Robert B Parker - Stone 4 - Stone Cold

by Stone Cold(lit)

"There are a hundred and twenty-three thousand people in this great Commonwealth," Healy said, "who have bought a twenty-two weapon, or twenty-two ammunition in the past year."

  He sat down.

  "Their days are numbered," Jesse said.

  "Or his, or hers," Healy said.

  "I think it's two people," Jesse said.

  Healy was quiet for a moment, thinking about it.

  "Yeah," he said. "I do too."

  "How many of those hundred and twenty-three thousand live in Paradise?"

  "One hundred and eighty-two," Healy said.

  "And how many of them own a late-model red Saab ninety-five?"

  "Three."

  Jesse felt his solar plexus tighten.

  "And," he said, "how many of those three Saabs were parked up at the Paradise Mall when Barbara Carey got shot."

  "According to the plate numbers your people collected," Healy said, "one."

  Jesse felt himself coil tighter.

  "And the lucky winner is?" he said.

  "Anthony Lincoln," Healy said.

  He put a note card on the desk.

  "Name, address, phone," Healy said. "He has no criminal record."

  Jesse picked up the card and looked at it.

  "He has a class-A carry permit," Healy said. "In the past year he has purchased a Marlin twenty-two rifle, model nine-nine-five, semiauto with a seven-round magazine, and two boxes of twenty-two long ammunition."

  "The son of a bitch," Jesse said.

  "Be useful if we could tie the rifle to the shootings," Healey said.

  "Funny gun for the kind of shooting we've been seeing," Jesse said. "I'd have said handgun."

  "People use the guns they can get," Healy said.

  "Think we got enough to confiscate it?"

  "No. All you got is he owns a twenty-two and his car was parked near one of the murders."

  "And it's a Saab," Jesse said. "Like the one at the church parking lot."

  Healy shrugged.

  "Talk to the ADA on the case," Healy said. "Maybe he's tight with a judge."

  "Even if we can't compel him," Jesse said. "Any good citizen would be willing to submit his gun for forensics testing, unless he had something to hide."

  Healy smiled.

  "Unless he wished to vigorously resist the intrusion of government on the individual's right to privacy," he said.

  "Unless that," Jesse said. "I guess I'll go and visit him."

  "You might want to be a little careful with this guy," Healy said. "If he's your man he's already killed four people."

  "I'm a little careful with everyone."

  "The hell you are," Healy said. "The last one killed, the Taylor woman, didn't you used to go out with her?"

  "I did."

  "It will not be good," Healy said, "if you take it too personal and turn into Rambo on us."

  "It's the trick of being a good cop, isn't it," Jesse said. "You got to care about the victim, and you got to care about the job."

  Healy nodded.

  "And you got to be unemotional at the same time."

  " 'Course not everyone is a good cop," Healy said.

  Jesse was silent for a moment, looking at the top of his desk. Then he raised his head and looked at Healy.

  "I am," Jesse said.

  "Good point," Healy said.

  42

  Anthony Lincoln's address was a condo that had been rehabbed out of an old resort hotel on the south side of Paradise, where it faced the open ocean. With Jesse in the front seat beside him, Suitcase Simpson parked the cruiser in a guest parking space off the cobblestone turnaround to the right of the entrance. A discreet sign said ONE HOUR PARKING. VIOLATORS WILL BE TOWED.

  "That's welcoming," Jesse said.

  The building was an overpowering display of weathered shingle architecture, punctuated with brick and brass and copper that was greening beautifully. A dark green sign, larger than it needed to be, said SEASCAPE, in gold-colored scroll. Simpson was in uniform. Jesse wore a leather jacket, jeans, and sneakers.

  The lobby was two stories high. The floor was a gray marble. The moldings and door casings were driftwood, or something that had been processed to look like driftwood. A concierge desk stretched along one side of the lobby, and a bank of elevators faced them. The third wall of the lobby was glass, overlooking the beach and the ocean. Jesse held his badge out for the concierge to see. She looked at it carefully.

  "Are you the chief?" she said.

  "I am," he said. "Jesse Stone. This is Officer, ah, Luther Simpson."

  "What can I do for you?" the concierge said carefully.

  Hers was a job that could be lost by one indiscretion.

  "Anthony Lincoln live here?" Jesse said.

  "Yes sir, the penthouse unit."

  "Anyone live here with him?"

  The concierge was pale-skinned. Her dark hair was up. She was dressed in a dark skirt-and-blazer outfit with a small yachting crest on the blazer. She thought about the question.

  "Well, Mrs. Lincoln, of course."

  "And her first name is?" Jesse said.

  "Ah." The concierge tapped the computer built into her desktop. "Brianna, Brianna Lincoln."

  "Thank you," Jesse said. "We'll go up."

