“He was here all the time?” she said.
“Since yesterday,” Jesse said. “Last night he stayed with me.”
“At your home?”
“Yes.”
“I would think,” she said, “that the police department would have made a more successful attempt to bring him to his rightful home.”
“He was roaming around on the pike with no license,” Jesse said. “We asked him where he lived, and he refused to answer.”
“Well,” the woman said. “There’s no need to be snippy.”
“Maybe a little snippy,” Jesse said.
He bent over and the dog licked his face. Jesse patted him. The woman hesitated for a moment, then turned and marched out with her dog.
“No trouble at all,” Jesse said in the empty room. “Glad we could help.”
Then he smiled to himself and picked up Deputy’s water dish and emptied it in the sink. The coffee tasted bitter. He dumped that in the sink too, and mixed up some Alka-Seltzer and drank it. At least Jenn didn’t know he’d gotten drunk. With her he’d been able to stop without finishing the third beer. He always liked leaving a drink unfinished. It made him feel that he had no drinking problem.
Jesse heard someone yelling from the holding cells. After it had gone on for a while, Jesse yelled out his office door for Molly Crane. She came into the office.
“Unhappy prisoner?” Jesse said.
“Name’s Bellino,” Molly said. “Perkins and DeAngelo arrested him last night up at The Sevens.”
“Drunk and disorderly?”
“How’d you guess?”
“He still drunk?”
“I don’t think so. I think he’s just making a lot of noise to show how dangerous he is. You want to read the arrest report?”
Jesse nodded. Molly went out and came back with the report. Jesse read it. The yelling from the cell block seemed to intensify.
When he was through reading the report, Jesse tossed it on his desk, stood, took off his gun, put it in his desk drawer and locked the drawer.
“You going to talk with him?” Molly said.
“I am.”
“He’s a big guy,” Molly said.
“I hate noise,” Jesse said.
He walked down the corridor to the holding cells, and stopped in front of the first cell. Inside the cell was a fat, strong-looking man with shoulder-length dark hair.
“Got a hangover?” Jesse said.
“I’m going to pull the fucking door off its fucking hinges you don’t let me out of here,” the fat man said.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Jesse unlocked the cell door and walked in and let it click shut behind him.
“I’m going out,” Bellino said.
“You have been arrested,” Jesse said. “You’re going to have to make a court appearance.”
“Fuckers pepper-sprayed me,” Bellino said.
“Meanwhile,” Jesse said. “I want you to quiet down.”
“Fuck you,” Bellino said.
“You want a lawyer yet?” Jesse said.
“Fuck you,” Bellino said.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Jesse said.
“I ought to kick your fucking ass,” Bellino said.
“You got drunk,” Jesse said, “and made an asshole of yourself. And now you’re trying to pretend you didn’t.”
“Guy gave me shit,” Bellino said.
“Guy you punched out?” Jesse said.
“Yeah. I’m supposed to take shit from some asshole don’t even live here? I’m supposed to let some smalltown jerkoff cops blindside me with pepper spray?”
“Why not?”
