think we’d suspect them.”
“But they left what amounts to a confession in plain view,”
Jesse said.
“To five murders,” Healy said.
“Or so they
expected.”
Behind them the specialists were packing up.
“We’re about done here,
Captain,” Rosario said.
Healy nodded. He spoke to one of the detectives.
“Leave a couple of uniforms here,” he said. “Case they come
back.”
“I’ll stay a while,” Jesse said.
“Sure,” Healy said. “You want to
be alone?”
“Yeah.”
“I like to do that too,” Healy said.
“Sort of listen to a crime
scene. By myself.”
“Something like that,” Jesse said.
“Okay. Paulie,” Healy said to the
detective. “Tell the troopers
to stay in the vestibule until Stone leaves.”
When everyone was gone Jesse stood in the thick silence and looked slowly around the room. The place had been measured, searched, photographed, inventoried, dusted. The computer had been removed. He walked to the bathroom. Two toothbrushes stood in holders. A barely squeezed tube of toothpaste for sensitive teeth lay on the counter. The soap in the soap dish was new. A full bottle of shampoo stood on a shelf in the shower stall beside a fresh bar of soap. On a shelf above the bathroom sink were matched jars and tubes of makeup, all barely used, all in order by size and shape. The bed seemed freshly made. He turned back the spread. The sheets seemed newly washed and ironed. He opened bureau drawers.
Tony’s shirts were carefully laid out by color, still in their
transparent envelopes from the cleaner. His socks were rolled.
Brianna’s bureau was equally immaculate. The kitchen was spotless.
The counters were washed. The refrigerator was clean and organized.
A place for everything and everything in its place. The dining room table was set with good china. The whole place looked as if they were expecting company … They were. That’s why they had left
the evidence displayed. A farewell. See how much smarter we are
than you are. They would simply disappear and, in time, someone would notice they were gone, or maybe there would be an anonymous tip. And the cops would come and there would be the confession on the computer screen. They had never planned to come back. And they were too compulsive to leave the place un-immaculate for the company to see. Even had they successfully killed him they were moving on. He was to be the final triumph.
Here.
66
Jesse talked to the press the next morning on the front steps of
the Paradise Police Station. Yes, a Paradise police officer, Anthony deAngelo, had been killed last night. Yes, they had identified two suspects: Tony and Brianna Lincoln. No, they did not know the whereabouts of the suspects. Yes, the search was continuing. When they had asked all the questions Jesse could stand to hear, the news conference ended and Jesse went inside.
Molly nodded toward his office.
“Jenn,” Molly said. “She came in
the side.”
Jesse nodded and walked into his office. Jenn was sitting on the
edge of his desk, looking through Jesse’s side window at the turmoil of media that surged around the front lawn of the police station. Jesse closed the office door behind him.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi.”
Jesse went around the desk and sat in his chair. Jenn shifted on
the edge of his desk so she was looking at him, her right leg resting on the ground, her left draped over his desk,
