Death in Paradise

"Animosity?" Jesse said.

"With my exes? Not the first one. He's nice. He lives in Chicago now, works as a construction supervisor for a big company. I see him occasionally when he comes to Boston."

"So what happened?"

"I don't know, exactly. You go along thinking it's forever, then one day it isn't. One day he didn't want to be married to me, and I didn't want to be married to him."

"Somebody else?"

"No. It was more that we hoped for someone else. Or something else. Our marriage just wasn't enough."

"How about number two?" Jesse said.

"The sonovabitch," Lilly said, and pretended to spit.

"Another woman?"

"Another dozen," Lilly said.

"Animosity," Jesse said.

"A lot," Lilly said.

"How long have you been single?" Jesse said.

"Five years."

"You mind living alone?"

"Yes."

They were quiet again.

"You?" Lilly said.

"No," Jesse said. "I don't mind living alone… I mind being alone. And I mind Je

"You're pretty hooked into Je

"I am."

"How long have you been divorced?"

"Four years."

"I'm not sure that's very good for you," Lilly said.

"Probably not," Jesse said.

"Have you ever seen a shrink?"

"No."

"Maybe you should. It helps."

"Maybe I should," Jesse said.

"But?"

"My father was a cop," Jesse said. "My whole life I been playing ball, or I been a cop."

"So?"

"Seeing a psychiatrist is not something cops and ballplayers are supposed to do."

"What are they supposed to do?"

Jesse paused, thinking about it.

"They're supposed to hang in."

"Forever?"

"As needed," Jesse said.

Lilly looked at him thoughtfully. "Wow," she said. "You need a shrink worse than I thought."

"Je

"She seeing one?"

"Yes."

"Well," Lilly said. "You'll go when you're ready."

Jesse didn't say anything. Maybe he would. But if he did, it would start with the provision that he wasn't going to stop loving Je

"I have made us a lovely supper," Lilly said.

"I could use one," Jesse said.

"But if we eat it first," Lilly said, "we'll both be thinking about afterwards and how that's going to go, and won't be able to enjoy the di

"That is a problem," Jesse said.

"So I think we should have the afterwards first. Then we'd be free to concentrate on the lovely supper."

"Sure," Jesse said.

Lilly put down her champagne glass and stood.

"Follow me," she said, and walked past the kitchen counter toward her bedroom.

He felt the familiar smooth curve as he ran his hand up her thigh. The familiar soft slope of her belly. He had done this often. This time, like each time, it was brand-new. He could hear her breathing, felt the pressure of her hips, she was skillful and fully engaged. The part of him that was not making love smiled. Didn't matter if she was skillful. His father used to say, The worst piece of ass I ever had was excellent. There was always that part. The one that wasn't engaged, whether it was lovemaking or fighting. There was always the amused, nonjudgmental other observing it. He wondered if she had an other.

Finally, dressed and relaxed, they sat at her glass-top dining table and ate in silence in the gently moving light of the candles Lilly had lighted. There was a bottle of white wine at hand in an ice bucket.

"That's your real hair color," he said.

"My hair turned silver when I was twenty-six," Lilly said.

She poured some white wine into Jesse's glass. It's all right. I'm nowhere near drunk. He drank some. Nice wine. He ate some of the supper she had served them.

"What am I eating?" Jesse said.

"Lobster meat in a light cream sauce," Lilly said. "With sherry, pearl onions and mushrooms and different-colored sweet peppers, over basmati rice."

"You can cook."

Lilly smiled at him.

"Second best thing I do," she said.

Jesse nodded several times and drank some wine.

Chapter Nineteen

Jesse was pretty sure that things would go better with Hooker Royce if his parents weren't around when they talked. He found Hooker at the high school, on the football field, ru

"My name's Jesse Stone. I'm with the police in Paradise."

"Is it about Billie?"

"It is."

"I don't know where she is. I already told the lady from your department that called me."

Jesse nodded. They began to walk around the quarter-mile track that circled the field.

"When's football start at Yale?" Jesse said.

"I'm supposed to show up day after Labor Day."

"You a ru

"Yes."

"What'd you run out of in high school?" Jesse said.

"Deep back in the I. You play?"

"High school," Jesse said. "You plan to show up in shape."

"Be dumb not to," Hooker said.

"You were a Globe all-scholastic in three sports," Jesse said.

Hooker nodded.

"And an honor student."

Hooker nodded again.

"Full boat to Yale?"

"Yes."

"You're a nice-looking kid," Jesse said.

"Thank you."

"Probably don't have much trouble getting a date," Jesse said.

Hooker gri

"So how come Billie?" Jesse said.

"Whaddya mean?"

"Billie doesn't seem like she'd be your girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? She wasn't my girlfriend."

"You gave her your class ring," Jesse said.

"Yeah, but that was…"

They stopped walking. Hooker turned toward Jesse.

"It's like, I broke up with my regular girlfriend."

"And Billie was available?"

"Christ," Hooker said, and smiled. "Billie was always available."

"And?"

"And, yeah, I needed a date for senior prom, and Paula was going with somebody else."

"And the pickings were thin."

"Most of the girls already had dates. And it seemed like a way to stick it to Paula."

"And get laid in the process," Jesse said.

Hooker gri

"So how come the ring?" Jesse said.

"I kind of liked her," Hooker said. "After I actually took her to the dance. And I felt bad for her. I mean everybody was banging her, but nobody cared anything much about her, you know?"

"Un-huh."

"And, you know, she wasn't that bad a kid. Like everybody thought she was stupid, and she wasn't. She was pretty smart about a lot of stuff."

"And you fell head over heels in love," Jesse said.

"What planet you come from?" Hooker said. "Like I said, I felt bad for her. I'm not going out with anybody. So I figure, hell, I'm going to college in a couple of months. I'll give her the ring, make her feel good, and then I'll go to college in September and it's over. I don't give a shit about the ring."

"She know that?" Jesse said.

"No, of course not. But it didn't work out like I thought. Paula and I patched it up, and she said if we were going to be together I couldn't be going out with Billie."

"Seems fair," Jesse said. "To Paula."

"Yeah, and, like, I love Paula. You know? Billie wasn't so bad. But…"

"When'd you break the news?" Jesse said.

"About a week after graduation," Hooker said.

"How'd she take it?"

"Fu