cop. I’ve got authority.
I’ve got a gun. He assaults me and I can have him in jail.“
“So he does stuff to embarrass you?”
“Yeah. Just like I embarrassed him. But it’s no good if
I don’t know it’s him, so he had to let me know.“
“What’d he do?”
“He stood across the common from me and smiled mid mouthed ‘slut’ at me.”
“But that doesn’t mean he did it. He could be ragging you about it even if he didn’t.”
“He did it,” Jesse said. :‘I
been at this too long to be wrong. He needed to tell me.“
“So what’s that got to do with Mrs.
Hathaway?”
“Just before Jo Jo told me he did it, she was making goo-goo eyes at him over the cider table.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s having
an affair with him.”
“It’s not something you expect to
see,” Jesse said. “I see something I
don’t expect, I want to know about it. The fact that I opened the door and you were behind it is an accident.”
Simpson sat and thought about this. Jesse waited.
There’s too much coming at him, Jesse thought. He doesn’t know enough. He’s not old enough yet. He wants to talk about it, hell, he’s dying to, but he thinks it‘.s dishonorable.
“I met Mrs. Hathaway at the Yacht Club,”
Simpson said. “Some kind of big wedding reception, I was doing a paid detail. She started talking to me, and at the end of the party she asked me to drive her home, because her husband was going out with a few of the men afterwards and she was tired. So I took her home and she asked me in and…”
“Okay,” Jesse said. “I
don’t need the details. In effect she picked you up.”
“Yes.”
“And she was both affectionate and
expert.”
“You better believe it,” Simpson said.
“Way to go, Cissy.”
Simpson blushed more darkly.
“It’s not like she was my
first,” he said. “But…”
“She was your first grown-up,” Jesse said.
Simpson nodded.
“She’s amazing,” he said.
“I don’t want to sound
harsh’here, Suit, but you might not be the only guy she ever picked up.”
Simpson shrugged..
“She say anything about her husband?”
“She said they get along fine, but the
fire’s gone out.”
“In his furnace only,” Jesse said.
“I think she likes him though,” Simpson said.
“You think he knows?”
Simpson shook his head.
“I don’t know. She’s not all
that careful. I don’t think he wants to know.”
They were quiet, until Simpson said, “I still don’t see what it’s got to do with Tammy Portugal.”
