“Two guns,” Jesse said.
“So these people have an interest in killing people, and now
they seem interested in you?”
“Is it a great country,” Jesse said,
“or what.”
Marcy took a sip of wine and stared at him for a time without swallowing. She took a deep breath in through her nose, and, finally, swallowed her wine.
“You are going to be bait,” she said.
“Careful bait,” Jesse said.
“My God, how can you be careful bait?”
“Body armor, stay alert,” Jesse said.
“Maybe we’re not in love,” Marcy
said. “But you are the dearest
friend I’ve ever had. I would be devastated if you got killed too.”
“Good to know someone would,” Jesse said.
“But I’m pretty good
at this.”
“Better than they are?”
“Maybe we’ll find out,” Jesse
said.
“If I could talk you out of it, I would,”
Marcy said. “But I
can’t.”
Jesse nodded. Marcy emptied her wineglass. Jesse took the bottle
from the ice bucket and poured her half a glass more.
“So,” she said, “my fallback
position is let’s
fuck.”
Jesse grinned at her. Her dress had buttons all the way down the
front.
“It’s important to keep my hand
in,” he said.
Marcy began to unbutton the dress.
“Or whatever,” she said.
55
Suitcase Simpson came into Jesse’s office with a thick manila
folder.
“I heard back from Cleveland,” he said.
Jesse gestured to a chair. Simpson sat down and put the folder in his lap and opened it.
Simpson said, “Anthony Lincoln was in fact a resident in
ophthalmology at Case Western Medical Center from 1985 to 1990. He married Brianna Douglass in 1988. Her address at that time was twelve twenty-one Buckeye Road, which is in Shaker Heights. Her occupation was listed as attorney.”
“Either of them have a record?”
“No.”
“Cleveland cops have unsolved serial-type killings?”
“One case, not really a clear-cut serial thing. In 1989, a
cabbie was shot in his car on Euclid Ave., presumably by a passenger, two in the back of the head. In 1990 a seventeen-year-old girl was shot at a bus stop in Parma, which is near Cleveland.”
“I know where Parma is,” Jesse said.
“Two in the chest.”
Jesse nodded.
“Both people were killed with twenty-twos.”
“Same gun?” Jesse said.
