“I saw him near the station when I went in, the day after it happened. Yesterday, he was hanging around a shoot I was on in Natick. . . . What would you have done if he were here.”
Jesse was quiet.
“I want to know,” Jenn said.
“I would have seen to it,” Jesse said, “that he never hurt you again.”
Jenn nodded and folded her arms and leaned her back against the door.
“Would you kill him?”
“If I had to,” Jesse said.
“I’d kill him,” Jenn said. “I will kill him if I get a chance.”
4 4
H I G H P R O F I L E
Jesse nodded.
“I need you to get me a gun.”
Jesse nodded.
“And show me how to use it.”
“I can do that,” Jesse said.
“You know what the bastard was like?” Jenn said. Jesse shook his head.
“He came into my apartment right behind me,” Jenn said. “He had a gun. He stood there in my living room and pointed the gun at me and made me undress.”
Jesse was very still.
“For crissake, stand there and undress,” Jenn said. “Take off all my clothes, squirm out of my pantyhose, in front of a total fucking stranger.”
Jesse waited. Jenn was barely talking to him.
“And then I’m standing there completely undressed, nothing on, and the fucking sonovabitch couldn’t get it up.”
Jesse nodded.
“I had to stand there naked and watch him fondle himself until he was hard enough.”
Jenn’s breathing was heavy now, and short. Jesse listened to the interior sound his own breath made going in and out. He was breathing harshly, too.
“Then he made me lie on the floor and he did it. On the floor. He jammed it in and pushed hard and called me names and told me I liked it rough.”
Jesse nodded.
“It hurt,” Jenn said.
4 5
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“Did you see a doctor?”
“No.”
