her and this violent woman. They reached her bedroom.
'Lie on the bed,' the woman said.
Abby did as she was told. The woman took a pair of handcuffs from her purse, and holding the gun in her right hand, she snapped one cuff on Abby's left wrist and the other to the headboard of the bed. Then she stepped back and put the gun in her purse and looked around the room. There was a phone on the bedside table.
The woman unplugged it and put it in the hall. She looked out the window at Abby's backyard. The next house was fifty feet away. The window was closed. The woman lowered the window shade.
'Nobody can hear you,' she said to Abby.
'What are you going to do to?'
'You'll be all right,' the woman said.
'It'll only be a while.'
Then she shut the door and went downstairs, leaving Abby alone in the darkened bedroom.
FIFTY-ONE.
Molly came into Jesse's office with two cups of coffee and a brown paper bag. She put a cup of coffee on his desk, took a raspberry turnover from the bag, handed it to him, and sat down opposite the desk.
'You busy,' Molly said.
'Well, I was thinking of taking a ride 'to Charlestown again, see if I can find Harry Smith, aka James Macklin.'
'The guy's a phony?'
'And a bad one.'
'You going alone?'
'I thought I might bring a Boston detective with me.'
'There's more going on here than I know about, isn't there?'
'Suit will fill you in. You make the turnover?'
'The Paradise Bake Shop helped me,' Molly said.
'I got time to eat it,' Jesse said.
Molly smiled.
'Figured you might like something soothing... or you can talk if you want,' she said.
Jesse took the turnover out and had a bite. He chewed it while he pried the lid off the coffee cup.
'Don't need to talk,' he said.
'Fine with me,' Molly said.
'Got a call from Citadel Security.
They said the Stiles Island Patrol hadn't called in for a couple hours now. Asked us to check.'
'Send somebody out?' Jesse said.
'Pat Sears and Billy Pope,' Molly said.
'Good. There another turnover?'
Molly fumbled in the bag and took out a second turnover and handed it to him.
'Jenn didn't help things,' Molly said.
'No.'
'Kay Hopkins has a lot of say in this town,' Molly said.
'You'll have to take her seriously, Jesse.'
'I do what I can do, Molly.'
'I know, but Jenn assaulting her...'
'Jenn does what she can do.'
'That's a funny situation,' Molly said.
'If you'll excuse my saying so. You're divorced, but you're not really separated.'
'Yes, it's odd,' Jesse said.
'Would you marry her again?' Molly said.
'Tell me if I'm out of line.'
'You're okay,' Jesse said.
'Yeah, I'd marry her again if I knew it would be monogamous.'
'How could you know?'
'If she promised, I'd believe her.'
Molly made a face.
'Your marriage monogamous?' Jesse said.
'Be no marriage if it weren't,' Molly said.
'How do you know?'
'Because I'd leave in a heartbeat.'
'No, I mean, how do you know your husband isn't cheating on you?'
'He wouldn't.'
Jesse nodded. Molly frowned at him. Then she smiled.
'You trust her?' Molly said.
'I trust her not to lie to me again.'
'She lied to you before.'
'Yes.'
'So how can you know now that she wouldn't do it again?'
'Same way you do,' Jesse said.
'But you have a history...'
'And when I was living that history, I knew I couldn't trust her.
Now I know I can.'
'And the other women? Abby? Marcy Campbell?'
'I'm a single guy,' Jesse said.
'I like women. I like sex with women.'
'But you love Jenn.'
'Yes.'
'For me the two things sort of merge,' Molly said.
'Love and sex?'
'Yes.'
'You must be female,' Jesse said.
'Irish Catholic female,' Molly said.
'The ultimate.'
They were quiet for a moment.
'All of this is none of my business, is it?'
'No, it's not,' Jesse said.
'But it's nice to talk about it with someone who has no stake in the outcome.'
'Well, I love you too, Jesse.'
