through the open door of the bathroom. She was wearing one of his shirts, just the way she used to, and when she bent over to rinse her mouth, her butt showed. Jenn turned off the bathroom light and got into bed beside Jesse.
“Were you leering at me?” Jenn said.
“I was admiring your butt,” Jesse said.
“It is cute, isn’t it.”
“So you don’t mind admiring,” Jesse said.
S E A C H A N G E
“Admiring is good; leering is good.”
“I was admiring,” Jesse said.
Jenn tuned her head and kissed him lightly.
“Tell me about your day,” she said.
He knew she was mocking their domesticity.
“Any day that ends up with us in bed,” Jesse said, “is a good day.”
“Oh,” she said, “you charming devil.”
“I would like to get through with this floater case,” Jesse said. “It’s turned into a goddamned cesspool.”
“The one where you were watching the dirty movies?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s gotten worse.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
“I do,” Jesse said. “It’s one of the things I really missed when you were gone.”
“Talking to me?”
“I could always talk to you,” Jesse said.
“So talk,” Jenn said.
They had left the balcony doors open, and they could hear the sound of the harbor as Jesse talked, lying on his back in the nearly dark room, looking up the blank, uninteresting ceiling. Jenn turned on her side toward him as she listened.
Through the open French doors, they could hear a boat mo-tor. Softer, more persistent, so familiar in its endless rhythm as to be nearly soundless was the movement of the waves against the causeway at the south end of the harbor. Jenn 1 7 1
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
already knew some of the story, about the videotapes from Darnell. He told her the rest. He told her what Kelly Cruz had learned. He told her about Katie DeWolfe.
“So the bastards recruit?” Jenn said when he was finished.
“And apparently swap.”
“Tapes, too,” Jenn said, “wouldn’t you guess?”
“They probably leer at them,” Jesse said.
“Almost certainly,” Jenn said. “And, my God, what about the women on board? You know the older women? What are they?”
“Put the young ones at ease. Maybe. On the other hand, Katie says, they ‘jump right in.’”
“Jesus,” Jenn said. “You can get them both, can’t you? For statutory rape?”
“I can always do that,” Jesse said. “I want them for murder.”
“Both of them?”
“Whoever killed her,” Jesse said. “And whoever helped.
And whoever knew.”
“What if neither of them did it?” Jenn said.
“One of them did it. Maybe both.”
“You’re so sure?”
“I’m so sure.”
She continued to lie on her side, looking at him. He continued to look at the ceiling.
“If I was looking at your butt and just thinking it was a good-looking butt?” Jesse said after a while.
“That would be admiring,” Jenn said.
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S E A C H A N G E
“And if I also imagined holding on to your butt while we were making wild and exotic love?”
“That would be leering.”
“And is one better than the other?” Jesse said.
