“Omigod,” Molly said. “Tough on the outside, tender on the inside.”
“Probably the right arrangement,” Jesse said. “For a cop.”
Molly smiled.
“Sometimes you’re the other way,” Molly said.
“There’s something I’ve been wondering about, Moll,”
Jesse said. “Maybe you can help me with it.”
“Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.”
“What,” Jesse said.
“ ‘Maybe you can help me’ is usually code for ‘Molly, there’s something needs to be done that I don’t want to do.’ ”
“Molly,” Jesse said, “I’m the chief of police. I don’t do, I delegate.”
Molly nodded.
“And wonderfully well,” she said. “What do you need?”
“As far as we know,” Jesse said, “Weeks wasn’t in the military. He wasn’t licensed to carry a gun. He didn’t have a security clearance.”
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R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“So?”
“So why do we have Walton Weeks’s fingerprints in the system,” he said.
Molly was silent for a moment.
Then she said, “I’ll look into it, Chief.”
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25
Sunny and Spike drove Jenn home to her new condo at One Charles Street. Sunny sat with the motor idling while Spike took Jenn to her apartment and went in with her to make sure she was alone. It was early evening, a cold rain was falling, and the wind was strong. Across Charles Street, a man in a trench coat stood in the shelter of a doorway, his hands in his pockets, a wide-brimmed felt hat pulled down. Sunny studied him. There was no way to see his face. He didn’t move. He could be the guy she’d seen outside King’s Chapel. Or he could be Humphrey Bogart. Spike came back from Jenn’s apartment and got in the front seat. On the floor, R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
Rosie raised her head and looked at Spike with some annoyance before she settled back down with her head against the heater.
“Dog’s very territorial,” Spike said.
“She needs her space,” Sunny said.
“Dog weighs thirty pounds,” Spike said. “I weigh about two-fifty. I need a little space myself.”
“You wish you weighed two-fifty,” Sunny said. “See that guy across the street?”
“Sort of,” Spike said.
“I’m going to circle the block, see what he does when we’re gone.”
