“So you are not hard with me, or with people who don’t require it.”
“Yeah?”
“So maybe that’s how it is with Dix. I mean, how hard can he be if he chooses to do what he does?” Jenn said.
“True,” Jesse said.
“Is he doing you any good?” Jenn said.
“Yeah, I think he is.”
“Can you say?”
“Not yet,” Jesse said. “We’re ranging pretty far afield.”
“Are you talking about us?” Jenn said.
“Yes.”
Jenn paused to look at a pantsuit on a mannequin in another window.
“That’s adorable,” Jenn said.
“Don’t you have one just like it?”
“No. I used to have one that color. But I’ve never owned one with that cut.”
“Of course not,” Jesse said.
“Is there a connection between me and your drinking?” Jenn said.
“I drank too much before I met you,” Jesse said.
“Do you see him regularly?” Jenn said.
“Twice a week if I can,” Jesse said. “Sometimes I can’t.”
“Will you stay with it?”
“Yes.”
Jenn patted him lightly on the back.
“You?” Jesse said.
“Stay in therapy?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, God yes,” Jenn said. “I may be a lifer.”
Jenn stopped suddenly and looked across the street.
“Come on,” she said and slid through the motionless traffic to a store window on the other side of Newbury. Jesse followed. Jenn was staring at a pair of jewel-studded bright blue silk shoes with a high heel and a strap and long, pointed toes.
“Those are the shoes,” she said.
And they went into the store.
Chapter Forty-six
“Maybe it was his niece,” Kelly said.
Jesse rang the bell.
“We can ask him,” Jesse said.
Over the intercom a voice said, “This is Pollinger.”
“This is Brian Kelly. I’m with the Boston Police Department.”
“Police?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’ll come down,” Pollinger said.
The intercom fell silent. Jesse took his badge out and put it on his belt so it would show. In about a minute a man opened the door as far as the chain bolt would allow.
“There are two of you,” the man said.
Kelly showed his badge.
“Yes sir. I’m Kelly, this is Jesse Stone.”
The man looked hard at Kelly’s badge.
“Could you hold it a bit closer to the door?” the man said. Kelly held it right up to the small opening. The man took a long time examining it.
“Will you need to come in?” he said.