  "I can call up for you, sir."

  "No need," Jesse said as he and Simpson walked to the elevators.

  When they got to the penthouse floor, the elevator opened into a small foyer furnished with a tan leather wing chair and a Chinese red-lacquered end table. Anthony and Brianna Lincoln were waiting for them at their door.

  "Chief Stone?" Anthony said. "The concierge called ahead." "I'm Jesse Stone," Jesse said. "This is Luther Simpson, may we come in?"

  "Of course," Anthony said. "Tony Lincoln, this is my wife, Brianna."

  The room was spectacular, Jesse thought. Glassed in on three sides, it overlooked the beach, the ocean, and the stretch of hard coast, where expensive houses had been built among the rocks. There was a vast white rug, blond furniture, and cream-colored full-length drapes that looked as if one could close them if one tired of the view. Everything matches, Jesse thought. Everything is clean and exact and just right, and it looks like nobody lives here. Simpson looked around uneasily.

  "We'll need to talk," Jesse said. "This all right?" "Of course," Brianna said. "Would you like some coffee?" "Sure," Jesse said. "Cream and sugar. Suit?" Simpson shook his head. He was still standing. "No coffee for me," he said. Brianna smiled and went to the kitchen. "Why don't you sit there, Suit," Jesse said, "by the door." Tony Lincoln was slim and tall. His hair was combed back in a neat wave, parted on the left side, and so blond that it was almost white. He had a deep tan which, Jesse thought, meant either winter vacation or tanning lamp. It balanced well with his pale hair. His eyes were very blue and his movements were alert and graceful.

  "What did you call him?" Anthony said.

  Brianna returned from the kitchen.

  "Coffee is brewing," she said.

  Jesse nodded and smiled at her. Then he answered Tony's question.

  "Suit," Jesse said. "Short for Suitcase."

  "Harry 'Suitcase' Simpson," Anthony said. "The baseball player."

  "Exactly," Jesse said.

  Tony not only knew baseball, Jesse thought, he'd remembered Suit's last name.

  "Tony remembers every baseball player that ever lived," Brianna said. "And most other things, too."

  Brianna was as slim as her husband and nearly as tall, with thick black hair worn short. She was as tan as Anthony, and carefully made up. Her mouth was wide and her dark eyes were very big. She was barefooted in faded jeans and a scoop-necked white T-shirt. Her husband was wearing gray suede loafers with no socks, satin sweatpants, and a V-necked black cashmere sweater. The sleeves of the sweater were pushed up over his forearms. He smiled.

  "Great game," he said.

  "It is," Jesse said.

  "Ever play?" Tony said.

  "I did," Jesse said.

  "I did too,
" Lincoln said. "And I've never liked anything so well again."

  "Well, excuse me," Brianna said.

  Tony smiled.

  "Except you," he said.

  "You're just saying that because you want coffee," Brianna said, and got up and went again to the kitchen.

  Tony laughed before he turned to Jesse.

  "So what can we do for you, Jesse? Okay if I call you Jesse?"

  "You bet," Jesse said. "Let's wait until Mrs. Lincoln comes back."

  "Brianna," Tony said. "Tony and Brianna. We don't stand on a lot of formality here."

  Jesse nodded. He smiled to himself. Suit looked very large and uncomfortable in the fancy chair by the door. Brianna came back in with coffee on a small tea wagon. Good china. Good silver.

  When they had settled back with their coffee, Jesse said, "First, thanks for being so gracious. This is a routine investigation, we've cross-referenced a lot of data and now we just have to boil it down by eliminating the people we've come up with."

  "Is it the killings?" Brianna said.

  Even sitting across from her he could smell her perfume.

  And heat, Jesse thought. I can almost feel heat from her.

  "Yes, ma'am, it is," Jesse said.

  Jesse could see Suit, by the door out of sight of the Lincolns, staring at Jesse.

  "We're trying to run down every twenty-two-caliber firearm owned by a resident of Paradise."

  "Ah," Tony said and smiled. "That's it."

  Jesse nodded. He took a small notebook out of his jacket pocket and opened it.

  "You appear to own a twenty-two rifle," he said, reading from the notebook, "Marlin model nine-nine-five, semiauto with a seven-round magazine."

  "We do," Tony said, and grinned at Jesse, "if you know that, you probably know that we have a permit."

  "I do," Jesse said. "You also bought two boxes of twenty-two long ammunition for it."

  "Yep, got about a box and a half left. We got a country place in the Berkshires and when we're out there we like to plink vermin."

  Jesse nodded.

  "Do you have the gun here, Tony?" he said.

  "Sure, we keep it locked up in the bedroom closet."

  "May we see it?"

  "Sure, Brianna? You want to get it for us?"

