Sea Change

“Actually they didn’t employ me. I have no obligations to them. They wanted help finding out who killed their sister.”

Jesse nodded.

“I sent them to a guy I know. But it didn’t work out.”

“They see him at all?”

“Yes,” Rita said. “But they didn’t tell him anything and when he asked them stuff they were evasive, so he told them to blow.”

“Excuse me?” Jesse said.

“In a manner of speaking,” Rita said.

“They say anything to you?” Jesse said.

“I think they were worried that you are a small-town doofus,” Rita said, “rather than a high-powered urban hotshot . . . like, say, me.”

“Anything else?”

“I’d say their combined intelligence is about that of a mud puddle.”

Jesse nodded.

“They told me they were staying at the Four Seasons,” he said.

“Yep. That’s what they told me.”

“Too bad they didn’t hook up with your guy.”

Rita shook her head.

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“He wouldn’t have told you anything. He’s a very hard case.”

“Just right for you,” Jesse said.

Rita shook her head slowly.

“Fat chance,” she said. “He’s in love with a shrink.”

“Probably handy to have one in house,” Jesse said.

“Certainly would cut down on the travel time,” Rita said.

“What’s your interest in the Plum girls?”

“They might be a little less innocent in all this than they claim.”

“But no smarter.”

“God, no,” Jesse said.

“Tell me,” Rita said.

Jesse drank some of his Coke.

“All of it?” he said.

“Keep you talking,” Rita said, “you may weaken.”

“Especially if you ply me with Coca-Cola,” Jesse said.

“Have another,” Rita said.

They both smiled. And Jesse told her what he knew about the death of Florence Horvath. When Rita listened, Jesse noticed, the sexual challenge left her face.

“Wow,” she said when Jesse was through.

“Yeah,” Jesse said.

“I’ve been a prosecutor,” Rita said, “and a defense attorney. I’ve been on one side or another of criminal law all my adult life.”

Jesse nodded.

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“I have also probably slept with more men than you’ve arrested.”

“And I’m a good cop,” Jesse said.

“And I’m shocked.”

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “It’s pretty bad.”

“It’s disgusting,” Rita said.

“But only some of it is illegal,” Jesse said.

“Enough of it,” Rita said. “These aren’t people society has abandoned. They didn’t grow up with no parents in some goddamned project someplace. They’re not victims of racism, or class contempt or poverty. They have no excuse for being trash.”

“True,” Jesse said.

“This is bothering the hell out of me,” Rita said. “And I’m not even involved.”

“I know,” Jesse said.

“Doesn’t it bother you? The obsession with sex, devoid of affection? The exploitation of young girls? The . . .” Rita waved her hands. “The lack of any feeling anywhere among any of these fucking automatons?”

“I have my own problems with it,” Jesse said. “But I try not to let it interfere with the work.”

Rita sat back a little on the bar stool and looked at Jesse and nodded slowly.

“And,” she said, “you haven’t had two martinis on an empty stomach.”

“Sadly, no,” Jesse said.

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42

J esse sat with the Plum twins on a bench in the Public Garden, across from the hotel, near the Swan Boats.

“Our room is such a mess,” Corliss said.

“The maid hasn’t cleaned up yet,” Claudia said.

“This is fine,” Jesse said. “Right here.”

“What would be a trip,” Corliss said, “would be to get high and take a ride on those boats.”

“At night,” Claudia said.

“You took the pictures of your sister and the two men,”

Jesse said.

“Whaa?” Corliss said.

S E A C H A N G E

“You took the threesome video of your sister.”

“We did not,” Claudia said.

“Not,” Corliss said.

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “Eric already told me, and Kon will say so as well.”

“How do you know Eric?” Corliss said.

“I’m the chief of police,” Jesse said. “I know everything.”

“You know Konrad?” Claudia said.

Jesse smiled.

“So what’s up with that?” he said.

Both of them giggled. Jesse wasn’t sure at what. Maybe that was a Plum family technique. When in doubt, giggle.

He waited. They looked at each other.

“Flo,” Corliss said. “Flo asked us to.”

“On Darnell’s boat,” Jesse said.

“Ohh, you know that,” Claudia said.

Jesse nodded. No one said anything. Full of adults and children, the Swan Boats elegantly pedaled their slow circuit of the pond.

“Flo wanted us to do it that way,” Corliss said.

They seemed to speak with instinctive deference to each other’s turn.

“Why?” Jesse said.

Again the girls looked at each other. “She wanted to jerk Harry’s chain,” Claudia said.

“Harry?”

“Harrison,” Corliss said.

“Darnell,” Jesse said.

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Both girls nodded.

“Because?”

“Because he dumped her,” Claudia said.

“She was his girlfriend?” Jesse said.

Both girls laughed.

“Aren’t you funny,” Corliss said.

“What was their relationship?” Jesse said.

“She was the one, you know,” Claudia said, “the one he kept.”

“And the other women?”

“Entertainment, you know?” Corliss said.

“Like fishing,” Claudia said, “or skeet, or bridge.”

“And Florence didn’t mind them?”

“Not as long as she had her place,” Corliss said.