Chapter Forty-nine
“What are you going to do about that girl you found?” Lilly said.
They were sitting on Jesse’s deck, over the harbor, looking across to Paradise Neck, as the evening settled, and the space above the water turned a faint translucent blue. Lilly was drinking white wine. Jesse had a Coke.
“Dawn Davis,” he said.
“Can you send her home?”
“She wouldn’t tell us where she was from.”
“She’d rather be a whore than go home?”
“Yep.”
“Or go to jail?”
“Yep.”
“Is anybody looking for her?” Lilly said.
“Kelly checked Missing Persons, and if that’s her real name, there’s no paper on her.”
“Can’t you fingerprint her?”
“Did,” Jesse said. “There’s no match on file. It doesn’t identify her. It only tells us that there’s no match on file.”
“Which means she hasn’t been arrested before.”
“Probably,” Jesse said.
“How old do you think she is?” Lilly said.
“Fifteen, maybe.”
“You could contact youth services,” Lilly said.
“Sure,” Jesse said.
“You don’t think much of them,” Lilly said.
“No.”
“You could arrest her, couldn’t you? For prostitution?”
“Yep.”
“But you’re not going to.”
“No.”
“A fifteen-year-old girl can’t be left to her own devices,” Lilly said.
“We dropped her off at the shelter,” Jesse said. “With Sister Mary John.”
“And if she runs away from the shelter?”
“We told her we’d arrest her.”
“But she might anyway,” Lilly said. “She doesn’t seem entirely law-abiding.”
“True.”
“What if she runs off? Can you still arrest whatsisname?”
“Garner?”
“Yes.”
“We still have Mr. Pollinger,” Jesse said. “He’s not going anywhere, and we can use him to nail Garner.”
With evening the heat had receded, and the salt breeze off the harbor made the deck comfortable. Jesse had his feet on the railing.
“Are you going to arrest Garner?” Lilly said.
“Sooner or later,” Jesse said.
“Why are you waiting?”
Lilly’s glass was empty. Jesse stood and filled her glass and got himself another Coke.
“Won’t that keep you awake?” Lilly said.
“Gotta drink something,” Jesse said.
He handed the wineglass to Lilly and sat down and put his feet back up on the rail. Early evening. End of day. Friday night. On the deck. The water, murmuring. A good-looking woman whom he liked, the slowly dwindling view of the neck across the black water. He should be having a drink. It was exactly the time for a drink. Exactly the situation.
“So why are you waiting to arrest Garner?”
