Stone cold

“I’m the police chief,” Jesse

said. “I know

everything.”

“I don’t know what you are talking

about,” Candace said in a

small voice, her eyes riveted on her own lap.

Jesse ate half a donut and drank some coffee.

“If you let them,” Jesse said,

“they will make your life

miserable as long as you live in this town.”

Candace shook her head.

“If you tell me about it,” Jesse said,

“I can give you your life

back.”

“My mother,” Candace said.

“I can help you with your mother,” Jesse said.

Candace kept staring at her lap. Jesse finished his first donut

and drank some more coffee. They were both silent. Candace’s hunched shoulders began to shake. She made no sound, but Jesse knew she was crying. He put a hand on her near shoulder.

“Off the record,” Jesse said.

“Just between you and me. No

testifying. Nobody knows you told me.”

Her shoulders continued to shake.

“Let it out,” Jesse said.

“You’re safe here. It’ll never leave the car.”

“Bo’s the football captain,”

Candace said and began to cry

outright.

Jesse took some Kleenex out of the glove compartment and put them on the dashboard in front of her. He patted her shoulder.

“He’s so strong,” she said.

Jesse stopped patting and simply rested his hand on her shoulder.

“You know behind the football field …

there’s this little

like valley … where the railroad tracks are? …

They

took me there.”

She was talking and crying at the same time. Her nose was ru

“They force you?”

“They just … told me to come with them

… and, you

know … they are … so … so important

… you

know?”

Jesse nodded.

“Sure,” he said. “I

know.”

“And … they started … they

started talking …

dirty and they grabbed me and took my clothes off

…”

She stopped talking for a time and sobbed. Jesse waited, his hand gently on her shoulder. Finally she got enough control to talk.

“And they did it,” she said.

“All three?” Jesse said softly.

“They took turns … Two holding me down, one doing

it.”

Jesse put his head back against the car seat and closed his eyes

for a moment and took in a lot of air quietly through his nose and let it out. Candace cried, softly now, her hands folded in her lap, her head down.

“They took pictures,” she said.

Jesse nodded slowly, his head still back against the car seat, his eyes still closed.

“And they’ll pass the pictures around the school,” Jesse said.

“If you say anything.”

“Yes.”

“Have you seen the pictures?”

“I saw one,” Candace said.

“Are they in the picture?”

“One of them.”

“Which one?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“I couldn’t stand to

look.”

“Do you have the picture?”

“I burned it.”

“Too bad,” Jesse said. “Might be

evidence.”

Candace shook her head.

“I didn’t want anybody to see

it.”

“I understand,” Jesse said.

“They threaten you any other

way?”

“They said they’d do it again. You know.

If I told. And Bo said

next time they’d hurt me.”

“Your parents know what happened to you?”

Jesse

said.

“My mother knows I was raped, but not by who.”

“Your father?”

“My mother says we can’t tell

him.”

Candace wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Jesse was still for a

moment, staring straight ahead through the car windshield, drumming his fingers on his thighs.

“Okay,” he said after a time.

“It’s our secret.”

She nodded. Jesse took a card out of his shirt pocket and wrote

his home phone number on the back.

“You can call me anytime,” Jesse said.

“About anything. It’ll be

between you and me until you say otherwise.”

She took the card.

“What are you going to do?” she said.

“I’m going to keep you out of

it,” Jesse said. “But I’m going to

find a way, sooner or later, to bust all three of them.”

“You won’t tell,” she said.

“No,” Jesse said. “I

won’t.”

“I’m so scared,” she said.

“I know,” Jesse said. “Just

remember you’re not alone anymore.

We’re in this together.”

She nodded.

“Do you want me to take you home or back to the mall.”

“The mall,” she said.

“I’m meeting my friend there at

three.”

Jesse finished his coffee and a second donut as he drove back to

the mall. When he parked near the entrance she sat for a moment in the car.

“Do you think they’ll do it

again?” she said.

“I don’t know. Try not to be alone with them. Call me whenever

you need me.”

She nodded silently.

“Thank you,” she said.

Jesse smiled at her.

“You and me, babe,” he said.

18

Healy came in without knocking and sat down in Jesse’s

office.

“You called?” he said.

Jesse nodded. “Thanks for coming by,” he said.

“Not a sacrifice,” Healy said.

“You know I live up this

way.”

“We had a couple of murders,” Jesse said.

“I heard,” Healy said.

“Sent the slugs over to state forensics and your people tell me

they came from the same guns.”

“Guns?”

“Yeah. Both victims shot twice, one each from two guns.”

Healy frowned. “Two shooters?” he said.

“Or one shooter who wants us to think it was two.”

“Links between the victims?” Healy said.

“We can’t find any,” Jesse said.

“They both live here?”

“Along with twenty thousand other people.”

Healy nodded slowly.

“Well, you know how to do this,” Healy said. “I am not going to

ask you a lot of dumb questions.”

“All we got is four bullets,” Jesse said.

“Twenty-twos.”

“That’ll narrow it down for

you,” Healy said.

“People use a twenty-two because they don’t know one gun from

another and that’s what they could get hold of,”

Jesse

said.

“Or they are good at it,” Healy said.

“And like the twenty-two

because it’s not as noisy and makes less of a mess.”

“And maybe because they like to show off.”

“These people seem like they can shoot?”

“They put both bullets right in the same place,” Jesse said.

“Both victims. Either shot would have killed them.”

“So we gotta look for the guns,” Healy said.

“It’s a start.”

“How many twenty-two-caliber firearms would you guess are out

there in this great land?”

“Let’s assume a couple things,”

Jesse said. “Let’s assume

there’s two shooters. It’s more likely than one shooter, two

guns.”

“Yeah,” Healy said.

“And let’s assume that the shooters are from

Paradise.”

“Because both vies are from Paradise,”

Healy

said.

“No wonder you made captain,” Jesse said.

“So we get a list of everyone in Massachusetts who owns a

twenty-two,” Healy said.

“Or bought twenty-two ammunition.”

“And we cross-reference anyone who lives in Paradise,” Healy

said.

“And then maybe we’ve got some

suspects,” Jesse

said.

“If the shooters bought in Massachusetts,”

Healy said. “And if

the gun store did the paperwork, and if we didn’t lose it in the

computer, and if they live in Paradise.”

“Hell, we’ve got them cornered,”

Jesse said. “Can your people do

the clerical work?”

“Am I the homicide commander?” Healy said.

“Can they do it fast?”

“I am the homicide commander.