Missy nodded.
“Most adults aren’t like you,” Missy said.
“Is that good or bad,” Jesse said.
“Most grown-ups act like they were never a kid, you know?”
“Your parents like that?” Jesse said.
“Yeah. Do this. Do that. Be a lady. Blah, blah, and look at them. Look at what they’re doing.”
“Hard,” Jesse said.
“Can you make them stop?” Missy said.
“As far as I know, there is no law against swinging,” Jesse said.
“But it’s wrong,” Missy said. “You’re not supposed to be like that if you’re married, are you?”
“Probably not,” Jesse said.
“So can’t you tell them to stop it?”
“I can, but I can’t force them,” Jesse said. “And I assume you don’t want them to know you blew the whistle.”
“Oh, Jesus, no.”
“So I’m not sure what I can do,” Jesse said.
“So, okay, the hell with them. If they can live like that, so can I.”
“If you actually want to,” Jesse said, “I suppose you can. But revenge is a lousy reason for having sex.”
Missy was silent again.
Then she said, “I don’t really want to. It seems so icky.”
“Scare you?” Jesse said.
“No . . . yes. I guess so.”
“Why don’t you wait until it doesn’t,” Jesse said.
“But what about my parents? Isn’t there something you can do?”
“I’ll think on it,” Jesse said. “And maybe get some advice, without mentioning any names.”
“Advice from who?”
“Oh, a shrink I know, maybe.”
“I don’t want to see no shrink,” Missy said.
“I’m not asking you to. I see him, and I can ask him for advice.”
“You see a shrink?” Missy said.
“I do,” Jesse said.
“Is it about her?” Missy said, looking at Jenn’s picture. “I bet it’s about her. Is it?”
Again, Jesse smiled at her.
Again, he said, “None of your business.”
7
JAY INGERSOLL came into Daisy Dyke’s at three-ten in the afternoon and spotted Jesse sitting at the counter. He walked over.
“Chief Stone,” he said. “I’m Jay Ingersoll.”
“How do you do,” Jesse said.
Ingersoll was tall and lean, with thick white hair cut short and a dark tan. His dark summer suit fit him well, and he looked to Jesse like a man who probably played a lot of tennis.
“Mind if I join you?” Ingersoll said.
Jesse gestured at the stool next to him. Ingersoll sat. He had small handsome character wrinkles around his eyes, and deep parenthetic grooves at the corners of his mouth.
“Apple pie?” Ingersoll said.
“Um-hm,” Jesse said.
“Looks good,” Ingersoll said.
“Daisy makes a nice pie,” Jesse said.
“Was time, when I was your age,” Ingersoll said, “I could have pie in the middle of the afternoon and still stay in shape.”
“Sometimes I have two pieces,” Jesse said.
The young woman behind the counter came down and Ingersoll ordered black coffee.
When it came, he stirred in two packets of Splenda.
