and the boat stay right here,' Costa said.
'Until I get the five.'
Macklin had known Costa a long time. He was just as he looked. He was squat and strong with thick hands and dark skin that had cured darker in a lifetime on the water, and he didn't change his mind. Once his mind was set, he plowed right through anything in his way-including the law. Costa wasn't scared of Macklin. Costa probably wasn't even scared of Crow. You had the choice of his way or kill him, and Macklin wasn't prepared to kill him yet.
'I'll be here Monday noon,' Macklin said.
'With the cash?'
'With the cash.'
'Good,' Costa said.
'When can you get up there?'
'To Paradise?'
'Yeah.'
'You gimme the cash Monday noon, I'll leave Tuesday morning. Go through the canal.'
'Good,' Macklin said.
Costa nodded. He got out of the car and closed the door. Macklin put the Mercedes in gear, backed up, U-turned, and drove away.
In the rearview mirror he could see that Costa hadn't moved.
TWENTY- TWO.
Copley Place was a high-end, upscale, vertical mall in the middle of Boston. It looked like every other high-end, upscale, vertical mall Jesse had ever seen. When you were in Copley Place, Jesse thought, you could be anywhere in western civilization. He had been in Copley Place for three hours, trailing behind Jenn, carrying bags, feeling like a husband, and rather liking it. But he knew he would have to tell her the secret thing he had done, and he was afraid. Usually Jesse could put the fear away, know it was there, but function around it. This fear nearly paralyzed him.
'You must be making the big buck,' Jesse said.
They were sitting beside the waterfall near the top of the escalator in the middle of the second floor.
'I get a clothing allowance,' Jenn said.
'And I haven't spent it all yet. Are you bored?'
'No' Jesse said.
'I like to be with you.'
Jenn smiled. But the smile was automatic, Jesse thought. She was looking at the display in a window down the mall.
'What do you think of that little suit?' Jenn said, 'With the chalk stripe.'
'It would look good on you.' Jesse took a breath.
'I followed you the other night when you were out with Tony Salt.'
Jenn kept looking at the chalk-striped suit for a moment, and then slowly she turned her head toward him.
'You followed us?'
'Actually I staked out your apartment. I saw you come home with him. I saw him go in.'
'And?'
'He spent the night.'
Jenn sat back against the bench and kept looking at him.
'Jesse,' she said finally, 'how... how goddamn dare you?'
Jesse clenched himself and held tight.
'I don't know,' Jesse said.
'I'm ashamed of it.'
His voice was steady. Jenn continued to look at him. A woman brought her two small children to the waterfall and let them throw pennies in it. Then she moved on. The kids didn't want to leave.
There was an argument. The kids cried. The woman finally dragged them away.
'You... have... the... right,' Jesse said slowly, 'to... date who... you wish and... spend the night with... who you wish.'
'Yes,'Jennsaid. 'Ido.'
'I don't know why I did that,' Jesse said.
'I don't know why you're telling me,' Jenn said.
'Because it's the truth.'
'Do I have to know all the truth?'
'I don't know,' Jesse said, 'but I have to tell you all the truth.'
Jenn smiled.
'Well, at least you know it's about you and not about me,' she said.
Jesse stared at the artificial waterfall cascading discreetly into the artificial pool.
'I won't do it again,' Jesse said.
Jenn could see the way his jaw muscles bunched at the hinges.
'Tell the truth?'
Jesse shook his head.
'I have to do that,' he said.
'I won't spy on you again.'
'Why do you have to tell me the truth, even if it's a bad truth?' i Jesse shook his head as if to clear it. Jenn remembered his doggedness. It was a good quality sometimes, she thought, but not always. yJenn asked again.
'Where does it say you have to always tell me the truth?'
'No secrets,' Jesse said.
His voice sounded as if it were being forced through too narrow an opening. God, this is hard on him, Jenn thought. She leaned over and patted his forearm.
'It's hard, Jesse,' she said.
