Molly walked to the table and looked down.
“She’s posing,” Molly said.
“Betsy Ingersoll,” Jesse said.
“Absolutely,” Molly said.
“That’s what I think,” Jesse said.
51
“DO YOU have an opinion on the, ah, swinging lifestyle?” Jesse said.
Dix smiled and leaned back in his chair, the way he did when he was considering something.
“I do,” he said.
“Care to share it?” Jesse said.
“I will,” Dix said, “on the condition that you then share with me some thoughts on Jenn.”
“Okay,” Jesse said.
“First, like so much in my work, and yours, it depends to considerable extent on who the people are.”
Jesse nodded.
“In my experience most people who swing are not in a healthy love relationship,” Dix said.
“On the other hand, most of the people with whom I have experience are not in a healthy love relationship, or I wouldn’t be dealing with them.”
“So there’s some self-selection going on,” Jesse said.
“As in your work,” Dix said.
“I’m not going to hold you to this,” Jesse said. “I’m just looking to understand it.”
“If I may generalize,” Dix said, “swinging tends to distort sex in marriage. On the one hand, sex is a crucial part of the relationship, indeed, in many cases, the social life. On the other hand, since both spouses presumably have sex with a wide assortment of partners, and quite publicly, it trivializes sex. Sex becomes something akin to a party game.”
“I see that,” Jesse said.
“Sex is intricately connected with emotion,” Dix said. “Which is why, say, pornography is ultimately so disappointing.”
“Swingers claim that it enhances their marriage,” Jesse said. “You buy that?”
“No,” Dix said. “It is inconsistent with human emotional life, as I understand it. On the other hand”—he smiled—“despite my best efforts, my understanding of human emotional life remains incomplete.”
“Any thought as to why people do it?”
“Some thoughts, but the reasons are probably too various. One common reason seems to me that it allows them to be adulterous without guilt.”
“Because the other spouse is doing it, too,” Jesse said.
“Yes.”
“And because it can be dressed up with philosophical crap, so it’s not wife-swapping, it’s an approach to life, among like-minded free people.”
“Yes,” Dix said.
“At worst, a victimless crime,” Jesse said.
“Those are rare,” Dix said.
“Especially if there are children.”
“About that I am clear, swinging is not good for the children of swingers,” Dix said.
“In any special way?” Jesse said.
“In all ways,” Dix said. “It confuses the hell out of them. They’re confused about boundar-ies and what a family is and what love means and about sex and sexuality and about where they stand in the swingers’ universe.”
“So I guess you disapprove,” Jesse said.
“You bet your ass I disapprove,” Dix said. “Tell me about Jenn.”
52
CHASE CLARK was tanned, and in health-club, Stair-Master shape. His blond hair was slicked straight back. He had a prominent nose, and the skin on his face was taut and smooth. He wore tinted aviator glasses, a pink polo shirt, and a bright green sweater over his shoulders, the sleeves tied loosely around his neck. The rest of him was olive Dockers and tan boat shoes. Kim Clark had on a white dress with a black pattern, a white belt, and white heels of modest height. Jesse stood when Molly brought them into the squad room and closed the door.
“Mr. Clark,” Jesse said. “Jesse Stone. I assume you’ve met Officer Crane.”
“I have,” Chase said, and smiled a big, bright white smile that spoke of careful dentistry.
“Hope we aren’t in any trouble.”
“Not that I know of,” Jesse said. “How are you, Mrs. Clark?”
“Fine.”
She looks like June Cleaver,Jesse thought. Everyone sat.
