Trouble in Paradise

As they went up the stairs, Abby could hear a dog bark somewhere and then someone whistling for it and then quiet. The quiet was oppressive. The house was thunderously empty except for her and this violent woman. They reached her bedroom.

"Lie on the bed," the woman said.

Abby did as she was told. The woman took a pair of handcuffs from her purse, and holding the gun in her right hand, she snapped one cuff on Abby's left wrist and the other to the headboard of the bed. Then she stepped back and put the gun in her purse and looked around the room. There was a phone on the bedside table.

The woman unplugged it and put it in the hall. She looked out the window at Abby's backyard. The next house was fifty feet away. The window was closed. The woman lowered the window shade.

"Nobody can hear you," she said to Abby.

"What are you going to do to?"

"You'll be all right," the woman said.

"It'll only be a while."

Then she shut the door and went downstairs, leaving Abby alone in the darkened bedroom.

FIFTY-ONE.

Molly came into Jesse's office with two cups of coffee and a brown paper bag. She put a cup of coffee on his desk, took a raspberry turnover from the bag, handed it to him, and sat down opposite the desk.

"You busy," Molly said.

"Well, I was thinking of taking a ride "to Charlestown again, see if I can find Harry Smith, aka James Macklin."

"The guy's a phony?"

"And a bad one."

"You going alone?"

"I thought I might bring a Boston detective with me."

"There's more going on here than I know about, isn't there?"

"Suit will fill you in. You make the turnover?"

"The Paradise Bake Shop helped me," Molly said.

"I got time to eat it," Jesse said.

Molly smiled.

"Figured you might like something soothing... or you can talk if you want," she said.

Jesse took the turnover out and had a bite. He chewed it while he pried the lid off the coffee cup.

"Don't need to talk," he said.

"Fine with me," Molly said.

"Got a call from Citadel Security.

They said the Stiles Island Patrol hadn't called in for a couple hours now. Asked us to check."

"Send somebody out?" Jesse said.

"Pat Sears and Billy Pope," Molly said.

"Good. There another turnover?"

Molly fumbled in the bag and took out a second turnover and handed it to him.

"Je

"No."

"Kay Hopkins has a lot of say in this town," Molly said.

"You'll have to take her seriously, Jesse."

"I do what I can do, Molly."

"I know, but Je

"Je

"That's a fu

"If you'll excuse my saying so. You're divorced, but you're not really separated."

"Yes, it's odd," Jesse said.

"Would you marry her again?" Molly said.

"Tell me if I'm out of line."

"You're okay," Jesse said.

"Yeah, I'd marry her again if I knew it would be monogamous."

"How could you know?"

"If she promised, I'd believe her."

Molly made a face.

"Your marriage monogamous?" Jesse said.

"Be no marriage if it weren't," Molly said.

"How do you know?"

"Because I'd leave in a heartbeat."

"No, I mean, how do you know your husband isn't cheating on you?"

"He wouldn't."

Jesse nodded. Molly frowned at him. Then she smiled.

"You trust her?" Molly said.

"I trust her not to lie to me again."

"She lied to you before."

"Yes."

"So how can you know now that she wouldn't do it again?"

"Same way you do," Jesse said.

"But you have a history..."

"And when I was living that history, I knew I couldn't trust her.

Now I know I can."

"And the other women? Abby? Marcy Campbell?"

"I'm a single guy," Jesse said.

"I like women. I like sex with women."

"But you love Je

"Yes."

"For me the two things sort of merge," Molly said.

"Love and sex?"

"Yes."

"You must be female," Jesse said.

"Irish Catholic female," Molly said.

"The ultimate."

They were quiet for a moment.

"All of this is none of my business, is it?"

"No, it's not," Jesse said.

"But it's nice to talk about it with someone who has no stake in the outcome."

"Well, I love you too, Jesse."

"Yeah, but not that way."

"No, I love my husband that way."