'You're fighting the booze, you're fighting this. It's hard.'
'I don't win this fight, I may not win the booze fight,' Jesse said and wished he hadn't as soon as he heard it.
'I know, but I can't help you with that,' Jenn said.
'I can't be with you so that you won't drink.'
'It was the wrong thing to say. Following you was the wrong thing to do.' Jesse laughed angrily.
'I'm on a roll.'
'It's not that bad,' Jenn said.
'It was the wrong thing to do,' Jesse said.
'Of course it was, but it hasn't changed anything. I'm not going to give up on this because you once acted like a jerk.'
Jesse nodded.
'You don't act like a jerk too often anymore,' Jenn said.
Jesse grinned at her without any happiness in the grin.
'I'm not sure I like the 'anymore' part,' he said.
'How about, you never act like a jerk when you're working,' Jenn said.
Jesse nodded.
'It's why I work,' he said.
TWENTY-THREE.
When Macklin came in the front door, Faye jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. She was wearing a silk robe and nothing else.
'Whoa,' Macklin said.
'Let me at least get the door closed.'
He held her easily.
With her face a half inch from his Faye said, 'Welcome home. Wanna fuck?'
'Well, yes,' Macklin said, 'as a matter of fact I do.'
She pressed her mouth against his and held it there while he carried her to the bedroom and put her on the bed. She held on even after he put her down.
'Faye,' he said as he pulled away from her.
'I need to get my clothes off.'
'Well, be quick about it,' Faye said as she untied her robe.
She was very inventive and experimental. She liked to try different positions. Whenever she heard of a new sexual trick or an innovative device, she was eager to try it. There was something joyous in her sexuality. Macklin always thought of her as laughing while they had sex, though he knew she didn't really. When they were through, they lay together on her bed and stared at their reflection in the mirrored ceiling.
'That calm you down for a while?' Macklin said.
'For a while,' Faye said.
'You hungry?'
'For cris sake Faye,' Macklin said.
'One appetite at a time. Let me sort of rest up.'
'I've got supper ready whenever you want it.'
'You serve a nice hors d'ouevre,' Macklin said.
'You get the people you want?'
'Yeah, Crow was the most important one. Now I got JD for wiring, and Fran for explosives, and Freddie Costa for the boat.'
'That means a five-way split,' Faye said.
'Unless some of them drop out,' Macklin said.
Faye met his eyes in the mirrored ceiling.
'You think that could happen?'
Macklin smiled and shrugged at her.
'Could,' he said.
Still looking at him in the ceiling, Faye said, 'You're a heartless bastard, Jimmy.'
'Not all the time,' Macklin said and patted her thigh.
'No,' Faye said.
'Not all the time.'
She put her head against his shoulder, and they were quiet together. Faye knew that it wasn't quite right, what he'd said about 'not all the time.' He loved her, within his limits, but Jimmy wasn't capable of a lot of feeling. What he could feel most sharply, she knew, was excitement and boredom, and his life was mostly seeking one to avoid the other. It was why jail was so hard on him.
She knew that she didn't know what he did to fight boredom in jail, but she knew Jimmy and what excited him was risk. She knew that the odds were good that he'd risk too much someday. And, she knew that he would be unfaithful. It had nothing in his emotional world to do with loving her or not. It had to do with opportunity and conquest. She hated knowing it, but she was a woman who had learned early in life that things were so whether she wanted them to be so or not. And she knew that she loved him and that he would never leave her, and she would take what there was and make as much of it as she could. Looking up at the two of them lying naked on her bed, Faye thought that probably that was what life was, taking what you could get and making the most of it.
'What's for supper?' Macklin said.
'Pork and pepper stew,' Faye said.
'And I made a big pitcher of sangria.'
'Faye,' Macklin said, 'you're the best.'
Faye knew he meant it, even if he couldn't say she was the only.
'Yes,' Faye said.
'I am.'
TWENTY-FOUR.
Jesse's office was crowded. He was there at his desk. And seated
