Stranger in Paradise

The cops got up and started out.

“Moll,” Jesse said. “Could you stick here a minute?”

Molly sat back down.

When the others had left, Jesse said, “Something going on with Suit and Miriam Fiedler?”

“No,” Molly said. “Why?”

“The little joke about Officer Simpson being on top of things.”

“I was just teasing her,” Molly said. “You know I can’t stand her.”

“Who can,” Jesse said.

Molly didn’t say anything. Jesse leaned back and stretched his neck a little, looking up at the ceiling.

“I think there’s more, Moll,” he said after a time.

“More what?”

“I think there’s something between Suit and Miriam Fiedler,” Jesse said, “that you have probably promised Suit not to tell me about.”

“Honestly, Jesse…” Molly said.

Jesse put up a hand as if he were stopping traffic.

“I don’t want to put you in the position where you have to break a promise or lie to me. I like you too much. Hell, I depend on you too much.”

“Jesse, I…”

Again, Jesse stopped her.

“Suit is very appealing to a certain kind of older, affluent, dissatisfied woman,” Jesse said. “They see him as both masculine and cute. Like a big, friendly bear, and he is often in marked contrast to their husbands.”

“Like Hasty Hathaway’s wife,” Molly said.

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “Like her. In return, Suit is flattered by the attention of such a woman, and their age and status seem not to be a detriment but an attraction.”

“Oedipus again?” Molly said. “Maybe you’ve been seeing that shrink too long, Jesse.”

“In fact,” Jesse said, “not long enough. But for whatever reason, Suit has a track record of bopping some surprising women.”

“Lot of that going around,” Molly said.

Jesse grinned.

“You bet,” Jesse said. “And I’m all for it. As long as it does not compromise what we do here.”

“You think Suit is doing the hokey-pokey with Miriam Fiedler?” Molly said.

“I do,” Jesse said.

“If you were right, would it harm the department?”

“Not if Suit kept it separate,” Jesse said. “Not as long as he continues to serve and protect the kids at the Crowne estate.”

“You think he wouldn’t?” Molly said.

“No,” Jesse said. “I think he will. But I don’t want him, or us, embarrassed.”

Molly nodded.

“I would,” she said, “if he were doing something.”

“Good,” Jesse said.

They sat together for another moment in silence. Then Jesse looked at Molly and said, “Miriam Fiedler?”

And Molly giggled.

22.

It took a long time for Mrs. Franklin to open the door.

When she did, Crow said, “My name is Wilson Cromartie. I work for a man named Francisco.”

She tried to shut the door, but Crow wouldn’t let her.

“We need to talk,” he said, and forced the door open and went in and closed it behind him.

The woman backed away.

“Don’t hurt me,” she said.

Her voice was blurred and Crow assumed she’d drunk most of the beer she’d bought earlier.

“I won’t hurt you,” Crow said.

“He sent you,” she said.

“He did. He wants his daughter back.”

“He fucking deserves her,” the woman said. “How’d you find us.”

“Your daughter used a credit card in her own name.”

“Dumb bitch,” the woman said.

There was an open can of beer on the coffee table in front of the couch. The woman picked it up and drank some.

“He can have her back,” the woman said. “I can’t do anything with her. But I’m not going back.”

“He doesn’t want you back,” Crow said.

The woman belched softly.

“Good,” she said. “’Cause I ain’t going.”

“He told me to kill you,” Crow said.

The woman backed up a step.

“You said you wasn’t going to hurt me,” she said.

“I’m not,” Crow said. “I don’t kill women.”

“He know that?”

“No.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Your daughter’s got a boyfriend?”

The woman finished her beer.

“Everybody’s her boyfriend, the little slut. Who’s she with now?”

“Kid from Marshport named Esteban Carty,” Crow said.

“The fucking gangbanger,” the woman said.

“Yep.”

“She loves those gangbangers,” the woman said. “I think she does it to spite me.”

Crow nodded. The woman went to the refrigerator and got another beer. While she had the door open, she counted the number of beer cans left.

“I done everything for her, give up everything. Took her away from him. Run off, risked my life taking her with me, so I wouldn’t leave her with him. And she comes here and turns into a fucking slut.”

“Your daughter’s boyfriend knows I found you,” Crow said. “She’s with him now. So she’ll know, too.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t want her running off again.”

“You think I can stop her?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Crow said. “I can.”

23.

Jenn sat across from Jesse in the Gray Gull, at the window overlooking the harbor. He was sipping a scotch and soda. Jenn had a mojito.

“You’re working,” Jesse said.

“Why do you think so?”

“You’re on expenses,” Jesse said, “or you wouldn’t have promised to pay for dinner.”

Jenn smiled.

“I missed you,” she said. “I wanted to talk. You can pay if you’d rather.”

“That’s okay,” Jesse said.

“Secure in your manhood?”

“Something like that,” Jesse said.

“I need a favor.”

“Sure.”

“We have been all over the gang infiltration story,” Jenn said. “And I’m not so sure there is a story.”

Jesse nodded.