“I talked with her husband,” Jesse said. “He was pleasant enough.”
“What did you say?”
“He and his boyfriend are opening a high-end restaurant on the coast of Maine, south of Portland. I suggested negative publicity about him spending all his wife’s money on boyfriends and this restaurant would not help business.”
“God, Jesse,” Jenn said. “Sometimes I wonder which side of the law you’re on.”
“Me, too,” Jesse said.
“But it worked?”
“It worked,” Jesse said.
“That the broad the cop, Suitcase, was fucking?” Amber said from the armchair.
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“You think he’s still fucking her?”
“Probably,” Jesse said.
“And you don’t care?” Amber said.
“No,” Jesse said.
“I think it’s disgusting,” Amber said.
“What I do care about, though,” Jesse said, “is that they are people, and that this matters to them in some way, and they probably shouldn’t be talked about like a couple of barnyard animals.”
Amber stared at him for a moment, and then shrugged and sank a little lower into the armchair.
“I was just asking,” she said.
Jesse went to the bar and made himself another drink. He looked at Jenn. She held up her half-full glass and shook her head. The doorbell rang. It was Molly, in uniform, with a heavy, fur-collared jacket on. She had a folded newspaper in her hand.
“You seen the paper today?” she said when she came in.
“No delivery today,” Jesse said. “Snow, I suppose.”
Molly handed it to him. She looked at Amber.
“Section two,” she said. “Below the fold.”
Jesse turned to it.
FLA. CRIME FIGURE KILLED
Louis Francisco, the reputed boss of organized crime in South Florida, was found shot to death today in the parking lot of a Miami restaurant.
Jesse read the story through without comment. A driver and a bodyguard had also been killed. Neither was named Romero. No arrests had been made. So far police had no suspects. Jesse gave the paper to Jenn and looked at Amber. Then he looked at Molly. She shrugged. Jesse nodded. He put his drink on the bar and walked over to Amber and sat on the hassock where Jenn had sat.
“Your father’s dead,” he said.
She looked away from the television screen and stared for a time at Jesse. Then, finally, she shrugged.
“Sooner or later,” she said.
Jesse nodded. MTV cavorted on behind him.
“Who killed him,” Amber said.
“You’re so sure he was killed,” Jesse said.
“Yeah. How else’s he gonna go? He ain’t much older than you.”
Jesse nodded.
“It bother you?” Jesse said.
“That somebody killed him? No. He was a rotten bastard,” Amber said. “Both of them were rotten bastards.”
“You’re not alone,” Jenn said. “We will see that you’re okay.”
Amber was annoyed.
“I know that,” she said. “And I got money, too.”
“Yes,” Jesse said. “You do. And no one’s going to come back and bother you now….”
Jesse grinned at her.
“Except maybe me,” Jesse said, “if you don’t behave.”
“I’m not scared of you,” Amber said.
“No, why would you be,” Jesse said.
“So who shot him, it say?”
“It doesn’t say.”
Molly looked at Jesse, and then at Amber and then back at Jesse.
“I think we can talk about this in front of Amber,” Jesse said. “She’s certainly an interested party.”
“For crissake,” Amber said. “He was my old man, okay?”
Molly nodded.
“You have a thought?” Molly said to Jesse.
“Guy had a beef with Francisco,” Jesse said. “Took out two bodyguards and the boss in a public parking lot in the middle of Miami and disappeared. We know anybody like that?”
“Crow?” Molly said.
“A sentimental favorite,” Jenn said, and then looked like she shouldn’t have said it.
Molly blushed. Jesse saw it. Molly? And Crow? He smiled to himself. It’s like being police chief in Peyton Place.
“I’d guess Crow,” Jesse said. “Solved a lot of problems that way. He’d double-crossed Francisco twice. That meant Francisco would try to arrange Crow’s death. Also frees up Amber here from fear of custody or kidnapping.”
“You think that’s why he did it?” Amber said.
Jesse looked thoughtfully at her for a moment.
“Yeah,” he said. “I think so.”
She smiled for maybe the first time since Jesse had met her.
“Okay,” Molly said. “Gotta go home. We’re cooking supper in the fireplace. It’s a family tradition. Every year, first snowfall, we cook supper in the fireplace.”
“Hardy pioneers,” Jesse said.
“You bet,” Molly said, and turned up her collar and left.
The three of them were quiet. Jesse walked over and put his arm around Jenn.
“Molly and Crow?” he said.
Jenn looked up at him and winked. Jesse nodded. Jenn lifted her face toward him and Jesse kissed her.
“Jesus,” Amber said. “Can you wait until I’m out of the room to start necking.”
“Guess not,” Jesse said. “You want supper?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Okay, if you people don’t start doing it on the kitchen table.”
“Promise,” Jenn said.
Jesse picked up his drink and they walked into the kitchen. Amber sat at the table while Jesse and Jenn put out the food that Daisy had packed.
“God,” Amber said. “Crow is so cool.”