“Town like this doesn’t have a murder a decade,” Healy said. “You get two in a
month.” ·
“Hate coincidence,” Jesse said.
“Don’t you?”
“Yeah. You see .any connection?”
“Not yet,” Jesse Said.
“But you’re looking.”
“I’m going to.”
Healy nodded again.
“Course sometimes there are coincidences,”
he said.
“We’re keeping it in mind,”
Jesse said.
Healy nodded, finished his drink, refilled Jesse’s glass, and put the bottle in his briefcase.
“I’ll he in touch,” he said.
closed the door behind him and came and sat with one leg on the corner of Jesse’s desk.
“What did that state police captain want?”
he said.
“And good morning to you too, Hasty.”
Hathaway shook his head as if he had water in his ear.
“What did he want?”
“His name’s Healy,” Jesse said.
“He’s the state homicide commander. He wanted to talk about Tammy Portugal’s murder.”
Hathaway shook his head again, slowly this time.
“We don’t want that, Jesse,” he
said. “We solve our own problems here.” ,
“I haven’t got the forensic resources for a full-fledged homicide investigation, Hasty. He does.”
Hathaway reached over and gave Jesse a clap on the shoulder.
“We have every confidence in you and your men, Jesse, we don’t need the state government sticking its nose under the edge of our tent, so to speak.”
Jesse hated to be touched and he especially hated to be clapped on the shoulder.
“I’m a good cop,” Jesse said.
“But a good cop is mostly the product of a good support system. We’re not geared for a homicide investigation.”
“We don’t want that policeman nosing into our business,‘’
Hathaway said. His geniality was dissipating.
“Well, I’m not sure there’s much
to be done about that.”
Jesse said. “Even if I didn’t want him, which I do, I got no way to keep him out.‘’
Hathaway was silent. One leg slung over the corner of Jesse’s desk, he drummed quietly with the fingers of his right hand on the desktop. His face seemed to have tightened in on itself. The lines had deepened and the pale blue eyes seemed smaller.
He looked feral.
“Jesse, you need to be clear about
things,” Hathaway said finally. “You are either with us, or you are not. We value loyalty above all things. It was ultimately Torn Carson’s failure.”
“Whatever happened to him,” Jesse said.
Hathaway glanced away from Jesse and stared out the window.
“We had to ask for Tom’s
resignation,” Hathaway said.
“Because?”
“Because his loyalty was in question.”
“Loyalty to who?” Jesse said. His voice was gentle and there was nothing in it other than interest.
