'Sex?' Jesse said.
Jenn shrugged.
'Let's see what happens.'
'Not tonight,' Jesse said.
'No,' Jenn said.
Jesse turned from the window and looked at Jenn and smiled.
'You are a piece of work, Jenn,' he said.
'You want to give it a try?'
'Sure,' Jesse said.
'Want to take me to dinner next Wednesday night?'
Yes.
They stood on opposite sides of the living room for a time and looked silently at each other. Then Jenn walked across and put her arms around Jesse and rested her head against his chest.
With her voice somewhat muffled, she said, 'A day at a time, huh?'
'Sure,' Jesse said.
TEN.
'And you just walked out and shot the cop without a word' Faye said.
They were sitting in the Mercedes parked on Indian Hill, looking at Stiles Island where it jutted into the harbor.
'He was the dangerous one. Knock him over and they take you seriously.'
'So you did it for effect.'
'I wanted to neutralize him. And I wanted to get their attention.'
'Weren't you afraid someone would hear the shot?' Faye said.
'Hotel rooms have pretty good sound insulation,' Macklin said.
'And most people don't know what a gun shot sounds like anyway. They're afraid to call up and make an asshole of themselves, you know?'
'Why didn't they call down to the desk the minute you left the room?'
'And say what-we were having an illegal poker game up here, guarded by a corrupt Boston cop? As soon as I left the room, they were busy getting the hell out of there and covering their tracks.'
'So they won't even report it.'
'Nope. Why I like to knock them over.'
'Paper says that a policeman was found shot to death in a room,' Faye said.
'And the room was occupied by someone named Thomas King, who turns out to be a phony.'
'It didn't say in the paper.'
'It will,' Macklin said.
'The real Thomas King will be a guy from Des Moines, who's never been to Boston, and somebody lifted his credit card number and used it to make phony plastic.'
'You take some awful chances, Jimmy.'
'Not really,' Macklin said.
'What if the cop had found your gun?'
'Guy's patting you down he stays away from your crotch.'
'But suppose he had found it?'
'So he takes it,' Macklin said.
'And they either boot me out or let me play. If they boot me out, I take my thousand and leave. If they let me play, I donate my thousand and leave.'
'But shooting the cop?'
'Part of doing business,' Macklin said.
'Either it bothers you or it doesn't. If it bothers you, find another line of work.'
'It doesn't bother you.'
'No.'
'What if you'd missed?'
Macklin grinned at her.
