Sea Change

“Usual bevy of beauties,” Barnes said. “They get drunk.

Do some dope.”

“Sex?”

He shrugged and gestured.

“I stay up front,” he said. “But yeah, I’d say quite a lot.”

2 0 7

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

“And you know this how?”

Barnes looked at her for a moment with the expressionless hint of humor that he projected.

“Ah, trace evidence,” he said.

“Thank you,” Kelly Cruz said, and closed her notebook.

“What’d they do up north?” Barnes said.

Kelly Cruz took a card out of her purse, and gave it to him.

“Florence Horvath died up there under unusual circumstances,” she said. “You think of anything interesting, call me.”

Barnes took the card.

“They think Darnell killed her?”

“I don’t know what their theory of the case is,” Kelly Cruz said. “I’m just asking questions for them.”

“Actually, I’m thinking of something sort of interesting right now,” he said.

“Not at thirty thousand feet,” Kelly Cruz said.

“’Course not,” Barnes said. “Who’s going to fly the plane?”

2 0 8

44

J esse and Molly sat at the conference table in the squad room. The sound of shout-ing and loud bad singing came from the

four-cell jail wing.

“Hark,” Jesse said.

“Drunk and disorderly,” Molly said. “On Front Street.”

“Today?”

“Un-huh.”

Jesse looked at his watch.

“It’s ten in the morning,” he said.

“No time to waste,” Molly said.

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

Jesse nodded. Molly had a big yellow legal-sized pad of blue-lined paper in front of her.

“Okay,” he said. “Here’s what we’ve got. We know Florence Horvath was alive when she came up here first week in June. We can probably pin that down exactly if we need to.”

Molly made a note. Jesse stood and walked the length of the squad room and looked out the back window at the Public Works garage behind the station.

“And we know she was dead when she washed ashore the beginning of Race Week.”

“July twelfth,” Molly said.

“ME says she’s been in the water at least a couple weeks, maybe longer,” Jesse said. “She was alive when she went in the water, but exact cause of death is uncertain due to the ratty condition of the body.”

“You have to say ratty?”

Jesse turned and walked back the length of the room.

“We know she came up here at Darnell’s request, and on his dime. We know she knew Thomas Ralston. We know Ralston and Darnell are connected and a lot tighter than either would admit. Everybody has lied about who they know.

We know that Florence made the sex video with the two guys who used to work on Darnell’s boat. We know her twin sisters took the video. They said she told them that it was to make Darnell jealous because he had dumped her in favor of Blondie Martin. We know, because we checked the harbor registry, that both Darnell’s boat and Ralston’s boat were here in early June.”

2 1 0

S E A C H A N G E

Jesse turned and walked back toward the window.

“So where’s the video,” Molly said.

Jesse stopped.

“The video?”

“She must have sent it to him,” Molly said. “What happened to it?”

“Destroyed it,” Jesse said. “It was incriminating to have, and he didn’t know there were other copies. We know that there’s some kind of high-tech sex thing going on between Ralston and Darnell. And we know they have recruited local, and very young, talent.”

“This is probably not the only place,” Molly said.

“Probably not. We’ll see if Healy can help us with that.”

Jesse continued to look at the Public Works garage.

Along one side of the garage, snowplow blades were lined up, waiting for winter. They looked like the skeletal remains of extinct beasts in the hot summer sun.

“We know both Darnell and Ralston have committed statutory rape,” he said. “And we’re pretty sure we can convict them. Darnell for sure. We’ve got him on tape. Ralston too if the kid will hold up in court.”

“And none of this tells us if either or both of them murdered Florence Horvath,” Molly said.

“Sad but true,” Jesse said.

He turned and began the trip back up the room toward Molly.

“In fact,” Molly said, “we can’t really prove that she was murdered at all.”

2 1 1

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

“She was murdered and Darnell was involved,” Jesse said.

“How about Ralston?”

“Yes,” Jesse said.

“Him, too?”

“Yes.”

“You’re so sure,” Molly said.

“I know them,” Jesse said. “I understand them. Darnell and Ralston killed her.”

“Together?”

“Don’t know.”

“But you know they did.”

“Yes,” Jesse said.

He was standing beside Molly. She looked up at him.

“Intuition?” she said.

“I’ve been a cop for a long time,” Jesse said.

“There’s something else,” Molly said.

She had turned in her chair and was facing Jesse, looking up at him as he stood in front of her.

“Maybe I’m a little bit like them,” Jesse said.

“The hell you are,” Molly said.

Jesse shrugged.

“I mean it,” Molly said. “You are in no way like either of those two scumbags.”

“Scumbags?” Jesse said. “Strong language for a Catholic girl.”