“I have a question,” she said.
Jesse nodded at her.
“Can we keep the pencil afterward?” she said.
The women giggled. Jesse laughed.
“Sure,” he said. “Swap them around if you’d like.”
The women giggled again, and most of them wrote on their cards.
“If there’s anyone who took pictures,” Jesse said, “without, ah, engaging, I’d like to know that man’s name, too.”
“No picture taking,” the woman with the pigtail said.
“Covert is always possible,” Jesse said.
Several women shrugged. No one looked convinced. When they were through writing, Molly walked along the semicircle, picking up the cards. She gave them to Jesse, who slipped them into the side pocket of his coat.
“Anyone have anything else?” he said.
From her seat at the far end of the semicircle, Hannah Wechsler said, “I think this is a witch hunt.”
Several of the women looked at her, but none of them spoke. Jesse nodded.
“Anybody else?” he said.
“Are you and Officer Crane going to attend our next meeting?” the woman with the big glasses said.
“Only if somebody calls the cops,” Jesse said.
“We’ll keep that in mind,” the woman said.
65
HANNAH WECHSLER walked into Jesse’s office and sat down in a chair. Molly appeared behind her in the doorway and raised her eyebrows. Jesse shook his head faintly.
“You bastard,” she said. “You think my husband is the Night Hawk.”
“I do,” Jesse said.
“I knew you’d find a way to use the Free Swingers against us,” she said. “A cop is a cop is a cop.”
Jesse said, “I need to ask you an impertinent question.”
“You are nothing,” she said, “if not impertinent.”
“It’s a question that needs an answer,” Jesse said. “How long has it been since you had sex with your husband.”
“Jesus, you are out of control,” she said.
“How long?” Jesse said.
“None of your goddamned business,” she said.
“Actually, it is,” Jesse said.
He took the Night Hawk’s last letter from his drawer and gave it to her.
“What’s this?” she said.
“Read,” Jesse said.
Hannah read the letter carefully, as if Jesse might be trying to trick her. As she finished, her face began to redden. But she clamped her jaw and read it again carefully. When she was done she placed the letter on Jesse’s desk, and sat back. The letter lay on the desk at an angle. She leaned forward and carefully squared it to the edge of the desk. She stared at Jesse.
“I got seven names from the swinger women yesterday, of men that watched but didn’t touch,” Jesse said.
Hannah continued to stare at him.
“All seven names were Seth Ralston,” Jesse said.
She continued to stare. Her mouth was a thin, straight line on her red face.
“I had Molly call every woman that was at the meeting, except you,” Jesse said, “and ask each of them if Seth Ralston had ever touched them. All of them said no.”
Her shoulders hunched and her neck seemed to get thinner.
“You have sex with your husband,” Jesse said, “in the last three years?”
Hannah suddenly made a low, harsh screaming sound and doubled over in her chair, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth. As she rocked, the scream changed to a steady keening sound. Molly appeared in the doorway. Jesse put up his hand and nodded that she should stay there. The keening and rocking continued. Molly came in and sat down in the chair next to Hannah and put her arm around Hannah’s shoulders. Hannah turned awkwardly toward her and pressed her face against Molly’s shoulder. Molly patted her hair. Hannah moaned. Jesse sat silently behind his desk with his arms folded. It took a while, but eventually she got herself under control and sat up. Jesse pushed a box of Kleenex across the desk.
She took one and blew her nose, and another and wiped her eyes. Jesse held out the wastebasket, and she discarded the used Kleenex. She took a fresh one from the box and held it, apparently in reserve. She breathed as if she’d been running a long way.
Finally, she said, “I’m sorry.”
