“I think it’s Lou,” Simpson yelled, his voice amplified and dehumanized by the bullhorn. “He’s been banging around down here for a while and it’s hard to tell.”
Jesse nodded and gave Simpson a thumbs-up and the police boat swung in an arc away from the foot of the cliffs, opened the engines, and roared, with the east wind behind it now back around the point toward the town wharf.
“See what you can do here,” Jesse said to Peter Perkins.
He got into his cruiser, set the blue light flashing, and headed for the town wharf. There was barely anyone on the road at 6:10 in the morning and he had no need of the siren. I really can pick ’em, he thought as he drove through the old town with its narrow streets and narrower sidewalks and narrow old houses built right up against them. Three homicides in a year. Towns like this you’re supposed to get about one a career. He thought about Jenn for a moment, and then he was there. He could see the police boat slow now as it passed through the boats winter-moored in the harbor. He got out of the car with the wind pushing at him. Seagulls were roosting on the tops of pilings and along the edge of the big town float. He went into the wharf office and poured himself some coffee and drank it with Cremora and sugar while he waited for Simpson and the body. He still had some left when the boat docked against the float, and he was still sipping it when he stepped over the gunwales of the police boat and squatted on his heels next to the sodden corpse.
“You’re right,” Jesse said to Simpson. “It’s kind of hard to say who it is. You find any I.D. on him?”
Simpson looked like he might be a little seasick. “Once we got him in the boat,” he said, “I didn’t touch him.”
Jesse nodded. He rolled the body over and found the pants pockets and with some trouble got a soaked wallet out. He opened it.
“It’s Lou’s wallet,” Jesse said.
“Jesus,” Simpson said.
The two divers and the boat captain looked elaborately elsewhere.
“Yeah,” Jesse said. “We’ll get a positive I.D. from the M.E., I guess. But it sure seems to be Lou.”
“Why’d you suspend him, Jesse?”
“I’ll tell you about it later,” Jesse said.
“Did you really suspect him of murder?”
“Later, Suit.”
“Yeah, sure, Jesse. Lou didn’t seem the type, you think?”
“I don’t know if there is a type,” Jesse said. “But if there is, no, Lou didn’t seem to be it.”
“I guess there’s a lot we don’t know yet,” Simpson said.
“Yes,” Jesse said, “there sure as hell is.”
Chapter 66
Jo Jo recognized the voice on the phone. It belonged to the pretty young man who worked for Gino Fish.
“Mr. Fish asked me to tell you that the product you asked for is now available.”
“How do we pick it up?” Jo Jo asked.
“Go to the information booth at the South Shore Plaza with the correct amount of money, in cash, as specified. Someone will meet you and tell you the rest. You’ll be expected at two o’clock today.”
“I gotta talk to my guy,” Jo Jo said.
“You can talk to anyone you want,” the pretty boy said. “But you’re there at two or the deal is canceled.”
“For crissake,” Jo Jo said.
But the pretty boy had hung up.
“Faggot bastard,” Jo Jo said aloud.
Then he called Hasty Hathaway and at 12:30 they were in Hasty’s Mercedes, with a suitcase full of small bills, heading for the South Shore.
“It’s right there where Route Three splits off from the expressway for the Cape,” Jo Jo said.
“Well, how are we to transport the arms?” Hasty said. “Didn’t they say anything?”
“Just what I told you,” Jo Jo said.
They parked near the entrance to Macy’s and walked through the mall, it was busy in the early afternoon. The stores were already pushing Christmas. There were Christmas trees and pictures of Santa Claus, and miniature village scenes and railroad trains that circled endlessly through the fake snow. There were Salvation Army troopers with their bells and buckets, and tinsel and shiny ornaments and a lot of people, mostly women, often with small bored children dressed too warmly. Jo Jo and Hasty stopped beside the information booth. Jo Jo was carrying the money in a green sports equipment bag that said Adidas on it in white letters. The women behind the information desk were wearing Santa Claus hats. There was a big clock on the booth. It read ten minutes of two.
