yet.”
“How long she live there?”
“We’re checking that. I’m guessing two, three years.”
“Cause of death?”
“ME says two twenty-two-caliber bullets in the back of the head at close range.”
“Was she killed at the Crowne estate?”
“At or close,” Jesse said. “She bled a lot on the grass where they put her.”
“Do you see any connection to the Crown estate school project, which drew protesters when it began?” Jenn said.
“None so far,” Jesse said.
“Next of kin?”
“She has a daughter, Amber Francisco,” Jesse said, “who called herself Alice Franklin while she lived here.”
“Where are they from?”
“Don’t know yet,” Jesse said.
“Any leads?”
“Not yet.”
“Any suspects?” Jenn said.
“Not yet.”
“Can we do a stand-up on camera?” Jenn said.
“Nope.”
“Oh, poo, Jesse,” Jenn said. “Why not?”
“I don’t ever recall getting in trouble by not talking,” Jesse said. “Especially on camera.”
She smiled.
“What about my career,” she said.
Jesse sucked in his cheeks a little and did a bad impression of Clark Gable.
“Frankly, my dear,” Jesse said, “I don’t give a damn.”
“I know,” Jenn said.
They were quiet. Jesse was always puzzled by the fact that despite all her talkative charm and bubble, Jenn never revealed much of what she was thinking…. No, Jesse thought, of what she was feeling.
“You know,” Jesse said. “That’s not true. I went for the easy joke. But it’s not true.”
“You do give a damn about my career?” she said.
“Yes,” Jesse said. “There’s self-interest in it. But if we are ever going to make it together, you have to be fully you.”
“What did you say?”
“We can’t…” He couldn’t think exactly how to say it. “You can’t care enough about me until you can care enough about you.”
She stared at him in silence for what seemed to him a long time.
Finally she said, “I…I don’t…I am very happy
