“As Dix would say, we don’t know enough about what drives either one of them,” Jesse said.
“Are you suggesting he might be in on this?” Molly said.
“He might be,” Jesse said. “This could be some weird sex game they are playing with each other . . . and us.”
“Christ,” Molly said. “I feel like I’m serving and protecting in Sodom and Gomorrah.”
“It’s getting a little gamy around here,” Jesse said. “Maybe it’s affecting us. Maybe she did it to divert attention from the panty-patrol incident.”
“This seems a little extreme for that,” Molly said.
“Unless there’s some sort of exhibitionism that somehow ties to her suspicion of the girls.”
“God, we’re in way, way over our heads,” Molly said. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll ask her to come in, show her the letter, see what she says.”
“Her husband will come with her,” Molly said.
Jesse shrugged.
“I’ll show him the letter, too,” Jesse said. “See what he says.”
Molly nodded. She was looking at Jesse, smiling slightly, and nodding to herself. Jesse waited.
“I’ve gotten to know you pretty well since you got here,” she said after a while.
“Know and love,” Jesse said. “I am the chief of police.”
“Yeah,” Molly said. “And I am pretty sure I know another reason you released all this sort of embarrassing publicity of Betsy Ingersoll.”
“Which is?”
“It’s her punishment for embarrassing those young girls.”
Jesse smiled.
“You can’t arrest her or anything,” Molly said. “But you sort of balanced it out this way.”
“You do seem to know me,” Jesse said.
“Seem?” Molly said.
“Okay, you know me,” Jesse said. “Does this mean we can have an affair?”
Molly smiled at him warmly.
“No,” she said.
55
THE CONFERENCE room on the thirty-fourth floor at Cone, Oakes provided a long look out over the harbor and a good way out onto the Atlantic Ocean. Across the harbor you could see Logan Airport, and looking almost straight down, the archway that led to Rowe’s Wharf. Jesse turned from the view when Rita Fiore came in.
“The view is to impress clients,” Rita said.
“Impresses the hell out of me,” Jesse said.
“And you’re not even a client.”
“Friend of the firm,” Jesse said.
Rita went to a sideboard and poured them each some coffee, then sat on the conference table with her legs crossed. Jesse nodded at her legs and made a thumbs-up gesture.
“ Thumbs-up was not quite my plan,” Rita said.
Jesse grinned.
“We talked about the managing partner of the firm a while ago,” Jesse said. “Now I need to know more. Tell me what you didn’t tell me before.”
“You’re exploiting our past, if fleeting, relationship?” Rita said. “To get me to gossip about my boss?”
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“What about ethics?”
“You’re a lawyer,” Jesse said.
“Oh, right,” Rita said. “I withdraw the question. What do you need to know, off the record?”
“Does he fool around?” Jesse said.
“He’s a cock hound,” Rita said.
“And you know this how?” Jesse said.
Rita grinned.
“Firsthand,” she said. “So to speak.”
“Ahh,” Jesse said. “So that’s how you got to be a senior partner.”
“Along with brilliant trial work,” Rita said.
“You are brilliant in both arenas,” Jesse said.
“You should know,” Rita said.
“You think Betsy is aware?”
“I have no idea,” Rita said.
“Is he careful?” Jesse said.
“No,” Rita said.
“Is there a particular squeeze?” Jesse said.
“He tends to graze among the new lawyers. At the moment he’s got a blonde kid from Tax and Trust that’s two years out of Stanford.”
“Do we know how he feels about his wife?”
“He thinks she’s excruciatingly conventional,” Rita said.
“That doesn’t sound like love to me,” Jesse said.
“Nor to me,” Rita said.
“Do you know why he has stayed with her?”
“She doesn’t occupy much of his time,” Rita said. “He is here probably twelve hours a day, and spends a lot of his evenings and weekends with the plonk du jour.”
“Plonk?” Jesse said.
“You know, as in he’s plonking her?”
“Plonk,” Jesse said.
“So he’s not home much. There are no kids. Probably finds it convenient to have somebody cleaning the house and sending his shirts to the laundry.”
“Think he plonks her?” Jesse said.
“His wife?” Rita said. “I haven’t thought about it. Why are you interested?”
“I think she staged the home invasion,” Jesse said.
“Staged?” Rita said.
“Yes.”
“And took her own picture?” Rita said.
“Yes.”
“And cherchez l’homme ?” Rita said.
“Well, it’s a theory,” Jesse said.
“She’s trying to get his attention?” Rita said.
“Maybe.”
“Or maybe he pays no sexual attention to her, poor baby,” Rita said. “And she wants to show him that someone might care to see her naked.”
“Even if it’s a wacko?”
Rita smiled.
“There are people who think a wacko is better than no one,” Rita said.
“I’ve heard that,” Jesse said.
56
“DID YOU know that Hannah Wechsler isn’t teaching any night courses this semester?” Molly said.
“I didn’t,” Jesse said.
“It was bothering me that we were sitting on Seth Ralston every Wednesday night and he wasn’t moving.”
“I figured after he spotted me and Suit on his tail last time,” Jesse said, “he was laying low again.”
“I called the university,” Molly said. “Hannah Wechsler is not teaching a night class this semester.”
“So he can’t get out,” Jesse said.
“At least on Wednesday nights,” Molly said.
“Do you know what she’s doing?” Jesse said. “Does she teach days?”
“No,” Molly said. “It took me about eight thousand phone calls, but apparently she’s taking a year off to write her Ph.D. dissertation.”
“So he can’t count on her being out of the house on a regular schedule.”
“My guess,” Molly said.
“And neither can we,” Jesse said.
“I’ll find out if she’s working at home or someplace else,” Molly said. “Or both.”
“Even if she’s working someplace else,” Jesse said, “it’s voluntary. She might stay home any day, or come home early any day. You can’t count on it like a scheduled class.”
“So he has to practice his obsession when he has the opportunity, which may not be pre-dictable.”
“We can’t stay on him twenty-four-seven,” Jesse said.
“We?”
“You and Suit,” Jesse said. “But I’ve been with you in spirit.”
“That’s been great,” Molly said. “But you’re right. There’s no point to the Wednesday-night stakeouts anymore.”
“Best we, or you and Suit, can do is make random checks at unexpected times,” Jesse said.
“Boy, those are great odds,” Molly said.
“You got a better plan,” Jesse said.
“I don’t have one as good,” Molly said.
Jesse smiled.
“You and Suit could watch Hannah for a week or so,” Jesse said. “See if there’s any pattern in what she does and where she goes.”
Molly nodded.
“If he’s as driven as you think he is,” Molly said, “this must be pressuring him something fierce.”
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“What do you think he’ll do?” Molly said.
“What I know is, he can’t do nothing. The pressure will build. He’ll have to find a way.”
“You sound so sure,” Molly said.
“Obsession can be tough,” Jesse said.