husband,” Jesse said. “He was pleasant enough.”
“What did you say?”
“He and his boyfriend are opening a high-end restaurant on the coast of Maine, south of Portland. I suggested negative publicity about him spending all his wife’s money on boyfriends and this restaurant would not help business.”
“God, Jesse,” Jenn said. “Sometimes I wonder which side of the law you’re on.”
“Me, too,” Jesse said.
“But it worked?”
“It worked,” Jesse said.
“That the broad the cop, Suitcase, was fucking?” Amber said from the armchair.
“Yes,” Jesse said.
“You think he’s still fucking her?”
“Probably,” Jesse said.
“And you don’t care?” Amber said.
“No,” Jesse said.
“I think it’s disgusting,” Amber said.
“What I do care about, though,” Jesse said, “is that they are people, and that this matters to them in some way, and they probably shouldn’t be talked about like a couple of barnyard animals.”
Amber stared at him for a moment, and then shrugged and sank a little lower into the armchair.
“I was just asking,” she said.
Jesse went to the bar and made himself another drink. He looked at Jenn. She held up her half-full glass and shook her head. The doorbell rang. It was Molly, in uniform, with a heavy, fur-collared jacket on. She had a folded newspaper in her hand.
“You seen the paper today?” she said when she came in.
“No delivery today,” Jesse said. “Snow, I suppose.”
Molly handed it to him. She looked at Amber.
“Section two,” she said. “Below the fold.”
Jesse turned to it.
FLA. CRIME FIGURE KILLED
Louis Francisco, the reputed boss of organized crime in South Florida, was found shot to death today in the parking lot of a Miami restaurant.
Jesse read the story through without comment. A driver and a bodyguard had also been killed. Neither was named Romero. No arrests had been made. So far police had no suspects. Jesse gave the paper to Jenn and looked at Amber. Then he looked at Molly. She shrugged. Jesse nodded. He put his drink on the bar and walked over to Amber and sat on the hassock where Jenn had sat.
“Your father’s dead,” he said.
She looked away from the television screen and stared for a time at Jesse. Then, finally, she shrugged.
“Sooner or later,” she said.
Jesse nodded. MTV cavorted on behind him.
“Who killed him,” Amber said.
“You’re so sure he was
