“We’ll see to it,” Jesse said, “that you are not alone.”
Mrs. Browne nodded.
“So,” Jesse said. “Moll, why don’t you take Mrs. Browne over to the Cronins’, where you can talk.”
Molly nodded.
“What about my husband?” Mrs. Browne said.
“We’ll send him over when he gets here.”
“Can you let me tell him,” she said.
“Of course,” Jesse said.
They were quiet.
Then Mrs. Browne said, “All he did was see me naked.”
Molly said, “Yes.”
“I’m forty-one,” Mrs. Browne said. “Other men have seen me naked. Not a bunch, but some.”
“Sure,” Molly said.
“My body is still okay,” Mrs. Browne said. “It’s not like I should be ashamed of my body.”
“Of course not,” Molly said.
“So why is this such a big deal?” Mrs. Browne said.
Molly put her arm around Mrs. Browne’s shoulders.
“It is a big deal,” Molly said. “For you.”
“Why?”
“The others were voluntary,” Molly said.
23
BETSY INGERSOLL came into Jesse’s office and sat down in a chair in front of his desk and crossed her legs.
Not unattractive,Jesse thought. A little sturdy maybe, but not so sturdy that she was unattractive.
“Thanks for coming in,” Jesse said.
“You are the chief of police,” Mrs. Ingersoll said. “I respect authority.”
“Wish there were more like you,” Jesse said. “May I call you Betsy?”
“Which is not to say I necessarily respect you.”
“Just the office,” Jesse said.
“Why do you wish to see me?” she said.
“I wanted to ask you a few more questions about the recent incident, Betsy,” Jesse said.
“Would you like to have your attorney present?”
“You mean my husband,” Mrs. Ingersoll said. “I am capable of speaking without him.”
“So you are willing to speak to me without counsel,” Jesse said.
“I have done nothing wrong,” she said. “I am willing to speak with anyone.”
“Nice,” Jesse said. “How many of the girls you checked on that day were inappropriately clothed?”
“How many?”
“Yeah, how many were too risque, or whatever?” Jesse said. “Isn’t that why you checked?”
“Chief Stone,” Mrs. Ingersoll said. “That was some time ago now. I have no idea.”
“You checked twenty-two girls,” Jesse said. “Of whom you sent thirteen home to change.”
“If you knew that, why did you bother to ask?”
“I’m a small-town police chief, Betsy. I got nothing else to do.”
“I would prefer to be called Mrs. Ingersoll,” she said.
“Ah, it’s so formal,” Jesse said. “You want to get even, call me Jesse.”
“Do you have anything else?” Mrs. Ingersoll said.
“Of the thirteen you sent home to change, were all of them wearing thongs?”
“That is a preposterous question,” she said.
“The whole business is preposterous, Betsy. How many were wearing thongs?”
“I have no idea.”
“Seven thongs,” Jesse said. “Four bikinis. And a couple that were too lacy, or the wrong color, or something.”
“Undergarments are not ornamental,” Mrs. Ingersoll said. “They are for sanitation and modesty.”