  "Of course," she said and hurried out of the room.

  Jesse admired her backside, then shifted his glance to the big picture window. The ocean looked silvery blue today with the sun shining on it.

  "Great view, isn't it," Tony said.

  "I assume you pay for it," Jesse said.

  "Oh, boy," Tony said, "you got that right."

  "What do you do for work," Jesse said.

  Tony smiled.

  "Mostly, these days, I manage our money," he said. "I used to be an ophthalmologist. Then one day I invented an ocular scanning device that became the standard for the profession."

  He smiled again.

  "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," he said.

  "And you don't practice medicine anymore?" Jesse said.

  "Why, do you have something in your eye?"

  Jesse smiled.

  "Just wondered."

  "No, I don't practice anymore," Tony said.

  "You miss it?"

  "Can't say that I do."

  Brianna came back into the room carrying the rifle in both hands. Jesse was aware that Simpson shifted a little in his seat by the door. Brianna gave Jesse the gun. He pointed it at the floor, released the magazine into his hand and put it on the table beside him, worked the action a couple of times, then opened the bolt and looked at the barrel.

  "Nice and clean," he said.

  "Good workman takes care of his tools, right, Jesse?"

  Jesse nodded.

  "We'd like to borrow this for a couple of days. I'll give you a receipt, and test-fire it so we can cross you off the list."

  "Be pretty suspicious," Tony said, "if we didn't let you."

  "It would," Jesse said.

  "Could they make a mistake?" Tony said.

  "No," Jesse said. "This is pretty straightforward ballistics."

  "Okay with me," Tony said. "You go along with that, Brianna?"

  "Certainly."

  Jesse stood and handed the rifle to Simpson.

  "Thanks," Jesse said. "We'll get it back to you promptly."

  "That'll be fine, Jesse," Tony said.

  He and Brianna were both on their feet.

  "Thanks for the coffee," Jesse said.

  "We enjoyed the company," Brianna said. "Good luck with the dreadful murders."

  "Yes," Tony said. "And if you come up with a case of conjunctivitis, give me a call. You too, Suitcase."

  They shook hands and Tony walked them to the elevator.

  "I hope you get the sonovabitch," he said.

  "Sooner or later," Jesse said.

  The elevator door opened, Jesse and Suit got in. Jesse punched one and the door glided shut.

  43

  As they drove back along Atlantic Avenue, Suitcase Simpson said to Jesse, "We are cops, are we not?"

  "We are."

  "And there's a donut shop down here on the right past the Catholic church, is there not?"

  "And you feel that in order to certify our cop-ness we have to go in there and scarf some down?"

  "Yes," Simpson said. "I do."

  "You're right," Jesse said. "It's been too long."

  Suit swung the car into the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot. Simpson kept the car idling, while Jesse got out and went in and bought a dozen donuts and two large coffees.

  "A dozen?" Suit said. "We're not going to eat a dozen donuts."

  "Sooner or later," Jesse said.

  Suit put the cruiser in gear.

  "Care to dine with an ocean view?" Suit said.

  "Sure," Jesse said. "The wharf would do but make it quick. Don't want the donuts to spoil."

  "Donuts don't spoil," Suit said and drove them to the wharf.

  They left the motor on against the chill as they ate donuts and drank coffee and looked at the boat traffic, even on a cold day, moving about on the harbor.

  "Seem like a nice couple," Suit said.

  "The Lincolns?"

  "Who'd you think I meant," Suit said. "Us?"

  "Wise guys don't make sergeant," Jesse said.

  Suit grinned.

  "You got some problem with the Lincolns?" he said.

  "Too nice," Jesse said. "Too cooperative."

  "You'd prefer they were surly?"

  "Suit, you been studying up," Jesse said. "Surly?"

  "I'm a high school grad," Suit said. "I know a bunch of words. Sometimes I say enticing, or symbolic. What's wrong with the Lincolns?"

  "They bother me. Lot of people are a little uncomfortable when the cops come and want to look at your gun."

  "They knew nobody got shot with their gun," Suit said.

  "Some people would want to check with their attorney before letting us test their weapon," Jesse said. "People are uneasy with cops."

  "Maybe, since they had nothing to hide they didn't want to act like they did."

  "Maybe," Jesse said.

  "Well, soon as we fire the thing we'll know."

  "We'll know the bullets that killed our people weren't fired from that gun," Jesse said.

  "You think they had another gun?"

  "Two."

  "You think they did it?"

  "Until I got a better suspect," Jesse said, "yes."

  "Her too?"

  "Yes."

  "Even if the gun don't match," Suit said.

  "It won't match," Jesse said. "They knew that when they gave it to us."

  "You never said nothing to them about their car being parked up at the Paradise Mall when Barbara Carey got killed," Suit said.