High Profile

Jesse said.

“And here we are worrying about one of the people who may keep us from being together,” Sunny said.

“It’s hard work,” Jesse said.

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R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“But we need to do it,” Sunny said.

Jesse looked at her. He felt the pull of her. But it was not the same kind of pull Jenn exerted. Nothing was. There was no other feeling like the one Jenn caused. Obsessions are fearsome.

“Okay,” Jesse said. “Give her a gun.”

Sunny smiled.

“I already did,” she said.

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31

Healy pushed through the crowd of reporters outside the Paradise police station.

A reporter held out his microphone and said, “Who are you, sir?”

“The Pied Piper,” Healy said. “When I leave, I want you all to follow me out of town.”

He went in through the front door and closed it behind him. At the desk Molly said, “Hi, Captain.”

“Hello, darling,” Healy said.

R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“Officer Darling,” Molly said. “Chief Stone is in his office.”

Healy grinned at her and went down the hall. In Jesse’s office he went straight to the file cabinet and got some coffee. Then he sat down and crossed his legs.

“Thought I’d stop by,” Healy said, “on my way to work, see how fame was affecting you.”

“I think I’m opposed to freedom of the press.”

“King Nixon might have agreed,” Healy said.

“Okay,” Jesse said. “It has its place.”

“Just not here,” Healy said.

“Exactly.”

“You know anything I don’t know?” Healy said.

“Probably,” Jesse said. “But not about Walton Weeks.”

“How ’bout Carey Longley?”

“Less,” Jesse said.

“She’s thirty years old, from New Jersey. Her father’s an executive with Curtiss-Wright,” Healy said. “Her mother’s a housewife. Two older brothers, both work at Curtiss-Wright. She was married to and divorced from a guy who works for her father.”

“So how come nobody has contacted me?” Jesse said.

“They all disowned her,” Healy said. “They’re very religious. When she divorced their handpicked husband and went off to work for Walton Weeks, and live sinfully, they all agreed she was no more.”

“They don’t like Walton?” Jesse said.

“They felt him to be an embodiment, I believe the phrase was, of the Antichrist,” Healy said.

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H I G H P R O F I L E

“Gee,” Jesse said. “He didn’t seem so bad, watching him on tape.”

“That’s because you’re not as, ah, Christian as they are.”

“Probably not,” Jesse said. “What’s your source?”

“Jersey state cop,” Healy said. “Named Morrissey. Want to talk with him?”

“Maybe,” Jesse said. “She have children?”

“No.”

“Is Longley her maiden name or married name?”

“Married.”

“What was her maiden name?” Jesse said.

“Young, and I think you’re supposed to call it her birth name.”

“Sure,” Jesse said. “Her ex-husband disown her, too?”

“Yep.”

“Everybody—father, mother, brothers, ex-husband.”

“Sinful is sinful,” Healy said.

“I wonder if one of them killed him for embodying the Antichrist, and her for carrying his baby.”

“And they shot them instead of stoning them to death?”

Healy said.

“Just a thought,” Jesse said.

“It’s not a bad one,” Healy said. “Except according to Morrissey they all had alibis for the time she died.”

“So does everyone else,” Jesse said.

“Ex-wives?” Healy said.

“Yep. And the researcher and the manager and the lawyer.”

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R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“How about his bodyguard?” Healy said.

“Lutz? The day the ME says they died, the house dick at the hotel says Lutz had breakfast in the dining room, hung in the lobby all morning with a newspaper. He ate lunch in the dining room. Sat in the lobby, chatted up the doorman, used the health club, had a couple drinks in the bar, ordered room service for dinner and a movie and made two phone calls. He never left the hotel.”

“Sounds like he wanted to be able to prove he was there,”

Healy said.

“It does,” Jesse said. “And he was.”

Healy nodded. Jesse turned the coffee mug slowly in his hands. Healy was neat and quiet in the chair across from him. Tan summer suit, blue shirt, tan tie with diagonal blue stripes, snap-brimmed summer straw hat with a big blue band.

“Two people murdered,” Jesse said. “One of them famous. And no one appears to care at all.”

“Except the first wife,” Healy said.

Jesse nodded and looked out the window at the transmitter trucks parked near the station.

“And the Fourth Estate,” he said.

“I don’t think they care about Carey and Walton,” Healy said.

“No,” Jesse said. “Of course they don’t. They’re just subject matter.”

Healy nodded.

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H I G H P R O F I L E

“Ellen Migliore,” Jesse said. “Who’s divorced from Walton twenty years or more. She’s the only one.”

“I wonder why she cares?” Healy said.

“Something ulterior?” Jesse said.

“Doesn’t hurt to think about it,” Healy said.

“No,” Jesse said. “It doesn’t.”

“Except then it leaves nobody who cares,” Healy said. Jesse looked at his coffee cup for a moment. Then he looked up at Healy.

“You and me,” Jesse said. “We care.”

“We’re supposed to,” Healy said.

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32

Jonah Levy held his office door for Jesse and waited until Jesse was seated before closing it and going to his own desk.