“Do you have the gun here, Tony?” he said.
“Sure, we keep it locked up in the bedroom closet.”
“May we see it?”
“Sure, Brianna? You want to get it for us?”
“Of course,” she said and hurried out of the
room.
Jesse admired her backside, then shifted his glance to the big picture window. The ocean looked silvery blue today with the sun shining on it.
“Great view, isn’t it,” Tony
said.
“I assume you pay for it,” Jesse said.
“Oh, boy,” Tony said, “you got
that right.”
“What do you do for work,” Jesse said.
Tony smiled.
“Mostly, these days, I manage our money,”
he said. “I used to be
an ophthalmologist. Then one day I invented an ocular scanning device that became the standard for the profession.”
He smiled again.
“Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” he
said.
“And you don’t practice medicine
anymore?” Jesse
said.
“Why, do you have something in your eye?”
Jesse smiled.
“Just wondered.”
“No, I don’t practice anymore,”
Tony said.
“You miss it?”
“Can’t say that I do.”
Brianna came back into the room carrying the rifle in both hands. Jesse was aware that Simpson shifted a little in his seat by the door. Brianna gave Jesse the gun. He pointed it at the floor, released the magazine into his hand and put it on the table beside him, worked the action a couple of times, then opened the bolt and looked at the barrel.
“Nice and clean,” he said.
“Good workman takes care of his tools, right, Jesse?”
Jesse nodded.
“We’d like to borrow this for a couple of days. I’ll give you a
receipt, and test-fire it so we can cross you off the list.”
“Be pretty suspicious,” Tony said,
“if we didn’t let
you.”
“It would,” Jesse said.
“Could they make a mistake?” Tony said.
“No,” Jesse said. “This is
pretty straightforward
ballistics.”
“Okay with me,” Tony said. “You
go along with that,
Brianna?”
“Certainly.”
