“You know my friend Spike.”
“Yes.”
“We decided that it was time to put Jenn and the stalker together,” Sunny said. “In a protected environment.”
“And?”
“Spike, ah, apprehended him, and brought him to my place.”
“And?”
“They swore they didn’t know each other,” Sunny said.
“He didn’t know her. He wasn’t stalking her. He was an innocent bystander.”
“Jenn?”
“She said the same thing. He wasn’t the stalker. He didn’t rape her. She’d never seen him before in her life.”
Jesse took another drink. He did it carefully so that maybe Sunny wouldn’t hear the ice clink.
“Any chance that it’s the truth?” Jesse said.
“I don’t know about the rape,” Sunny said. “But this guy has been stalking her. I spotted him. Spike spotted him. He’d been grabbed by this very large man and brought to a strange place against his will. I offered him a chance to call the police. He didn’t. Plus, he runs a marketing company that 1 8 1
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does business with Jenn’s TV station. He’s bought a lot of time there.”
“On-air people wouldn’t have to know the advertisers.”
“No.”
“But why would she deny the stalking?” Jesse said.
“I was going to ask you.”
Jesse looked at his glass. Still plenty left. He glanced at the dark air shaft outside. At her end of the phone, Sunny was quiet.
“When I was about as bad as I’ve ever been with drinking,” Jesse said, “I snuck it. I didn’t drink in front of Jenn. She thought I was quitting. But I used to keep a pint of scotch in my car, and have a few pops when I was alone. One day we were going someplace and Jenn opened the glove compartment and there was this half-empty bottle of booze. . . .”
Jesse sipped some scotch.
“And she said, ‘Why is this bottle of scotch in the glove compartment?’ . . . and I looked at it and said, ‘What bottle of scotch?’ ”
“You were caught in something you were ashamed of and you didn’t know what to do,” Sunny said.
“It happens,” Jesse said. “You get caught and you’re humiliated. It’s too horrible, and you say anything. You deny the fact before you.”
“You think she made this up?” Sunny said.
“I don’t know.”
“Why would she make it up?” Sunny said.
“I don’t know.”
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