testify,” Jesse said.
She nodded her head against him, her body shaking. He held her. The sobbing went on for a long time. He patted her gently. He could hear the occasional car go ordinarily by. on Main Street.
Somewhere he could hear a dog bark.
“You were brave to tell me,” Jesse said.
She nodded against him.
“I had to tell you,” she said.
“I couldn’t have those all over town.”
“The next brave thing you are going to have to do is get
‘psychiatric help. Good help. An honest-to-God shrink.“
“I’m sick,” she said into his
chest, “I know I am.”
“You can get well,” Jesse said.
“You know a shrink?”
She shook her head.
“Your family doctor, can refer you,” Jesse said. “This is too hard to do alone. You need to save yourself.”
“My God,” she said. “Jo Jo will
kill me.”
“Jo Jo will be in jail,” Jesse said.
him to arrest Jo Jo. Both men
carried’s‘lotguns. He didn’t know if he could trust them either, but it was time to find out. He didn’t want to have to kill Jo Jo; a show of force usually made an arrest go smoother. They waited in the parking lot in the back of the gym where Jo Jo trained and took him, shotguns leveled, without incident when he came out to his car. They brought him handcuffed to the station.
Molly at the front desk watched in silence as they led him past her and locked him up in one of the holding cells in the back.
DeAngelo and Perkins left. Jesse went back out front.
.“I’ll cover the desk,” Jesse
said to Molly. “You can go home.”
“You sure you don’t mind being alone with him?”
Molly said.
“Be fine,” Jesse said and smiled at Molly.
“Give us a chance to really get to know each other.”
“Won’t that be swell,” Molly
said and got her things and left. Jes’se watched her go down the front steps ‘the station, then he went to his office, got a tape recorder, walked slowly back to the cell area. He pulled up a chair, plugged in the tape recorder, and talked with Jo through the bars.
“That thing on?” Jo Jo said.
“Not yet,” Jesse said.
He held the recorder so that Jo Jo could see that it wasn’t.
“Get used to the cell, Jo Jo,” Jesse said.
“You’re going to be in one the rest of your life.”
“You can’t prove shit” Jo Jo
said.
“Jo Jo, you know you did her, and I know it, and we got a witness who’ll swear you bragged about it.
We’re going over you and everything you own—your car, your house. We’re going to find forensic evidence, Jo Jo.”
“You been out to get me since you come to town,” Jo Jo said.
“When’s the last time you had sex with a woman?”
Jesse said.
Jo Jo stared at him. “Why you want to
know?”
“Because it’s the last time,”
Jesse said.
Jo Jo continued to stare at him.