At 2:15 a smallish man in a longshoreman’s cap and a Patriots warm-up jacket walked up to Hasty and said, “I’m from Gino.”
“Money’s in the bag,” Jo Jo said.
With the bag still on Jo Jo’s shoulder, the smallish man zipped it open enough to peer in. He nodded.
“Okay,” he said. “You give me the bag. I give you the keys to the truck and tell you where it’s parked.”
“You don’t get the dough until we see the product,” Jo Jo said.
“Nope, deal goes down like I said, or it don’t go down at all.”
“And maybe I grab your scrawny little fucking neck and squeeze it until you tell me where the truck is,” Jo Jo said.
The smallish man shrugged, and glanced over toward a bookstore fifty yards down the mall. Vinnie Morris was leaning against the wall outside the bookstore with his arms folded across his chest.
“Maybe not,” the smallish man said.
“You know if you double-cross us,” Hasty said, “I can bring an army down on you.”
“Sure,” the smallish man said. “You want the deal or not?”
“Give him the money, Jo Jo.”
Jo Jo shrugged. The sight of Vinnie Morris had taken a lot of the ferocity out of him. He took the bag off his shoulder and handed it to the smallish man. The smallish man handed him a set of two keys on a small orange plastic key tag.
“It’s a Penske rental truck,” the smallish man said, “Mass plates 354-6AV. It’s parked outside the entrance next to Charlie’s Saloon.”
Then the smallish man turned and walked away down the mall. Jo Jo and Hasty looked after him for a time and then looked back at Vinnie Morris, but Morris wasn’t anywhere in sight. They turned then and headed back down the mall toward the parking lot outside of Charlie’s. Hasty could feel the excitement in his stomach. Things had gone badly for a while. This was a good thing. They’d be armed properly. They could hold off anyone. State police, ATF, FBI, Marshals, anybody. At 2:35 in the afternoon, the parking lot was full. By 2:45 they hadn’t found the truck. By three o’clock they realized they weren’t going to.
There was no truck.
Chapter 67
Jesse stood with Abby Taylor on Indian Hill, looking over the railing down at the rocks where they had found Lou Burke.
“Right here?” Abby said.
“Yes.”
“How could he do it?” Abby said. “I mean, maybe I could put a bullet through my brain, or take too many sleeping pills, or whatever if I were really depressed. But to climb over this fence and jump off the cliff . . .” She shuddered.
“Maybe he didn’t,” Jesse said.
“Didn’t jump?”
“Maybe.”
Abby stepped back from him and stood with her hands pushed into the pockets of her long blue coat.
“Jesse,” she said and stopped.
He waited.
“Jesse, a lot of people think you’ve gone off the deep end here. You see conspiracy everywhere. Yet you don’t talk to anyone about it. People are wondering about you.”
“And you?” Jesse said.
She took another step away from him. Jesse knew she was unaware of it.
“I don’t know. I mean, we’ve been so intimate, and
yet, you don’t trust me. You don’t trust anyone. That’s not healthy, Jesse.”
Jesse leaned his forearms on the railing and looked at the gray water. It was like the last night in L.A., except he wasn’t drunk. L.A. seemed much longer than six months ago.
“I’m not going to explain myself, Abby. I’ve done this kind of work most of my adult life. I’m doing it the best way I know how.”
“A lot of people blame you for Lou’s death.”
“Because I suspended him?”
“Yes. The thinking is that if you had anything on him, arrest him for it, otherwise leave him alone. People in town liked Lou. He grew up here. He’s part of the militia.”
“And that’s a good thing?”
“The militia, oh for God’s sake, Jesse. They’re like the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. They march in the Fourth of July parade, for God’s sake. Sure I think they’re silly, and so do you. But they aren’t some criminal enterprise.”
“I hadn’t heard you defend them so strongly,” Jesse said.
