“Do you know why they wanted to be side by side?”
1 7 8
S E A C H A N G E
“Nope.”
“A guess?”
“Party together, I suppose. Two boats are better than one?”
“Two of most things are better than one,” Kelly Cruz said.
“Absolutely, Detective Kelly Cruz.”
“Kelly’s my first name.”
Bob grinned at her.
“I figured you weren’t Irish,” he said.
She smiled.
“You know anything interesting about either of these guys?” she said.
“Not a thing.”
“Know anybody named Florence Horvath?”
“Nope.”
“Corliss or Claudia Plum?”
“Nope. Great names, though,” Bob said. “You ever go out with people you’ve questioned, Kelly Cruz?”
“When I can get a babysitter.”
“Kids.”
“Yep.”
“Husband?”
“Nope.”
“That works,” Bob said.
“It does,” Kelly Cruz said, and handed Bob her card.
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38
H ealy took his hat off and put it on the edge of Jesse’s desk.
“I’m on my way home,” he said.
“Way to go,” Jesse said.
“Which means I’m off duty.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jesse said.
He went to the file cabinet, got a bottle of Bushmill’s Black Label, poured about two inches into a water glass and handed it to Healy.
“You still can’t join me,” Healy said.
“Almost eleven months now,” Jesse said. “Not yet. Maybe never.”
S E A C H A N G E
“Day at a time,” Healy said.
He took a sip, and put his head back, and closed his eyes.
“You don’t have to enjoy it so fucking much,” Jesse said.
“Sorry,” Healy said. “But you remember what the first one was like at the end of the day.”
“I do,” Jesse said. “It’s the fifth or sixth one I have trouble recalling.”
“I’ll try to be unemotional about the next swallow,” Healy said.
“Appreciate it.”
“So,” Healy said. “You asked me to stop by.”
“Remember the floater we had?” Jesse said.
“Horvath,” Healy said. “Been a long time in the water.”
“Well, lemme bring you up to date,” Jesse said.
Healy nodded and sat back with his Irish whiskey and listened.
When Jesse was through, Healy thought about things for a moment. Then he said, “You can get them on statutory rape anytime you want.”
“Yes.”
“But when you do,” Healy said, “they’ll get lawyered to the eyeballs, and you won’t get another word out of
