He let go of her hair and left.
All that newfound strength of his had seemed to vanish. Now all he wanted was to shower and to sleep.
Twenty-two
When Jesse got back to his condo, he found his son in his default position — on the living room couch, watching something from one of the streaming services Cole paid for.
“Hey,” Jesse said.
Cole hit pause. “Hey. Late night.”
“A meeting and then work.”
“About the dead girl?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Getting anywhere with that?”
“Yes, but not sure where. Once I find where she got the drugs, I’ll have a direction to pursue. For now, it’s hit and miss. Welcome to police work.”
Cole laughed. Jesse thought maybe a little too loudly.
“I say something funny?”
Cole shook his head. Jesse changed the subject.
“I’m not spying on you, but I’ve been by Daisy’s. You’ve missed a few days.”
“With Daisy’s blessing.”
Jesse held up his palms like he was on traffic duty. “I know. She told me. Also told me if I was curious that I should ask you about it.”
“Are you asking?”
“I am.”
“It’s not like a secret,” Cole said. “But I’d like to tell you in my own time. Okay?”
Jesse thought about pressing the issue, then remembered what Molly had advised. She’d told him to back off and let the kid come around by himself.
“All right. When you’re ready to tell me, I’ll be here. Did you eat?”
“Yeah, but I could eat some more.”
“Omelet work for you?”
“Sounds good.”
Jesse had never been good at small talk, and he was even worse at it with Cole. There always seemed to be an eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room sitting between them that neither of them could quite bring themselves to talk about. Jesse had tried talking baseball, but Cole wasn’t a big fan. No doubt that was part of Cole’s resentment over the father who he had grown up believing had abandoned his mother and him. Cole’s presence made Jesse very conscious of his own limitations. Jesse hated politicians and politics, so they didn’t talk about that. He didn’t drink anymore, so he avoided that as a subject for discussion. Whenever he tried raising the subject of Cole’s life with his mother back in L.A., Cole shut down. And, frankly, Cole’s job at Daisy’s didn’t exactly supply a lot of material. The one thing that Cole seemed genuinely interested in was when Jesse discussed police work. Of course, that was the one subject Jesse wanted to get away from when he was home. But as they sat there eating their omelets, Cole broke the silence.
“So, are you dating this Maryglenn woman?”
That took Jesse by complete surprise. He literally sat up from his food. “I guess Daisy must have mentioned it.”
Cole nodded.
“Dating? I’m not sure dating is the word.”
“Sleeping with?”
“Let’s use the word seeing.”
“Are you seeing her?”
“I am. Why do you ask?”
He hesitated but answered. “I don’t think Daisy likes her very much.”
“Yeah,” Jesse said, “I got that feeling, too.”
“Did you ask her about it?”
“Did you?”
“Are you kidding me? Daisy would bite my head off.”
“Any guesses?”
“This may sound a little weird, but Daisy almost sounds a little jealous.”
Jesse chewed on that for a minute before saying something. “Maybe protective more than jealous. We’ve always kind of watched out for each other.”
“I don’t know. You two are close. I get that, but it seemed more like jealousy to me.”
Jesse wanted to dismiss what Cole was saying, but recalling the looks on Daisy’s face and on Maryglenn’s, he just couldn’t.
“I’m beat and it’s going to be a long, hard day tomorrow,” Jesse said. “I have to interview the dead girl’s parents.”
“Good luck with that. I’ve got to get up early. Back to work for me in the morning.”
Jesse went to wash the dishes, but Cole told Jesse to get to sleep.
“Old folks need more rest,” he said, smiling at Jesse.
Jesse laughed and felt closer to his son than he had at any time since he visited him in the hospital after the old meetinghouse explosion. Maybe, he thought, Molly had a point.
Twenty-three
Jesse usually liked to catch people he was questioning off guard, but the Mackeys had just buried their daughter and he didn’t suspect either of them of being involved in her death in any way. He had Molly call ahead to let them know he was coming.
“How did they sound, Molly?” he asked, calling her back as he turned the corner of their street.
“Not like I expected.”
“How do you mean?”
“Jesse, this may sound weird, but they almost sounded happy. Well, not happy exactly. Just...”
“Don’t struggle with it. I understand.”
“What do you understand?”
“Since the night Heather died, their lives have been filled up with grief, but also with plans and phone conversations, and people dropping by. Now the real mourning starts. Today is the day when it will hit them that they will never see their girl again. Today marks the day she will be dead forever. They’re thankful for anything that takes even a little of that sting away. And they don’t want to feel so helpless. They want to make her life worth something.”
“For such a self-contained, stoic bastard, Jesse Stone, you do know people.”
“Hard-learned lessons, Molly. Hard-learned.”
The Mackeys’ red front door pulled back even before Jesse had gotten halfway up the walk. He removed his hat before entering. There, Steve Mackey was waiting for him, shook Jesse’s hand, and thanked him for coming to all the services.
“She was a great girl, Steve. I’m so sorry.”
Fact was Jesse had barely known her, but this exchange between the selectman and Jesse was more ritual than anything else. What else would Jesse say? What else did a father want to hear? He took Jesse by the elbow and showed him into the kitchen, where Patti Mackey was fussing with the coffee machine. Steve Mackey gestured for Jesse to sit. He did. Mackey sat across from him. Patti offered him coffee.
“Sure. I’d like that.”
She put the cup in front of him and sat close to her husband, clutching his hand. She looked a wreck. Her red eyes were the least of it. For his part, Steve Mackey looked like he wanted to crumble but was holding it together for Patti... or not. It was just as likely, Jesse thought, Mackey was afraid of what would happen if he let himself go. Jesse understood that. He had let himself crack after Diana’s murder and it had nearly ruined him. He made a show of fixing up his coffee the way he liked it and making a satisfied sigh after taking a sip. Then he got to business.
“Thank you both for talking to me today.”
“We want to help,” Patti said, voice brittle.
“I know you do. Let me say that the best way you can help is to be totally honest with me. Nothing you say to me that might seem to shine a bad light on Heather will ever leave this room. The only thing I want is to not have to repeat this same conversation with someone else’s parents.”
Both the Mackeys nodded.
Jesse waited a full thirty seconds. He was curious to see if either Steve or Patti would offer something without prompting before he asked his questions. He got the sense that Patti might have had something to say, but in the end, neither spoke up.
“Okay. Did either one of you have any idea Heather had a drug problem?”
The question was greeted by silence. Again, Jesse sensed Patti had something to say. He made a mental note to circle back to Patti and speak to her without Steve present.