He was still staring at the choppy gray water below him. Above them a splatter of herring gulls soared and stooped. The sound of them was as constant as the movement of the sea. Abby seemed cold, she thrust her hands deeper into her pockets, hunched her shoulders so that the high collar of her coat was a little higher.
“Jesse, I live here and I work here. I am with a good law firm, I have a chance to be a partner.”
Jesse nodded silently.
“What are you nodding about?” she said.
“I’m agreeing that it is not going to be good for your career if you stick by me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Yes,” Jesse said. “You did. You just didn’t use those words.”
It was an overcast day, and raw. There was a spatter of rain with snow mixed. The snow didn’t last on the blacktop of the parking lot, or the rocks. But it had a short life on the grassy parts of Indian Hill, and a small residue had collected around the base of the windshield of Jesse’s car. Abby stood drawn in upon herself. She shook her head slowly.
“This isn’t happening right,” Abby said.
“No,” Jesse said.
“I . . . have had a very nice time with you, Jesse.”
“Yes,” Jesse said. “It’s been nice.”
“People think you should resign.”
Jesse nodded.
“Want a ride back to your office?” Jesse said.
“No,” Abby said. “I’ll walk back. I need the time alone.” She smiled without pleasure. “Clear my head.”
“Sure thing,” Jesse said.
He was still leaning on the rail.
“Jesse,” she said. “Turn around.”
He did. She stepped to him and put her arms around him and pressed her face against his chest.
“I’m sorry, Jesse.”
He patted her gently on the back.
“It’s okay, Abby,” he said.
Then he let her go and she walked away down the hill toward town, the spit of snow glistening momentarily in her hair. Then she was out of sight and he turned back and looked at the gray water and listened to the gray gulls and thought about the other ocean and the night he left it. He smiled after a while.
“Here’s looking at you, Jenn,” he said out loud.
His voice was small and nearly soundless mixed with the wind and the ocean sound and the noise of the gulls.
Chapter 68
Hasty didn’t like driving in city traffic. But he had to see Gino Fish, so the big Mercedes was wedged into the northbound commuter traffic on the Southeast Expressway. Hasty was nearly in tears.
“You dumb bastard,” he said to Jo Jo.
“What the hell are you yelling at me for?”
“Because this was your deal. You were the one vouched for Fish.”
“Bullshit,” Jo Jo said. “You come to me, I was trying to do you a favor. Don’t whine to me it didn’t work out.”
“You bastard,” Hasty said.
He turned off at Mass. Avenue and drove past Boston City Hospital. He didn’t like the city, and didn’t spend much time there. It took him two or three false turns to find Tremont Street and another ten minutes to find the block where Gino Fish had his storefront.
“You needa be careful about this,” Jo Jo said. “That Vinnie Morris is a quick sonova bitch.”
“I thought you were a tough guy,” Hasty said. “Are you scared of these people?”
“No, but it don’t make no sense,” Jo Jo said, “go charging fucking in there? Yelling and waving your arms, you know?”
“The goddamned fairy took my money,” Hasty said. “The Horsemen’s money. If I have to I’ll bring the whole militia company in here. And I’m going to tell him that.”
Hasty parked beside a hydrant near the Cyclorama, and got out.
“You going to back me?” he said to Jo Jo.
“I didn’t cut in for that,” Jo Jo said. “I set up the deal. They welshed on it. It’s between you and them.”
“You yellow belly,” Hasty said.
He slammed the door, and turned and went down Tremont Street to the storefront. It was empty. The door was locked. Hasty groaned in anger and disappointment and turned and went back to his car. He got in and started up without a word.
“Nobody there?” Jo Jo said.
Hasty nodded as he yanked the Mercedes out into the traffic and drove out of the South End on Tremont Street.
“I knew there wouldn’t be,” Jo Jo said. “Why I didn’t waste time walking down there.”
“You’re a yellow belly,” Hasty said.
“You want to go one on one with me?” Jo Jo said.
