killed,” Jesse said.
“Yeah. How else’s he gonna go? He ain’t much older than you.”
Jesse nodded.
“It bother you?” Jesse said.
“That somebody killed him? No. He was a rotten bastard,” Amber said. “Both of them were rotten bastards.”
“You’re not alone,” Jenn said. “We will see that you’re okay.”
Amber was annoyed.
“I know that,” she said. “And I got money, too.”
“Yes,” Jesse said. “You do. And no one’s going to come back and bother you now….”
Jesse grinned at her.
“Except maybe me,” Jesse said, “if you don’t behave.”
“I’m not scared of you,” Amber said.
“No, why would you be,” Jesse said.
“So who shot him, it say?”
“It doesn’t say.”
Molly looked at Jesse, and then at Amber and then back at Jesse.
“I think we can talk about this in front of Amber,” Jesse said. “She’s certainly an interested party.”
“For crissake,” Amber said. “He was my old man, okay?”
Molly nodded.
“You have a thought?” Molly said to Jesse.
“Guy had a beef with Francisco,” Jesse said. “Took out two bodyguards and the boss in a public parking lot in the middle of Miami and disappeared. We know anybody like that?”
“Crow?” Molly said.
“A sentimental favorite,” Jenn said, and then looked like she shouldn’t have said it.
Molly blushed. Jesse saw it. Molly? And Crow? He smiled to himself. It’s like being police chief in Peyton Place.
“I’d guess Crow,” Jesse said. “Solved a lot of problems that way. He’d double-crossed Francisco twice. That meant Francisco would try to arrange Crow’s death. Also frees up Amber here from fear of custody or kidnapping.”
“You think that’s why he did it?” Amber said.
Jesse looked thoughtfully at her for a moment.
“Yeah,” he said. “I think so.”
She smiled for maybe the first time since Jesse had met her.
“Okay,” Molly said. “Gotta go home. We’re cooking supper in the fireplace. It’s a family tradition. Every year, first snowfall, we cook supper in the fireplace.”
“Hardy pioneers,” Jesse said.
