with someone so powerful unless you yourself have power.”
Jesse felt a small click in the center of himself.
“So she has to either increase her own power or decrease mine,” Jesse said.
Dix pointed a forefinger at Jesse and dropped his thumb as if pretending to shoot him.
“Bingo!” Dix said.
32.
It was 3:12 in the morning when Jesse pulled up in front of the Crowne estate on Paradise Neck. There was already a small generator in place and a couple of spotlights hooked to it. Two Paradise cruisers were there, and the Paradise Fire Rescue vehicle. Suit stood with Molly in the driveway. Peter Perkins squatted on his heels, taking pictures of a corpse. Jesse got out of the car.
“Mrs. Franklin,” Molly said, as Jesse walked toward them. “Amber’s mother.”
Jesse nodded. He walked to the body and stood looking down. A lot of blood glistened darkly on the smooth, green lawn beneath her head. Perkins looked up when Jesse arrived and rested his camera on his thigh.
“Shot in the back of the head,” he said from his crouched position. “Can’t tell how many times. Small caliber, I think. No exit wounds.”
“State ME been notified?”
“Yeah. On the way.”
“Any idea how long?” Jesse said.
“That’s the ME’s line of work. Blood’s dry. Body’s kind of stiff.”
Jesse nodded.
“Who found the body?” he said.
“Suit,” Peter Perkins said.
Jesse turned and stared at Simpson, standing with Molly.
“Murder weapon?” Jesse said.
“Haven’t searched yet,” Perkins said. “It’s not under the body.”
Jesse nodded and walked over to Suit and Molly.
“How’d you find the body,” Jesse said.
“I was just cruising by and I saw this form. So I stopped, investigated, and there she was.”
“Cruising by at, what, two-thirty or so in the morning?” Jesse said. “You weren’t on patrol tonight.”
“Not tonight, no,” Suit said. “I do that sometimes, though, just get up in the night and ride around, you know, see what I can see.”
“Just sort of poking into things,” Molly said.
Suit blushed a little. Jesse glanced at Molly. She seemed serene.
“Ever vigilant,” Jesse said.
Neither Suit nor Molly said anything.
