Captain,” Rosario said.
Healy nodded. He spoke to one of the detectives.
“Leave a couple of uniforms here,” he said. “Case they come
back.”
“I’ll stay a while,” Jesse said.
“Sure,” Healy said. “You want to
be alone?”
“Yeah.”
“I like to do that too,” Healy said.
“Sort of listen to a crime
scene. By myself.”
“Something like that,” Jesse said.
“Okay. Paulie,” Healy said to the
detective. “Tell the troopers
to stay in the vestibule until Stone leaves.”
When everyone was gone Jesse stood in the thick silence and looked slowly around the room. The place had been measured, searched, photographed, inventoried, dusted. The computer had been removed. He walked to the bathroom. Two toothbrushes stood in holders. A barely squeezed tube of toothpaste for sensitive teeth lay on the counter. The soap in the soap dish was new. A full bottle of shampoo stood on a shelf in the shower stall beside a fresh bar of soap. On a shelf above the bathroom sink were matched jars and tubes of makeup, all barely used, all in order by size and shape. The bed seemed freshly made. He turned back the spread. The sheets seemed newly washed and ironed. He opened bureau drawers.
Tony’s shirts were carefully laid out by color, still in their
transparent envelopes from the cleaner. His socks were rolled.
Brianna’s bureau was equally immaculate. The kitchen was spotless.
The counters were washed. The refrigerator was clean and organized.
A place for everything and everything in its place. The dining room table was set with good china. The whole place looked as if they were expecting company … They were. That’s why they had left
the evidence displayed. A farewell. See how much smarter we are
than you are. They would simply disappear and, in time, someone would notice they were gone, or maybe there would be an anonymous tip. And the cops would come and there would be the confession on the computer screen. They had never planned to come back. And they were too compulsive to leave the place un-immaculate for the company to see. Even had they successfully killed him they were moving on. He was to be the final triumph.
Here.
66
Jesse talked to the press the next morning on the front steps of
the Paradise Police Station. Yes, a Paradise police officer, Anthony deAngelo, had been killed last night. Yes, they had identified two suspects: Tony and Brianna Lincoln. No, they did not know the whereabouts of the suspects. Yes, the search was continuing. When they had asked all the questions Jesse could stand to hear, the news conference ended and Jesse went inside.
Molly nodded toward his office.
“Jenn,” Molly said. “She came in
the side.”
Jesse nodded and walked into his office. Jenn was sitting on the
edge of his desk, looking through Jesse’s side window at the turmoil of media that surged around the front lawn of the police station. Jesse closed the office door behind him.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.”
Jesse went around the desk and sat in his chair. Jenn shifted on
the edge of his desk so she was looking at him, her right leg resting on the ground, her left draped over his desk,
“Are you okay?” she said.
“Physically? Sure,” Jesse said.
“Small caliber, good
vest.”
“Still, someone tried to kill you.”
“I know.”
“And they did kill one of your men.”
“Yes.”
“And they got away,” Jenn said.
“So far,” Jesse said.
Jenn was quiet for a moment.
“You must feel awful,” she said.
“I try not to feel too much,” Jesse said.
“How’s the drinking?” Jenn said.
“I don’t drink anymore,” Jesse
said.
Jenn nodded.
“Did you have to tell Anthony’s
family?”
Jesse nodded.
“His wife,” Jesse said.
“Was it bad?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re sure you don’t feel
awful?” Jenn
said.
Jesse shrugged and looked out the window at the press scrum.
Then he took in some air, and looked back at Jenn and said,
“Yes. I guess, in fact, I do.”
“Of course you do,” she said.
“May I say
something?”
“If I said no, you’d say it
anyway.”
Jenn smiled.
“Yes,” she said. “I suppose I
would.”
She paused and pressed her face for a moment into her semi-cupped hands and rubbed her eyes, as if she were very tired.
Then she raised her head and took a breath.
“I am very sorry I tried to impose upon our relationship to get
a break on this serial killer story,” she said.
“You didn’t need
that. You shouldn’t have had to address that. I was wrong and stupid to ask.”
Jesse smiled faintly.
“Wrong and stupid?”
he said.
“Yes. I was thinking only about myself. I should have been
thinking about you. I’m very sorry.”
Jesse said nothing for a time.
Then he said, “Thank you, Jenn.”
“You’re welcome.”
She was wearing perfume. Her hair was well cut and perfectly arranged. Her makeup was bright and expert. Her clothes were very immediate. There was a kind of physical brightness about her that was just short of flamboyant.
“Would you like to talk about it?” she said.
“Off the record?”
Jenn hung her head a little.
“I’ll never tell anyone,” she
said, “what you say to me unless
you ask me to.”
Jesse smiled at her.
“Besides,” he said. “You
don’t even have B-roll for
this.”
Jenn smiled back at him.
“Hell,” she said. “All there is
in this case, is
B-roll.”
“There’s two of them, husband and wife.
Their goal was to kill
me, but I was wearing a vest. We tried to trap them at the shopping center but they killed Anthony and got away in the crowd. Probably should have brought the state cops into it, but coulda, shoulda. We searched their condo, found a computer with my picture on it and, in the sequence of their deaths, the other victims.”
“Like a confession,” Jenn said.
“Seemed so. The apartment was empty. No sign of flight, but no
sign of them returning either. Their car is still in the garage.
They probably had a rental. Staties are checking that now. My guess is that these people have already prepared another identity and the Staties won’t find anybody named Lincoln renting a car.”
“So you think you were going to be the pièce de
résistance?” Jenn said.
“Yes.”
“And they planned to disappear after they shot you?”
“Yes. The house is anally cleaned for us. The pictures on the
computer are waiting for us to find them. See how much smarter we are than you shitkickers.”
“And you don’t know where they
went,” Jenn said.
“No idea.”
“How did they get to the car?”
Jesse stared at her.
“They had to pick up the rental car,” Jenn said. “How did they
get there?”
“How did they get the car,” Jesse said.
67
“Maybe one of them drove the
other one over,” Simpson
said. “To get the rental car.”
“Did they stash the rental at their
condo?” Jesse said. “After
they picked it up?”
“Where?” Simpson said. “All the
parking spaces are assigned. If
they put it in somebody else’s spot it would draw attention.”
“Which they don’t want to do,”
Jesse said. “Maybe on the
street?”
“It’s a tow zone on both sides of the road,” Simpson
said.
“Side road.”
“In theory,” Simpson said,
“that’s resident parking