“You were?” Holton said. “I
wasn’t sure cops did that in the
suburbs.”
“Only as a last resort,” Jesse said and hung up.
“No match?” Simpson said without looking up from the
paper.
“No match,” Jesse said.
“Well, it’s not like you didn’t
call it,” Simpson
said.
“So much for plinking vermin,” Jesse said.
“Vermin?” Simpson said.
“They said they had the rifle to plink vermin at their summer
place.”
“So?”
“So according to the state ballistics guy the gun has probably
never even been fired.”
“Why would they lie about that?” Simpson said.
“To explain why they had the gun.”
“Lotta people own a gun they haven’t fired.”
“Yeah, and they usually have it in the house, for protection.”
“So why wouldn’t they just say
that?”
“Because they are too smart for their own good,” Jesse said.
“They think we would wonder why they’d buy a twenty-two rifle for
protection.”
“A twenty-two will kill you,” Simpson said.
“As well we know,” Jesse said.
“So if they said it was for protection, would we wonder?”
“Maybe,” Jesse said,
“we’re supposed to wonder.”
“Maybe they were just embarrassed at keeping a gun for
protection, and said it was for vermin,” Simpson said.
“They look embarrassed to you?” Jesse said.
“No. You think they got two other guns?”
“Handguns,” Jesse said. “You
wouldn’t use a rifle for the kind
of killing they did.”
“If they did it,” Simpson said.
“I think they did,” Jesse said.
“You always tell me, Jesse, don’t be in a hurry to decide
stuff.”
“I want to know everything about Tony and Brianna,” Jesse said.
“Phone records, credit cards, dates of birth, social security numbers, previous residences, when they were married, where they lived before this, where the country home is where they are not plinking vermin, do they have relatives, who are their friends, what do the neighbors know about them, where he practiced medicine, where they went to school.”
“You want me to pick the gun up first and return it?
Or you want
me to start digging into the Lincolns.”
“I’ll take care of the rifle,”
Jesse said. “You start
digging.”
