and her tongue out. She too appeared to be interested in the harbor.
“Where’s Jenn,” Jesse said.
“Spike’s with her,” Sunny said.
“They get along?” Jesse said.
R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“Sort of. Jenn seems sort of uneasy with him. But it’s hard not to like Spike.”
“You getting along?”
Sunny nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “And no, we haven’t talked about you.”
“Thought never entered,” Jesse said. “Making any progress on who did it?”
“That’s why I wanted to talk,” Sunny said. “Right after I started taking care of her, we were eating lunch and I spotted a guy who seemed to be watching us through the window. I pointed him out to Jenn, and she said no, that was not the man.”
Jesse nodded. Rosie spotted a seagull and stiffened, motionless, looking at it. The seagull went about his business.
“But the thing is,” Sunny said, “I’ve seen him twice again. The last time I saw him I tried her again and she said no, and didn’t seem to remember that I’d pointed him out before.”
Jesse stared for a while at the water moving against the stone base of the wharf. Then slowly he raised his eyes and looked across the harbor at the neck. It was still morning, and the strength of the sun out of the east made him squint even through the overcast.
“Shit,” he said after a time.
“Yes,” Sunny said.
Jesse looked up at the overcast, and rolled his neck as if to stretch out a cramp.
“Well, at least someone’s actually following her,” he said.
“Yes.”
1 3 8
H I G H P R O F I L E
Rosie held the seagull in her laser-like stare. The seagull had flown up on a pier piling and was staring back at Rosie.
“You ever notice that Rosie and the seagull have similar eyes?” Jesse said.
“Beady?”
“I guess,” Jesse said.
Sunny smiled.
“But soulful,” she said.
“In Rosie’s case,” Jesse said.
“Exactly.”
They were quiet. The seagull flew away. Rosie watched it briefly, then turned her blank attention to the harbor, where the gray water was calm and the upright masts of the sailboats were nearly still.
