Stone cold

distorted by crying, someone out of the picture was holding her ankles, and Kevin Feeney was holding her wrists. Feeney was smiling. Jesse looked carefully at each print, then he put them faceup on his desk, facing toward Bo, and smiled at him and waited.

Bo didn’t look at the pictures. Jesse let the silence thicken.

Then he said, “Who’s the young

lady?”

“I don’t know,” Bo said.

“I found them pictures.”

“And the young gentleman?”

“I told you, I du

“Where?”

“In the school library, somebody musta dropped them.”

“The young lady looks like she’s

crying,” Jesse

said.

“You know how broads are, sometimes they cry after you fuck

them.”

“Really? And it seems that the young gentleman is restraining

her.”

“I don’t know,” Bo said.

“You don’t know what?”

“I don’t know nothing about that

picture.”

Arthur Angstrom opened Jesse’s door.

“Kid’s father is here,” he said.

Jesse nodded.

“He’s got Abby Taylor with him,”

Arthur said.

“Lawyer to the rescue,” Jesse said.

“Send them

in.”

26

Joe Marino was a large self-made man in an expensive suit that was a little tight for him.

“What the hell is going on here,” he said when he came into the

office.

“I didn’t do nothing, Dad,” Bo

Marino said.

“Shut up,” his father said.

“I’ll take care of

this.”

Jesse smiled at Abby Taylor, who had come in with Marino. She was dark-haired and good-looking, wearing a well-fitted suit with a short skirt.

“Hello, Abby,” Jesse said. “How

are you.”

Abby Taylor said, “I’m fine.”

“Hey,” Marino said.

“I’m talking to you.”

Jesse said, “You are.”

“What the hell is going on?”

“This your son?” Jesse said.

“Yes. What do you think I’m doing

here?”

“We’ve arrested him for possession of a controlled substance

with intent to sell, with resisting a lawful order, assault on a police officer, and maybe possession of obscene photographs.”

“Photographs?”

“That’s just a maybe,” Jesse

said.

“Lemme see the photographs,” Marino said.

“Nope,” Jesse said.

“I got a right to confront my accuser,”

Marino

said.

Jesse took in some air and let it out.

“Explain it to him, Abby.”

“Let me see if I can help with this, Mr.

Marino.”

“The bitch sprayed me with Mace,” Bo said.

“Shut up,” Marino said.

Jesse smiled at Abby and didn’t say anything.

“You can release Bo to his father,” Abby said.

Jesse shook his head. “We’ll hold him overnight and take him

over to district court in the morning.”

“Jesse,” Abby said.

“He’s seventeen. He has no previous record.

At most, in this instance, he’s guilty of a few minor lapses in

decorum.”

“He’s a tough kid,” Marino said.

“He stood up for himself like I

always taught him. Nobody pushes me around, I told him. Don’t let

nobody push you around, I told him, don’t take crap from nobody.”

Jesse nodded pleasantly. He was leaning back in his swivel chair, one foot up on the open bottom drawer of his desk, his hands resting motionless on the desktop.

“You’re looking at a fucking police

brutality suit, I’m telling

you that right now.”

Jesse picked up the phone and spoke to Arthur at the front desk.

“Molly still here? Good. Send her in.”

In a moment Molly opened the door and came in.

“This is the cop that roughed up your little boy, Mr.

Marino.”

Marino looked at his son and shook his head disgustedly.

“Jesus Christ,” he said.

“Mr. Marino,” Abby Taylor said.

“It might go better if you let

me talk.”

“Broads,” Marino said and shook his head again.

“Thank you, Officer Crane,” Jesse said.

“You’re welcome, Chief Stone,”

Molly said and turned and left

the room.

“Jesse,” Abby said, “are you

really going to keep this boy

overnight?”

“I am,” Jesse said.

He turned his chair a little and looked at Bo.

“I want you to understand something,”

Jesse said. “You deny

knowing any of the people in those pictures. We will track them down and find out if that is true. If you are lying to us, you’d be

wise to say so now, with your attorney present.”

“I don’t know them,” Bo said.

“Okay, we’ll bring him over to district court first thing,”

Jesse said, “in case you want to be there.”

“Can’t you do something about

this?” Marino said to

Abby.

“Probably not,” Abby said, looking at her watch. “Especially

this late.”

“This is bullshit,” Marino said.

“I’m telling you, make it

happen.”

“Theoretically that’s possible,”

Abby said. “But in fact, at

this hour, I’m not going to find a judge and argue my case and have

him issue a writ, so, I’m sorry, but Bo will have to spend the

night.”

“Dad?”

“You little shit,” Marino said to Jesse.

“I’m not little,” Jesse said.

“I’m just not as fat as

you.”

Marino gave him a long stare.

“You didn’t have that badge,”

Marino said.

“Your kid said the same thing,” Jesse said. “Now unless you want

to spend the night here too, why don’t you and your attorney go

someplace and plan your brutality case.”

“She won’t be my attorney long,”

Marino said. “I’m going to find

somebody with a pair of balls.”

“By which you mean a man,” Abby said.

“Okay, since you asked, yeah. A man. I never seen a broad you

could count on when it was on the line.”

Jesse smiled.

“You’re right,” he said to

Marino, “she won’t be your attorney

long.”

27

Marino had left with Abby, and Bo was in the four-cell lockup in

the back of the station. It was after six and getting dark when Molly came into Jesse’s office with a pizza and a six-pack of Coors. She put the pizza on the desk. She separated out two cans of beer, set them on the desk next to the pizza, and put the rest in the little refrigerator where Jesse kept spring water.

“I know you’re married,” Jesse

said. “But maybe we could have an

affair.”

“I’ll put you on the list,”

Molly said. “You think we’ve got the little prick?”

“Yes,” Jesse said.

He picked up a slice and took a bite.

When he had swallowed, he said, “There’s no real grounds for an

obscenity charge. I don’t think the possession with intent will

stand up, but we should be able to make the case for assaulting a cop. We know he’s lying about the pictures. And now, we can investigate the rape without anyone thinking that Candace squealed on them.”

“Won’t that require Candace to

testify?”

“I don’t know. If we flip one of the other kids, there might be

a plea bargain and she’d never have to appear.”

“Why’d you keep the kid

overnight?” Molly said.

Jesse ate a bite of pizza and drank some beer.

“Because I don’t like him,”

Jesse said.

“How was the father?”

“The tree doesn’t grow too far from the apple,” Jesse

said.

The pizza was made with green peppers and mushrooms.

Jesse’s

favorite. He wondered if it was a coincidence, or if Molly knew. He decided that Molly knew. Molly knew a lot.

“You want me to go get Kevin Feeney?”

Molly said.

Jesse sipped some beer.

“No,” he said. “Not yet. We need

to make it look like we didn’t

know who he was and it took us a couple days to find out.”