“These are your people, Jo Jo. I want my weapons, or I want my money.”
“You been stiffed, asshole. Don’t you get it? There aren’t any fucking weapons.” Jo Jo said “weapons” in exaggerated scorn. “There never were any weapons. They saw you coming.”
“You brought me to them. You get the money back.”
Jo Jo shook his head.
“I mean it, Jo Jo. You are in this far too deeply to just walk away.”
Jo Jo felt a little tingle of fear race up the backs of his thighs. His glance shifted onto Hasty’s face, and held. He pulled his chin down into his neck almost like a turtle retracting, and his neck thickened.
“I may be in it, Hasty, but I sure as shit ain’t in it alone.”
Hasty didn’t answer right away. He had driven out of the South End and onto Charles Street where it ran between the Common and the Public Garden. The city rose up all around them. A cold rain had begun to spit and Hasty turned the windshield wipers on to low intermittent.
“I do not believe what I am hearing,” Hasty said finally.
He was choosing his words carefully, talking as if to an adolescent, trying to speak with the icy assurance of command.
“We have paid you well for work you were willing to do. Now you speak as if, somehow, that gave you knowledge which you would use against us.”
“Hey, you’re the one talking about getting in deep,” Jo Jo said.
“And you are in deep. There is no information you have which you could use against us that would not also incriminate you.”
“You want people to know about Tammy Portugal? Or how you had me throw Lou Burke off the rocks? You think that might not get you in just a little fucking trouble?”
Hasty shook his head as if saddened. He turned left onto Beacon Street, past the Hampshire House with its line of tourists outside the Cheers bar.
“Jo Jo, you haven’t the intestinal fortitude. You inform on me and you go to the electric chair. It’s as simple as that, and you know it. You have great big muscles, and you are mean
as hell, but you are as yellow as they come. You have nothing on me that won’t get you in trouble too.”
Jo Jo stared at Hasty with eyes that seemed without pupils, opaque eyes too small for his crude face. As Hasty watched him, between glances at the road, Jo Jo’s color deepened, and a small muscle twitched in his cheek.
“I oughta just throw you off the fucking rocks,” Jo Jo said.
“My men would tear you apart if that happened,” Hasty said. “Don’t threaten me, Jo Jo. I’m not afraid of you.”
“You think I’m bluffing?”
“I think you better think about how to get the money back that you allowed us to be cheated out of,” Hasty said.
At Berkeley Street he turned the car onto Storrow Drive and they headed back to Paradise in utter silence.
Chapter 69
Jesse stood alone in Lou Burke’s small garden apartment. What struck him most was the anonymity of it. No pictures of family. No books. No old baseball gloves with the infield dust ground into the seams. Jesse walked slowly through the three small rooms. No newspapers stacked up. No magazines. A television set with a twenty-six-inch screen glowered at the living/dining area off the kitchenette. A small desk near the entry. Some bills due the end of the month. Two canisters of coffee on the kitchen counter, a Mr. Coffee machine. Some milk and some orange juice in the refrigerator. A couple of pairs of slacks in the closet, a blue suit, a starched fatigue outfit with Freedom’s Horsemen markings. Clean police uniform shirts in the bureau drawer. An alarm clock on the bedside table. No fishing equipment. No hunting gear. No cameras. No binoculars. No rugs on the floor. No curtains on the windows. The shades were all drawn to precisely the middle of the lower window. The bed was tightly made. There was no dust. No plants. No bowling trophies. The floors were polished. In the front hall closet was an upright vacuum cleaner.
Not much of a life, Lou.
Jesse stood in the middle of the living room and listened to the silence. He turned slowly. There was nothing he was forgetting. Nothing he’d overlooked. He wondered if his apartment would look like this to a stranger, empty and lifeless and temporary. He was glad Jenn’s picture was on his bureau. He looked once more around the small empty space. There was nothing more to see. So Jesse went out the front door and locked it behind him.
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