“And ask Anthony to come talk to me,”
Jesse said.
Burke nodded again and left the office. Jesse stood for a while at the window drinking his coffee. He watched as Peter Perkins, the crime scene specialist, came out with his kit. While Jesse watched, Perkins took pictures of the car and dusted it for prints. He scraped a small sample of the paint off the windshield and dropped it into a small envelope.
Probably a hundred people had had access to the cruiser in the last month, Jesse knew. The prints, to the extent there were any usable ones, would mean almost nothing. Still, the department had an evidence specialist; if he didn’t go over the car, what was he getting paid for?
Anthony DeAngelo came into the office and Jesse turned from the window.
“You wanted to see me, Jesse?”
“Yeah. What can you tell me about the paint job?”
“Nothing much. I parked it outside my house, you know where I live, up on Archer Ave, after I got off at eleven last night. We always take the cruiser home on that shift unless we’re turning it over.”
“I know,” Jesse said.
“That’s no problem.”
“Anyway I went in, my wife made me a sandwich, and I had a beer and watched the end of the Sox game from Seattle and hit the rack. In the morning I went out and there it was.”
“Talk to any of the neighbors?” Jesse said.
“No, I, to tell you the truth I was a little embarrassed.”
“Yeah, I can see why you would be, On the other hand, be less embarrassing if we catch the perp,” Jesse said.
“Could it be personal. I mean,
‘slut’ is sort of a funny thing to spray on a police cruiser.”
“You saying it could be about my wife or something?”
i’q.?
87
“No. I’m asking. Your wife got any
enemies?”
“No. And she’s no slut either.”
“Had to ask, Anthony.”
“Sure. Probably some kid mad at me for rousting him off the wall, or something. You know what assholes kids Jesse nodded.
“Ask around,” he said. “See what
you learn.”
“Sure, Jesse, I’m sorry it
happened.”
“Not your fault,” Jesse said, and DeAngelo left the room.
Talking to Anthony hadn’t told him anything. He hadn’t thought it would. Asking around probably wouldn’t tell him anything either. They would probably never know who sprayed their car, anyway. Hardly the crime of the century.
Still, all the buttons had to be pushed, otherwise what were the buttons there for? Lot of motions to go through in police work, Jesse thought. He picked up Captain Cat from the top of the file cabinet and held him in his arms and scratched him thoughtfully behind the ear.
“‘Slut,’” he said to
the cat. “What the hell does that mean, Captain?”
she undressed and hung her clothes up in his closet. She was careful when she wiped off her lipstick, and she was relaxed when she came to the bed and he put his arms around her. Then she gave herself to the experience. The lovemaking absorbed-her. She was inventive and adroit, but most of all, he noticed even at the highest pitch that she was genuine. She pretended to nothing, and kept nothing in. She liked this. They made love for a long time and finished and lay together on their backs with her head resting in the crook of his arm.
“Whatever she didn’t like about
you,” Abby said, “it couldn’t have been the sex part.”
Jesse smiled in the darkness. The sex part had been one of many things Jenn didn’t like. He wasn’t sure what all of it was that Jerm had liked or not liked. Right now she appeared to like Elliott Krueger.
“Some guy said once that war was the extension of politics,‘’
Jesse said.
“That’s an answer?”
“Sex is probably the extension of
