“I only watch ball games,” Jesse said. “What do we know about him from watching his program all day?”
“He’s nonpartisan,” Molly said. “He challenged this guy about how to help impoverished people. He challenged some black activist a while back on welfare.”
She looked at her notes again.
“ ‘If it’s so good,’ he said, ‘why are there so many fewer intact black families than there were fifty years ago?’ ”
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R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“Is that true?” Jesse said.
“How the hell do I know,” Molly said. “But you tend to believe him when he says things.”
“So he’s likable and believable, and essentially nonpartisan,” Jesse said. “He seems in a genuine search for the truth.”
“Yes.”
“No wonder somebody wanted to kill him,” Jesse said.
“We don’t want a lot of that going on in public,” Molly said.
“Be the end of politics as we know it,” Jesse said.
“Amazing they let him on television,” Molly said.
“I got a folder full of his columns that I’ll read tonight,”
Jesse said. “But, cynicism aside, he doesn’t seem like somebody who would be murdered and hung from a tree because of his, for lack of a better word, politics.”
“Is that why we watched all this?” Molly said. “To find that out?”
“Good to know about your victim.”
“There were two victims,” Molly said.
“I know,” Jesse said. “But she didn’t leave us videotape. We get his killer, we’ll get hers.”
“The thing is,” Molly said, “it’s like we’ve got too much. Videotapes, newspaper columns, two victims, three ex- wives, bodyguard, researcher, lawyer, manager, and God knows who else.”
“There’s no such thing as too much,” Jesse said. 1 0 8
H I G H P R O F I L E
“Except that it’s sort of daunting,” Molly said.
“It’s just work,” Jesse said.
“A dauntingly lot of work,” Molly said.
Jesse smiled.
“We can work.”
Molly closed her notebook.
“
“Take tonight off,” Jesse said.
