Death in Paradise

Shaw stopped talking for a moment and looked at Jesse as if he were having trouble remembering who Jesse was. Then he put his head down and rested it on top of his scrod and went to sleep.

Chapter Forty-one

Suitcase Simpson came into Jesse's office trying not to look self-important.

"Got the info from the phone company," he said to Jesse. "That phone number used to belong to a guy named Alan Garner. No longer in service."

"Got an address?"

"Yeah. In Brighton, but he moved last year."

"I know where he is," Jesse said.

Simpson stared at him.

"How you know that?" he said.

"I'm chief of police," Jesse said.

"Oh," Simpson said. "Yeah. I forgot. You going to talk with this guy?"

Jesse shook his head.

"We'll watch him," Jesse said.

"We?"

"You ever do any surveillance?"

"Jesse. I'm a cop in Paradise, Mass.," Simpson said. "What the hell am I going to surveil?"

"Go put on some civvies," Jesse said. "Time you learned."

Driving into Boston from the north, there was a choice between the tu

As they arched down toward the Charlestown end they could look down at the merge of the river and the gray sprawl of the harbor to their left. Below them was the old Charlestown Navy Yard, now mostly condominiums. Straight ahead the individuated buildings coalesced into skyline.

Tremont Street was so hot that the asphalt was soft. They parked on a hydrant and Simpson got out and bought a cup of coffee and a large Coke at a convenience store while Jesse stayed in the car looking at Development Associates of Boston. When he got in the car, he handed Jesse the Coke.

"My mother always used to tell me to drink hot stuff in hot weather," Simpson said. "Because being hot inside would make you feel cooler outside."

Jesse was silent.

"You think that makes any sense?" Simpson said.

"Sure."

"You think it's true?"

"No."

Simpson nodded and settled back with his coffee. Jesse knew he still half believed it. He was only about ten years older than Suitcase, but he felt like his father.

"Who we looking at here?" Simpson said.

"Alan Garner works for Gino Fish. Gino Fish is the guy whose phone number Billie Bishop left when she departed the shelter."

Simpson was sweating. His face was red. Jesse could see him thinking.

"And two other girls left his phone number at the same shelter," he said.

Jesse nodded. Suit wasn't stupid, but his mind had to move slowly over the surface of information before he possessed it. Jesse gave him time.

After a time Simpson said, "Well, that would be a really big coincidence."

"Really big," Jesse said.

"So why not go in and confront him with it?"

"And he says, I don't know anything about it, and what do we say?"

Suitcase drank some more coffee.

"I think it works," he said.

"Drinking hot stuff?"

"Yeah."

"Your mother tell you to run cold water over the inside of your wrist to cool your blood?"

Simpson was surprised.

"Yeah."

Jesse smiled.

"We could try to find those other girls," Simpson said. "See what they could tell us."

"One's named Mary," Jesse said. "The other one is Jane. Or so they told Sister."

"No last names?"

"Nope."

"You know where they came from, we could check Missing Persons…"

"I don't know where they came from. I doubt that the names are real."

"But they left a real phone number."

"Kids need to hang on to something," Jesse said.

"I don't know what you mean."

"However fucked up," Jesse said, "kids don't want to just disappear."

"They need to feel co

"To something," Jesse said.

Simpson took another sip of coffee. The sweat ran down his face in front of each ear.

"Careful," Jesse said. "You don't want to get a chill."

"I don't know what we're looking for here," Simpson said.

"Me, either," Jesse said.

"So how we going to know when we see it?"

Jesse smiled.

"It's a chief of police thing," Jesse said.

Chapter Forty-two

Today they were in Simpson's Dodge pickup, parked farther down Tremont Street, watching Development Associates of Boston in the rearview mirror. Jesse went to use the washroom at the Boston Ballet building, showing his badge in the lobby to forestall discussion.

"First rule of stakeout," Jesse said when he came back. "Locate near a place you can take a leak."

"We going to follow somebody if they leave? Gino, or the receptionist guy?"

"Nope."

"So why are we here?"

"See what happens."

"Why don't we follow them?"

"I don't want to spook them," Jesse said.

"You think they'd spot us?"

"People like Gino need to be pretty alert," Jesse said. "If somebody's alert, it's pretty hard to tail them alone."

"So we're just going to sit here forever?"

"In another couple days," Jesse said, "we'll double-team them."

"Use two cars?"

"Yes."

"You and me in two cars?"

"Yes."

"So this is sort of like training."

"Sort of," Jesse said.

"That'll be so cool," Simpson said.

Jesse nodded.

Across the street, Vi

"That the receptionist?" Simpson said.

Jesse smiled. "That's the shooter," he said. "Vi

"Doesn't look like anything special," Simpson said.

"He's supposed to be very good," Jesse said. "Look at me and we'll pretend to be talking."

"Look at you?"

"Yes. Nod your head. I'm saying something really important which is why we're sitting here in the parked car. You understand?"

Suitcase was looking at Jesse, nodding his head vigorously.

"You think he'd get wise seeing us sitting here?"

"He might," Jesse said. "Guys like him and Gino are very careful."

"That why we're using my car today?" Simpson said. "So they won't see the same one twice in a row?"

"That's right," Jesse said.

Simpson continued to nod overtly. Jesse gri

"And don't overact," he said.

In the outside mirror Jesse watched Vi

"Think he's been talking to your mother?" Jesse said.

"Nobody talks to my mom," Simpson said. "They listen."

Vi

"It's okay," Jesse said. "He's a cop."

Kelly squeezed into the front seat of the truck beside Simpson.

Jesse introduced them.

"You got anything?" Jesse said to Kelly.

"Nope, I was going to ask you the same thing."

"We got two more shelter girls left a forwarding number. This time Alan Garner."

"Who's he?"

"Gino's receptionist."

"And main squeeze?"

"I don't know, does Gino usually squeeze his receptionists?"

"Usually part of the job description," Kelly said. "Or so they tell me at OCU."

"You mean these guys are gay?" Simpson said.

"I'm guessing about Garner," Kelly said. "But Gino's pretty certain."

"I want to put Garner and Gino under surveillance. You got anybody you can spare?"