'Yeah, but not that way.'
'No, I love my husband that way.'
'Damn,' Jesse said. And they both laughed.
FIFTY- TWO.
As soon as JD cut the ropes, Marcy peeled off the duct tape that covered her mouth, picked up her purse without a word, and went into the small lavatory. She locked the door and used the lav, washed her hands and began to examine her face in the mirror. The tape had taken all her makeup and most of her lipstick with it. There was a big red mark across the lower part of her face where it had been. Marcy washed her face in the basin, and dried her face carefully.
She didn't have enough makeup in her purse to repair the damage.
All she could do was put on fresh lipstick and comb her hair. Then she stood silently with her forehead pressed against the mirror and her eyes closed. She felt safe in here, though she knew she wasn't. But she simply couldn't stay in here, cowering until what ever happened happened. She was better off than she had been. At least she wasn't tied up anymore. Harry and the Indian had told this man not to hurt her, and he seemed to do what they told him. If she had just given into impulse this morning and not come to work... that was pointless. What was going to happen was what mattered. She took in a deep breath and let it out and looked at herself in the mirror.
Okay, Marce, here you go. She opened the lavatory door and walked out into the office. JD was staring out the office window at the guard shack and the bridge. He glanced over his shoulder at her.
'Feeling better?' he said.
'Yes.' Her voice was hoarse.
JD turned back toward the window.
'You need to stay in here and be quiet,' he said.
'I got to concentrate. You give me a problem, and I'll kill you.'
'Harry and the other man said I was not to be harmed.'
'I know what they said. They meant if you were good. You give any of us trouble, and any of us will kill you. You understand?'
'Yes.'
'You can't get off the island, and you can't make a phone call, so sit down and relax and don't bother me.'
'I won't bother you,' Marcy said.
JD turned back to the window. Marcy glanced around the office. She didn't want to sit on the couch where she had lain so long tied up. She went and sat behind the desk. It was, after all, her desk.
If he wanted to sit there, he could tell her. JD continued to stare out the window. His back looked stiff. He was nervous. The office was very still. She tried to breathe softly, looking at JD. He was a small man, and he had about him a kind of skinny softness. It wasn't fair.
She was a big woman and strong. She worked out every day at her health club. Yet this puny soft man was stronger than she was and could force her to do what he wanted. Of course, he had a gun. But even if he didn't, he could overpower her. It didn't seem right. But that's how it was. Clearly, God wasn't a woman.
'Can you tell me what's going on?' Marcy said.
JD shook his head.
'Well, what are you doing? Why are you all here?'
'Shhh!' JD said.
She felt a surge of anger. He was so dismissive. He didn't even turn his head. All women felt that anger if they let themselves.
Though most women didn't find themselves, literally at least, in this kind of situation.
'For God's sake, you could at least look at me,' Marcy said.
JD turned slowly.
'You shut the fuck up, lady, or I'm going to come up alongside of your fucking head.'
She felt the thrill of fear run through her. He wasn't just a sexist pig; he was a sexist pig with a gun, and she was his prisoner. Remotely, almost unconnected with the reality of her situation, the eternal footman of her consciousness made an ironic little snicker.
Her situation was probably just a slightly intensified version of all women's situation, the footman said. Everywoman!
'Jesus Christ,' JD said.
Marcy stood behind the desk so she could look past him out the window. A Paradise patrol car was driving across the bridge.
Marcy felt a surge of excitement. Help was coming.
When the police car was halfway across, the bridge began to ripple. The ripple turned into a heave. And, as the sound of the explosion came rolling into the real estate office, the bridge went up and the police car with it, somersaulting slowly in among the pieces of the disintegrating bridge. One of its doors blew away and the hood tore off, and the car languidly turned over and planed into the gray harbor and disappeared.
Marcy stood motionless, staring, as bridge debris continued to spin down and splash into the harbor. JD was for a moment as transfixed as Marcy, watching
