“Tongue?”
“Yes.”
“Cow tongue?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Jesus,” Suit said.
9 7
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
They turned off Route 84 at the proper entrance.
“Did I miss anything?” Suit said.
“In New York? No. Or if you did we both did,” Jesse said.
“I don’t think we did,” Suit said.
“One suggestion, though,” Jesse said. “Based on my years of experience.”
“What?”
“The fact,” Jesse said, “that you liked those women for evidence doesn’t mean you couldn’t also like them in the carnal sense.”
“Wow,” Suit said as he pulled the car into the parking lot in front of Rein’s Deli. “No wonder you got to be chief.”
“It’s a gift,” Jesse said.
9 8
23
How is it?” Jesse said to Sunny on the phone.
He sat with a drink at the bar in his living room, in front of his picture of Ozzie Smith.
“Better than I feared,” Sunny said. “I was prepared to be sympathetic. We’re both women and she was raped.”
“The sisterhood is strong,” Jesse said.
“You’ll never understand,” Sunny said.
“No,” Jesse said.
He held the glass away from him and looked at the smooth whiskey and the clean ice. He drank some. R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“But,” Sunny said, “what I wasn’t prepared for is . . . I like her.”
“She’s pretty likable,” Jesse said.
“She is,” Sunny said. “She’s interested. She’s smart. She listens. She gets it. She’s funny. She’s been around.”
“I’ll say.”
“All of us have been around,” Sunny said.
