two.
“What’s this case you’re working on, Chief Stone,” Hannah said. “Is it the creepy guy that takes pictures?”
“Call me Jesse.”
“And I’m Hannah,” she said. “Is it him?”
“In fact, it is,” Jesse said.
“Have you seen the pictures?” she said.
“I have.”
“And they’re really naked?” Hannah said.
“Yes.”
“Wow,” she said. “I wonder what that’s like.”
“To be forced to pose naked?” Jesse said.
“Yeah,” Hannah said. “That, and knowing that a bunch of cops and people you don’t even know are looking at you naked.”
“Not too many cops,” Jesse said.
“You’re trying to protect them,” Hannah said.
“No need to humiliate them,” Jesse said, “more than is required.”
“You think they’re humiliated?” Hannah said.
“Wouldn’t you be?”
“Be humiliated?” Hannah said. “No, actually, I think I’d find it kind of exciting.”
“Really,” Jesse said.
“I know, I know. I’m not supposed to think things like that,” Hannah said. “But I do, all right?”
“Okay with me,” Jesse said.
“Lot of women like to be looked at,” Hannah said. “If they’d just admit it.”
“You think any of these women might?”
“If they are not ashamed of their bodies,” Hannah said. “Are able to be genuinely in touch with their own sexuality.”
“You bet,” Jesse said.
“You don’t think so?”
“I’m just listening,” Jesse said.
“Open-shuttered and passive,” Hannah said. “Not thinking, merely recording.”
“Something like that,” Jesse said.
“You know where that comes from?”
“The open-shuttered stuff?” Jesse said. “No.”
“John Van Druten,” Hannah said. “ I Am a Camera.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Sorry,” Hannah said. “I’ve been a graduate student too long.”
“I don’t mind,” Jesse said.
“So,” she said, “Jesse. Tell me this. Are you in touch with your sexuality?”
“I was,” Jesse said, “when I was a teenager. But I was afraid it would cause pimples.”
Hannah smiled.
“That’s not quite what I meant,” she said.
“You’re in touch with yours,” Jesse said.
“Absolutely,” Hannah said.
“You’re a member of the Paradise Free Swingers,” Jesse said.
Hannah looked at him silently for a moment.
“Well,” she said. “You’re a little more subtle than I might have thought.”
Jesse nodded.
“You swing, I assume,” he said.
“I do,” she said. “My husband and I both do.”
“Tell me about it?” Jesse said.
“Why?” she said. “Light your fire?”
