“Not very often.”
“Now and then?” Jesse said.
“Yes.”
“Your mother, too?”
“Yes,” Missy said.
“Well, we got a problem to solve,” Jesse said.
“I didn’t know who else to talk to,” Missy said.
“I’m the right guy,” Jesse said.
“So what are we going to do?”
“First we have to face up to them,” Jesse said.
“Me?”
“You,” Jesse said. “And me. I’ll ask them to come in and when they do, I’ll have to be able to talk about you and your brother.”
“They’ll know I talked to you,” Missy said.
“Very likely,” Jesse said. “I can soften the spin, probably. But they’ll know we’ve talked.”
“No,” Missy said. “You promised.”
“I can’t keep them from being mad,” Jesse said. “But I can pretty well guarantee that no one will harm you.”
“My mom wouldn’t harm me,” she said.
“And I can see to it that your father doesn’t.”
“No,” Missy said. “You can’t. I got no place to go.”
“And how’s it going where you are now?” Jesse said.
“I . . .”
“Nothing’s going to change,” Jesse said, “unless we make it change.”
Missy began to cry. Jesse was quiet until the crying slowed.
“It’s awful,” he said. “I won’t pretend it isn’t. And I won’t pretend it’s easy. But it’s a chance.
Otherwise, it’ll destroy you and your brother. You doing dope yet?”
She shook her head.
“I won’t go ahead without your okay,” Jesse said. “But I think we can fix it.”
“You just want to talk with them?”
“Yes.”
“Do I have to be here?” Missy said.
“No.”
“What if I wanted?”
“Then you’d be welcome,” Jesse said.
“I don’t want to,” Missy said.
“Okay,” Jesse said.
Missy was still sniffling. Jesse handed her a paper towel. She did what she could with it, and got her breathing steadier, and took a deep breath.
“You can go ahead,” she said.
“Be a little while,” Jesse said. “Till I get the ducks in a row.”
“Ducks?” Missy said.
“Just an expression,” Jesse said. “Hang on for a couple more days.”
She nodded. They were quiet. Missy seemed as if she didn’t want to leave.
“I wish you were my father,” she said finally.
“Yeah,” Jesse said. “Kinda wish I was, too.”
47
“HE CAME into my house in the early evening,” Betsy Ingersoll said. “I had come home from school. Jay was working late, as he often does, and the man had a gun.”
She sat in front of Jesse’s desk, immaculate in a mauve pantsuit. Her husband sat beside her, immaculate in a gray suit. Molly sat in a chair in the corner nearest to Jesse. Jesse waited.
“He pointed the gun at me. He had on a ski mask, and a hat pulled low, and you can imagine how terrified I was.”
“I can imagine,” Jesse said.
