Stranger in Paradise

“Well,” she said. “There was that.”

“You like school, Jesse?” Amber said.

“No,” Jesse said. “To tell you the truth, I thought it sucked, too.”

“See?” Amber said to Jenn.

Jenn nodded.

“You want a Coke?” she said to Amber.

“Yeah, sure, if I can’t have the good stuff,” Amber said.

Jenn got up and got Amber a Coke. Jesse continued to look out at the snow. Jenn came back to stand beside him. Amber refocused on MTV.

“So much for motherly small talk with the kid,” Jenn said.

“Maybe it’s a little soon,” Jesse said, “for motherly.”

“Too soon for me?” Jenn said. “Or too soon for her?”

“You,” Jesse said. “You seem a little…avant-garde…for motherly.”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not,” Jenn said.

“It’s an observation,” Jesse said.

“Wouldn’t it be odd,” Jenn said, “if we put this together someday, and we had children.”

“Yes,” Jesse said. “That would be odd.”

“But not bad odd,” Jenn said.

“No,” Jesse said. “Not bad odd.”

The early winter night had arrived. The only snow they could see now was that just past the French doors, illuminated by the light from the living room.

“I saw where Miriam Fiedler got divorced,” Jenn said.

“Yep.”

“I thought that was going to be troublesome.”

“Guess it wasn’t,” Jesse said.

Jenn looked at him for a minute.

“You have something to do with that?” she said.

“I talked with her husband,” Jesse said. “He was pleasant enough.”

“What did you say?”

“He and his boyfriend are opening a high-end restaurant on the coast of Maine, south of Portland. I suggested negative publicity about him spending all his wife’s money on boyfriends and this restaurant would not help business.”

“God, Jesse,” Jenn said. “Sometimes I wonder which side of the law you’re on.”

“Me, too,” Jesse said.

“But it worked?”

“It worked,” Jesse said.

“That the broad the cop, Suitcase, was fucking?” Amber said from the armchair.

“Yes,” Jesse said.

“You think he’s still fucking her?”

“Probably,” Jesse said.

“And you don’t care?” Amber said.

“No,” Jesse said.

“I think it’s disgusting,” Amber said.

“What I do care about, though,” Jesse said, “is that they are people, and that this matters to them in some way, and they probably shouldn’t be talked about like a couple of barnyard animals.”

Amber stared at him for a moment, and then shrugged and sank a little lower into the armchair.

“I was just asking,” she said.

Jesse went to the bar and made himself another drink. He looked at Jenn. She held up her half-full glass and shook her head. The doorbell rang. It was Molly, in uniform, with a heavy, fur-collared jacket on. She had a folded newspaper in her hand.

“You seen the paper today?” she said when she came in.

“No delivery today,” Jesse said. “Snow, I suppose.”

Molly handed it to him. She looked at Amber.

“Section two,” she said. “Below the fold.”

Jesse turned to it.

FLA. CRIME FIGURE KILLED

Louis Francisco, the reputed boss of organized crime in South Florida, was found shot to death today in the parking lot of a Miami restaurant.

Jesse read the story through without comment. A driver and a bodyguard had also been killed. Neither was named Romero. No arrests had been made. So far police had no suspects. Jesse gave the paper to Jenn and looked at Amber. Then he looked at Molly. She shrugged. Jesse nodded. He put his drink on the bar and walked over to Amber and sat on the hassock where Jenn had sat.

“Your father’s dead,” he said.

She looked away from the television screen and stared for a time at Jesse. Then, finally, she shrugged.

“Sooner or later,” she said.

Jesse nodded. MTV cavorted on behind him.

“Who killed him,” Amber said.

“You’re so sure he was killed,” Jesse said.

“Yeah. How else’s he gonna go? He ain’t much older than you.”

Jesse nodded.

“It bother you?” Jesse said.

“That somebody killed him? No. He was a rotten bastard,” Amber said. “Both of them were rotten bastards.”

“You’re not alone,” Jenn said. “We will see that you’re okay.”

Amber was annoyed.

“I know that,” she said. “And I got money, too.”

“Yes,” Jesse said. “You do. And no one’s going to come back and bother you now….”

Jesse grinned at her.

“Except maybe me,” Jesse said, “if you don’t behave.”

“I’m not scared of you,” Amber said.

“No, why would you be,” Jesse said.

“So who shot him, it say?”

“It doesn’t say.”

Molly looked at Jesse, and then at Amber and then back at Jesse.

“I think we can talk about this in front of Amber,” Jesse said. “She’s certainly an interested party.”

“For crissake,” Amber said. “He was my old man, okay?”

Molly nodded.

“You have a thought?” Molly said to Jesse.

“Guy had a beef with Francisco,” Jesse said. “Took out two bodyguards and the boss in a public parking lot in the middle of Miami and disappeared. We know anybody like that?”

“Crow?” Molly said.

“A sentimental favorite,” Jenn said, and then looked like she shouldn’t have said it.

Molly blushed. Jesse saw it. Molly? And Crow? He smiled to himself. It’s like being police chief in Peyton Place.