Lincoln smiled again.
“He said it has not been involved in any crime.”
“I’ll put it away,” Brianna
said. “Can I get you coffee, Mr.
Stone?”
“Jesse. Sure, that would be fine.”
“Cream, two sugars?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She smiled.
“Brianna,” she said.
“Ma’am is my mother.”
Jesse sat, as he had before, looking through the picture window
at the ocean. The snow continued softly, blurring the view.
Lincoln laughed.
“I feel like I ought to apologize,” he said. “If it had been my
gun, it would have made things so much easier for you.”
Jesse smiled.
“Think how I feel,” Jesse said.
Brianna came back with Jesse’s coffee in a stainless steel mug.
She put a doily down on the end table near him and set the coffee cup on it.
“Thank you.”
She smiled at him warmly. He smiled back.
“You have respect for your tools,” Jesse said. “The gun was
clean.”
“Any tool works best if it’s well
maintained.”
Jesse glanced around the living room.
“This is a great room,” he said.
“Yes,” Brianna said. “We love
it.”
Jesse stood and walked to the window.
“On a cop’s salary,” Jesse said,
“I’ll never get a view like
this.”
Both Tony and Brianna smiled modestly.
“We were lucky, I guess,” Brianna said.
“And Tony is
brilliant.”
“I can see that,” Jesse said.
He turned slowly, looking around the room.
“How big is this place?” he said.
“We have the whole top floor,” Lincoln said.
Brianna smiled.
“Would you like a tour?” she said.
“I sure would,” Jesse said.
“Come on then,” she said.
Tony went with them as she took Jesse through the den with its huge electronic entertainment center, into the luminous kitchen, through the formal dining room, past three large baths, and into the vast bedroom with its canopy bed and another entertainment center. The bed was covered with a thick white silk comforter.
“The workbench,” Tony said, nodding at the bed.
“Wow,” Jesse said. “You must not
have any kids or dogs living
here.”
