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 and you know it. You have great big muscles, and y mean as hell, but you are as yellow as they come. Y have nothing on me that won’t get you in trouble too.”
Jo Jo stared at Hasty with eyes that seemed without i pfis, opaque eyes too small for his crude face. As Ha watched him, between glances at the road, Jo Jo’s cc deepened, and a small muscle twitched in his cheek.
“I oughta just throw you off the fucking rocks,” Jo i said.
“My men would tear you apart if that
happened,” Ha 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 mol back that you allowed us to be cheated out of,” Hasty st At Berkeley Street he turned the car onto Storrow D and they headed back to Paradise in utter silence.
jesse stment.
What struck him most was the anonymity
of’t. 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 magazires. 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 In the ‘front hall closet was an upright vacuum
. Not much of a life, Lou.
Jesse stood in the middle of the living room and listened the silence. He turned slowly. There was nothing he was Nothing he’d overlooked. He wondered if his would look like this to a stranger, empty and and temporary. He was glad Jenn’s picture was on bureau. He looked once more around the small empty There was nothing more to see. So Jesse went out the front door and locked it behind him.
Back at the station Jesse stopped to talk with Molly.
B’i‘i “We got a
typewriter around here anywhere?” Jesse ,!-iI
’Nope. Got rid of them five years ago when we got the Computers.“
“Don’t have one left over in the
cellar or the storage closet in the squad room, or anyplace?”
“No. Torn made a deal with a
used-typewriter guy, from Lynn. When we went computer the typewriter guy came in, took all three typewriters. You want me to see if I can get you one?”
Jesse shook his head.
“No, just curious. Lou Burke have any
family?”
“None that I know, Jesse. Parents died a while back. Far as I know he never married.”
“Brothers? Sisters?”
“Not that he ever talked about. Pretty much the department and the town was what he had.”
