“Of course, you can tell me to mind my own business,”
Molly said.
“Mind your own business.”
“No,” Molly said.
She smiled at him and opened the door.
“I won’t,” she said, and went out.
4 0
12
Jesse was eating a ham-and-cheese sandwich on light rye when Molly came in.
“Lutz is here,” Molly said.
Jesse took a bite of the half-sour pickle that Daisy Dyke always sent with her sandwiches.
“And your wife is on the phone.”
Jesse chewed the bite of pickle and swallowed.
“Ex-wife,” he said.
“So you say.”
Jesse took in some air and let it out slowly.
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“Hold Lutz for a few minutes,” Jesse said. “I’ll talk to Jenn.”
Molly nodded. Jesse put his hand on the phone. Molly didn’t leave. Jesse looked at her with his hand on the phone. Molly shook her head and left the office. Jesse picked up the phone.
“Hi,” he said.
“I’m in your apartment,” Jenn said. “You have to come right now.”
Jesse nodded as if she could see him.
“Sort of a busy time right now, Jenn.”
“A man raped me,” she said.
Jesse felt it across his upper back and shoulders. His trapezius muscles bunched involuntarily.
“You need a doctor?” Jesse said.
“I need you.”
“I’ll be right there,” Jesse said.
He stood, and took his gun from the desk and put it on his belt. Then he walked out through the station. Molly was at the front desk. A big man with a thick mustache and a shaved head sat waiting. Jesse assumed it was Lutz.
“Ask Mr. Lutz to wait,” Jesse said to Molly.
She stared at him. He kept going out the front door of the station. It seemed to him that he moved inside some sort of soundless space that enveloped him as he drove. Jesse’s front door was locked. When he unlocked it, he discovered that the security chain was in place.
