Trouble in Paradise

"And you saved the hostages."

"Sort of," Jesse said.

"What do you mean sort of?"

Jesse nodded at the thick woman behind the counter, and she poured more coffee into his cup. He added some cream, looked at it as it spiraled slowly into the coffee. He added two spoonfuls of sugar and stirred it, watching the color change. Then he took a sip.

"Well," he said.

"Marcy Campbell told me that Cromartie let the women go."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He said he wasn't hiding behind women. If he'd held them and stayed put, I'd have been fucked."

"You think he was that gallant?"

"Gallant," Jesse said.

"Nice word. I don't know. Maybe he just wanted all the money."

"He could still have taken them as hostages to protect himself until he got away."

"True," Jesse said.

"On the other hand, he might have figured he could move better traveling lighter."

"I think he was gallant," Je

"If Fred Costa was the guy driving the boat, he gallantly shot him in the back of the head."

"You don't know that he was."

"No. Maybe we will. Fred was from Mattapoisett. State Cops are down there asking around, see if we can turn up anything. A co

"You've ID'd them? The other two men?"

Jesse smiled. A cop's wife, she fell into the jargon easily, and what sounded natural in the station sounded strange from her lips.

"Yeah, they've both done time. One's from Baltimore. One's from Atlanta."

"Well, I hope the Indian man gets away," Je

"Even though he seems to have abandoned his partner to me and may have shot some guy to death on his boat and who knows who did the two guys on the island?"

"Yes."

"Because he was gallant about the women hostages?"

"Well, he was."

Jesse smiled at her.

"Okay," Jesse said.

"And if I ever catch him, I'll tell him you said so."

"I hope you don't catch him. Is that Hopkins bitch still after you?"

"Probably," Jesse said.

"But she's laying low at the moment."

"Be kind of hard to say you weren't doing your job right, with all the papers in the state calling you a hero."

"She'll wait," Jesse said.

"I don't think she'll go away."

"She can't be happy you let me go."

"No."

"You let a woman go too," Je

"Molly told me."

"She's supposed to keep her mouth shut," Jesse said.

"It's okay to tell me," Je

"You're special?"

"I certainly am," Je

"You certainly are," Jesse said.

Je

"How you and short stuff doing?" Jesse said.

"Tony?"

"Yeah. He fall off his cowboy boots yet?"

"Oh, Tony's a news anchor, Jesse."

"So?"

"So he's frivolous."

"How about policemen, are they frivolous?"

"No," Je

Jesse bit the end off of a triangle of toast.

"So are you being frivolous with Tony these days?"

"I guess that isn't really your business, is it?"

Jesse felt the lump that was always there thicken again inside him.

"No," he said, "I guess it isn't."

Je

"I understand that it's hard not to ask," she said.

"But sometimes the only way to keep something is to let it go."

"Divorce isn't letting go enough?"

"Maybe not," Je

"Well," Jesse said, "isn't that swell."

"Jesse, I'm not saying that this is the way it ought to be. But it is the way it is. I'm trying too."

"I know," Jesse said.

They were quiet while the counter woman cleared their plates.

Je

"I'm very proud of you," Je

"Yeah," Jesse said.

"I did all right."

"You did. And I'm proud of you for the way you're handling your drinking. And I'm proud of you the way you let that woman go. And I'm proud of the way you are staying steady on us. I know how hard it is."

"Like a rock," Jesse said wryly.

"And I love you," Je

"I love you too, Je

"What was it that baseball person said about being over?"

"Yogi Berra," Jesse said.

"It's not over till it's over."

"Well he's right," Je

Jesse nodded. Je

What I need now, he thought, is a drink.