“So why do you think she does it?” Jesse said
“I don’t know, but I’ll guess it has to do with her husband.”
“I was starting to worry about you,” Jesse said.
“I was pretty convincing,” Molly said.
Jesse grinned.
“When you decide to get into swinging,” he said, “can I watch?”
“Ugh!” Molly said.
“ ‘Ugh’ about swinging, or ‘ugh’ about me watching.”
“All of the above,” Molly said. “I especially like her saying that there’s less infidelity among swingers.”
“Depends on how you define ‘unfaithful,’ ” Jesse said.
“Like it’s okay if we both do it?” Molly said.
“Or it’s okay if we each give permission to the other one,” Jesse said.
“Right,” Molly said. “Eat this apple, Adam. It’s okay if we both take a bite.”
“Boy, are you retro,” Jesse said.
“I am,” Molly said. “And no remarks about Native Americans.”
“Moi?”Jesse said.
“Vous,”Molly said. “My one-night stand with Crow was infidelity. I’m not exactly sorry I did it. But it was unfaithful to my husband and my marriage, and I know it and don’t pretend otherwise.”
“You love your husband,” Jesse said.
“I do, and did while I was unfaithful.”
“You’re okay with it?”
“Yes.”
“What if he’d given permission?”
“Permission, shmission,” Molly said. “It’s still infidelity, and gussying it up with a bunch of free-to-be-you-and- me crap doesn’t make it otherwise.”
“So you were just pretending when you told her how tempting it was to you,” Jesse said.
“I was,” Molly said.
“God, you were good,” Jesse said.
“Everybody says that,” Molly said.
Jesse grinned again.
“Does this mean I’m not going to get the chance to watch,” he said.
“I’ll put you on the list,” Molly said. “We gonna look into Mr. Ralston?”
“We are,” Jesse said. “Ms. Wechsler, too, I think.”
“How about the Clark kids?” Molly said.
“Step at a time,” Jesse said. “First I’ll find the Night Hawk, then we’ll save the children.”
“And after that?” Molly said.
“Probably leap a tall building,” Jesse said. “At a single bound.”
35
“I SIMPLY couldn’t do it,” Gloria Fisher said. “I simply would not.”
Jesse sat across from her in her living room. Molly sat beside her on the couch.
“Tell me about it,” Jesse said. “From the beginning.”
Gloria nodded. She was like the others, dark-haired, trim, in her early forties.
“My husband went to work. I got my daughter off to school, took a shower, got dressed, and when I came out of the bedroom, he was here.”
“Door unlocked?” Jesse said.
“I guess it was. It’s stupid. I knew this had been happening. But I forgot. . . .” She spread her hands. “I’m terrible about locking up. Anyway, I said, ‘What the fuck do you want?’ And he pointed his gun at me and said, ‘Do what I say and I won’t hurt you.’ And I was enraged. . . . I said, ‘Like hell.’ And he said, ‘Take off your clothes,’ and I said, ‘Like hell.’ It’s funny, I wasn’t scared, I was very, very angry. The sonovabitch came in my house. . . . Now I’m scared.”
Molly nodded.
“That’s because now it’s safe to be scared.”
“I guess,” Gloria said.
“So what did he do?” Jesse said.
He said, ‘Undress or I’ll shoot you.’ And I said, ‘Get out of my fucking house.’ And his eyes got really big and he took a step toward me and then stopped, and, like, stared at me, and then he turned around and ran out of the
