn said.
“Crow’s unusual,” Jesse said.
“And doesn’t the father have a legal right to his daughter?” Jenn said.
“Probably,” Jesse said. “I got somebody from Rita Fiore’s firm working on that.”
“And the million dollars Crow has extorted from the father?” Jenn said.
“Rita’s people are setting up a trust for Amber,” Jesse said. “She stays here and finishes school and gets it at age eighteen. Meanwhile, we support her on the income.”
“And if she runs off?”
“I don’t know,” Jesse said.
“This could blow up in your face,” Jenn said.
“I know.”
“You could lose your job,” Jenn said. “Everything.”
“I know.”
“For what?” Jenn said.
Jesse shrugged.
“What does Dix say?” Jenn asked.
“He thinks that Amber is probably too damaged to save,” Jesse said. “Though, being a shrink, he doesn’t exactly say that.”
“So you’re going to jump off the cliff,” Jenn said, “for maybe nothing.”
Jesse shrugged again.
“Why?” Jenn said.
“Seems like the right thing to do,” Jesse said.
They walked in silence then, except for the murmur of the ocean, and the hushed sound of the rain and the wet crunch their feet made in the sand.
“Be a better chance of all of this working if I could actually put Amber out there with Crow.”
“Which you can’t.”
“No,” Jesse said. “Nor Molly dressed up as Amber.”
“I could…” Jenn started.
“No,” Jesse said.
Jenn smiled faintly.
“Thank God,” she said. “I didn’t really want to.”
“I wouldn’t let you,” Jesse said. “Even if you did.”
“But,” Jenn said, “I have a thought.”
They stopped and stood in the rain. Their clothes were wet through. Neither of them minded.
“During my breathtaking film career,” Jenn said, “I encountered an occasional stunt dummy.”
“And went out with him?” Jesse said.
“Not that kind of dummy,” Jenn said. “It’s a floppy replica, like a rag doll with a realistic look. You know, the guy falls off the building and you see him land on the roof of a car?…What’s landing is the stunt dummy.”
“Can you get one?”
“Sure, there’s a couple theatrical supply houses in town that have them,” Jenn said. “We dress it like Amber, put on a black wig with a maroon stripe, maybe, and voilà.”
“Better than an inflate-a-mate,” Jesse said.
“Most things are,” Jenn said. “I’ll get it this afternoon and bring it out.”
“Thank you,” Jesse said.
They walked on. It had gotten darker. The sky was lower. The rain was coming a little harder.
“I don’t know,” Jenn said. “It may be all wrong, what you’re doing.”
“I know.”
“But it’s for all the right motives,” Jenn said.
“Story of my life,” Jesse said.
Jenn stopped and turned to him and put her arms around him and pressed her face against his chest.
“Jesse,” she said. “Jesse, Jesse, Jesse.”
He patted her back slowly.
69.
“Suit,” Jesse said. “You and Molly bring Amber here tomorrow morning. No later than nine.”
“If she objects?” Suit said.
“Bring her,” Jesse said. “Handcuff her if you have to. Arthur, you man the desk. If there’s an emergency, and I mean a real one, not somebody’s cat is missing, you cover it and Suit will take the desk. Otherwise, Suit, you and Molly are in a cell with Amber. Vests and shotguns.”
Suit nodded. Jesse looked around the squad room.
“She’ll want to know why,” Molly said.
“Don’t tell her,” Jesse said. “Peter, you’re on the Neck. Buddy, you’re at the construction detour. Murph, you’re on the backhoe. Eddie, you’re in a car on the Neck with John. Peter will join you when the balloon goes up. Steve and Bobby, you’re in a car at the other end. Buddy and Murph will join you. There will be some Staties in unmarked cars in the parking lot at the beach. Commander is a corporal named Jenks. They’ll pitch in…at my request…if they’re needed.”
“And you’re in the van,” Paul Murphy said.
Jesse nodded.
“At the construction site,” he said. “I’ll be in radio contact with everybody, including Crow. When it goes down, you wait for me, and when I say so, we come in from both ends and arrest everybody in sight.”
“And do what with them?” Peter Perkins said. “We don’t have a paddy wagon, and even if we did, we probably don’t have enough cell space.”
“Healy promised me a State Police wagon, and we can use the Salem City jail.”
“Crow?” Suit said.
“Except Crow,” Jesse said.
“I still don’t get what’s in this for Crow,” Peter Perkins said.
“Nobody does,” Jesse said. “He seems to think it’s fun.”
“Hell,” Peter Perkins said. “I’m not sure what we’re getting out of this.”
“We might close a couple of cases, and give Amber Francisco a life,” Jesse said.
“Sounds like protect and serve to me,” Suit said.
“Me, too,” Jesse said.
“On the other hand,” Suit said, “how you gonna explain the million bucks to the IRS?”
“That’s why they make accountants, Suit,” Jesse said.
“Oh,” Suit said. “I knew there was a reason.”
“Screw the IRS,” Steve Friedman said. “How you gonna explain it to Healy?”