“Whaa?” Corliss said.
S E A C H A N G E
“You took the threesome video of your sister.”
“We did not,” Claudia said.
“Not,” Corliss said.
“Yeah,” Jesse said. “Eric already told me, and Kon will say so as well.”
“How do you know Eric?” Corliss said.
“I’m the chief of police,” Jesse said. “I know everything.”
“You know Konrad?” Claudia said.
Jesse smiled.
“So what’s up with that?” he said.
Both of them giggled. Jesse wasn’t sure at what. Maybe that was a Plum family technique. When in doubt, giggle.
He waited. They looked at each other.
“Flo,” Corliss said. “Flo asked us to.”
“On Darnell’s boat,” Jesse said.
“Ohh, you know that,” Claudia said.
Jesse nodded. No one said anything. Full of adults and children, the Swan Boats elegantly pedaled their slow circuit of the pond.
“Flo wanted us to do it that way,” Corliss said.
They seemed to speak with instinctive deference to each other’s turn.
“Why?” Jesse said.
Again the girls looked at each other. “She wanted to jerk Harry’s chain,” Claudia said.
“Harry?”
“Harrison,” Corliss said.
“Darnell,” Jesse said.
2 0 1
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
Both girls nodded.
“Because?”
“Because he dumped her,” Claudia said.
“She was his girlfriend?” Jesse said.
Both girls laughed.
“Aren’t you funny,” Corliss said.
“What was their relationship?” Jesse said.
“She was the one, you know,” Claudia said, “the one he kept.”
“And the other women?”
“Entertainment, you know?” Corliss said.
“Like fishing,” Claudia said, “or skeet, or bridge.”
“And Florence didn’t mind them?”
“Not as long as she had her place,” Corliss said.
“Which was?” Jesse said.
“Head nigger,” Claudia said.
Both girls giggled again.
“But Darnell reorganized?” Jesse said.
“He dumped her,” Corliss said. “For Blondie Martin.”
“And Florence took this video on his boat to make him jealous?” Jesse said.
“She would never do it with him,” Claudia said.
“Harrison was always after her to go with him and Tommy Ralston,” Corliss said.
“But she wouldn’t.”
“No. But when he dumped her . . .”
“She done it with a couple of former crew guys, and sent him the tape.”
