them.”
Simpson said. “Not all of this is firsthand, but that’s what I heard from people who applied, or friends of people who applied, that kind of thing. So there’s probably some I missed. But seventeen seems like a pretty solid low guess.”
“Any of them Horsemen?” Jesse said.
“Surprise.”
“Another thing,” Simpson said.
“Looking at the list, at least five people on it are Jews.”
“Because the names sound Jewish?” Jesse said. “Or because you know it for a fact.”
“That’s why I said ‘at
least.’ I know the five Jewish people.”
“You got any idea how many Jewish-sounding names are on the membership list for Freedom’s Horsemen?”
Jesse said.
“Well, I never really thought about it,”
Simpson said.
“I have. I went through it a couple times. Want to guess?”
“None,” Simpson said.
“Surprise.”
Simpson sat back in his chair, holding his little blue notebook in his thick square hand, his forefinger keeping the place.
“Shit,” he sai’d.
“Yeah,” Jesse said.
“I hate that,” Simpson said. “I
hate thinking stuff like this about my hometown.”
“You don’t have to think it about the
town,” Jesse said.
“But you may have to think it about the Horsemen.”
Simpson sat frowning. It looked odd. His big pink-cheeked baby face wasn’t supposed to frown.
“What about us, Jesse? We don’t have a
Jewish cop.”
“No blacks either,” Jesse said.
“I know, but, hell, I don’t think
there’s any black people in town.”
“That would weed out a lot of applicants,”
Jesse said.
“But there’s plenty of Jewish people in town. Christ, were tons of them in school with me.”
: :‘Who ,red the force?“ Jesse said.
,, i:: u don’t know. Torn hired,,m,e.
Selectmen approved.
‘ Which means Hathaway, Jesse said. “The other two /;go with what Hasty decides.” along “I guess so.” .
“I checked,” Jesse said. “Torn
hired everybody, with Selectmen approving, except Lou Burke. Lou was here before Carson came. Know any Jews who wanted to be
“Oh hell, Jesse, I don’t know. I mean I never thought much about it. I never even nofic,ed there were no Jews on the force until we started talking. ‘
“So what do you think?” Jesse said.
“About what?”
“About all of this. No permits for people who aren’t Horsemen. No permits for Jews. No Jews in the Horsemen.
No blacks. No Jews.“
“Oh hell, Jesse, I ain’t a thinker. Jesus!
I come on the cops because it was a nice job for a guy with no college.
You know? Some prestige, some benefits. People pay attention to you. I can’t figure out shit about Jews and gun permits and the damned Horsemen.“
Jesse grinned.
