“I’ve never even picked up a
gun,” Jennifer said.
“That’s good.”
“I’d love to shoot one. IS it hard to
shoot one?”
“No,” Jesse said. The gun nearly always worked. Unless they were sort of late-age hippies and then it turned them I’ll take you shooting sometime, if you’d like.“
“Is there a big kick?”
“No.”
Jennifer ate some more sndwich and wiped her mouth.
“If I’d known I was going to eat with
someone I have ordered this sandwich,” she said.
Jesse nodded.
“You don’t say much, do you?”
“No,” Jesse said. “I
don’t.”
“Why is that, most guys I know around here talk a mile minute.”
“That’s one reason,” Jesse said.
Jennifer laughed.
“Any other reasons?”
“I can’t ever remember,” Jesse
said, “getting in trouble keeping my mouth shut.” i
“So what kind of cop are you? You a detective?”
“Yes.”
“LAPD?”
“Yes.”
“Where are you, ah, stationed? Are cops stationed?”
“I am a homicide detective. I work out of police headquarters downtown.”
“Homicide.”
“Yes.”
Jennifer was silent for a moment thinking about the gap between the world she lived in and the one he worked in.
“Is it like, what? Hill Street Blues?” she said.
“More like Barney Miller,” he said.
It was his standard answer, but it was no truer than any other, just self-effacing, which was why he used it. Being a homicide cop wasn’t like anything on television, but there wasn’t much point in trying to explain that to someone who could never know.
“You an actress?” he said.
“Yes. How did you know?”
It was another thing he always said. He had a good chance to be right in Los Angeles, and even if he were‘ wrong, the girl was flattered.
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
“And you have a sort of star quality.”
“Wow, you know the right things to say, don’t YOU.‘’
“Just telling the truth,” Jesse said.
“Right now I’m working at the reception desk at CAA.”
Jennifer said. “But one of the agents has noticed me and says he’s going to get me some auditions during pilot season.”
“You done any work I might have seen?”
“Mostly nonspeaking parts, crowd scenes, things like that. I’m in a.play three nights a week just down the street ere. It’s a modem version of a Greek tragedy called The Parcae. I play Clotho.”
“Sounds really interesting,” Jesse said.
“I’d like to ‘iCome see it.”
“I can leave a ticket for you at the box office. All you ave to do is let me know the night.”
“How about tonight?” Jesse said.
