Stone cold

out of her underpants, and stood naked in front of him. Jesse smiled.

“A real redhead,” he said.

“Or a very thorough colorist,” Rita said.

She came to the couch and sat beside Jesse and tucked her feet under her.

“So?” Rita said. “Tell me about

Je

“It’s a little hard to

concentrate,” Jesse said.

“My point exactly,” Rita said.

She shifted somehow and was in his lap, and then they were both

naked, and then, after a while they lay together on the couch with their arms around each other, waiting for their breathing to slow.

Finally, with her face next to his, Rita said, “So, tell me

about Je

“You are as good-looking a woman as I have ever met,” Jesse said

carefully. “And I’ve never had sex that I liked better.”

“Not even Je

“She’s not better-looking than you

are,” Jesse said, “and she

doesn’t make love any better.”

“So, why her, not me?”

Jesse eased himself up a little so that his head rested on the arm of the couch. Rita adjusted so that she lay inside his right arm.

“Why her?” Rita said again.

Jesse laughed briefly and without amusement.

“God,” he said. “If I knew that,

I’d know

everything.”

“You’re sort of an addictive

personality,” Rita

said.

“Booze?” Jesse said.

“And Je

Jesse nodded slowly.

“And Je

“You’ve stopped drinking,” Rita

said.

Jesse was silent, listening to his breathing, and Rita’s.

“I know,” Jesse said.

They lay still, passionless, their naked bodies touching pleasantly. Rita seemed perfectly comfortable without her clothes on.

“Maybe you can break the addiction to Je

said.

“I love her,” Jesse said.

“Jesus Christ,” Rita said. “You

invoke that phrase as if you’d

discovered the double helix. Love is an emotion, like any other.

You can get over it, like you do anger or fear, or hatred.”

“I love her,” Jesse said. “If I

can be with her, I will

be.”

“So,” Rita said,

“what’s the plan? You fuck me until you can be with her?”

“Hell, Rita, I don’t have a

plan,” Jesse said. “I’m just hanging on.”

“That shrink you know,” Rita said.

“What does he say

aboutJe

“He says that I do my job, that I have women I care about, who

care about me, that my life moves right along, so why do I need Je

“And your answer?”

“You won’t like it,” Jesse said.

Rita grimaced.

“‘Because I love

her’?” Rita said.

Jesse nodded.

“And you don’t love me,” Rita

said.

“Actually I do,” Jesse said.

“It’s just that I love Je

more.”

Rita was quiet for a time.

“If you and Je

other, too?” Rita said. “Part-time, so to speak.”

“Rita, I don’t know what’s going

to happen after I get off this

couch, let alone who I’ll be in a month or a year.”

“But it might be possible,” Rita said.

Jesse shook his head slowly.

“Maybe not,” he said.

62

The note was hand printed in big block letters with blue ink.

TO FIND OUT ABOUT YOUR SERIAL KILLER, BE AT THE FOOD COURT AT

NORTHEAST MALL AT 7 PM. THURSDAY.

ALONE!!!!!!!

The letters looked a little wavery, as if the writer were old.

“Probably printed it left-handed,” Jesse said.

“To frustrate the handwriting experts,”

Molly

said.

“Yep.”

“Is handwriting analysis really that effective?” Molly

said.

Jesse smiled and looked as if he thought it wasn’t.

“You know that mall?” Jesse said.

“I’m a suburban mother,” Molly

said. “Of course I do. Don’t

you?”

“I’m not a suburban mother,”

Jesse said. “I’ll go up there this

afternoon and scope it out.”

“You haven’t ever been there?”

“Only outside,” Jesse said.

“When I met Candace

there.”

“Hard to imagine,” Molly said.

“Do you think it’s

them?”

“Yep.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Show up,” Jesse said.

“It’s Tuesday,” Molly said.

“We have today and tomorrow to get

ready.”

“How crowded would it be on a Thursday evening,” Jesse

said.

“Quite,” Molly said.

“It’s crowded every night, and it’s time to

be buying the spring wardrobe.”

“Sure it is.”

“There are a bunch of exits from the mall,” Molly said. “Not

counting the ones that the stores use, you know for truck deliveries and stuff.”

“Be hard to cover them all.”

“I’m sure the state police will help, and the local cops will

give us some people.”

Jesse shook his head.

“Too many jurisdictions,” he said.

“I won’t be able to control

it.”

“We can coordinate through Vargas,” Molly said.

“These are smart people,” Jesse said.

“But surely they don’t think we

won’t try to catch them,” Molly

said.

“They probably like that,” Jesse said.

“They like it?”

“Raises the risk, makes it more exciting.”

“So why not be there in force,” Molly said. “Cover every exit,

have plainclothes people all over the food court.”

“They like risk,” Jesse said.

“But they don’t like certainty.

They don’t want to get caught. They only want the danger of getting

caught.”

“They want to be shot at and missed,”

Molly said.

“Exactly,” Jesse said.

“And you’re afraid that if there are too many different people

involved, somebody will give it away.”

“And we’ll lose them.”

“You’re assuming,” Molly said,

“that their purpose is to kill

you.”

“Yep.”

“So why do it this way. They know where you live.

Why not just

lurk around there and shoot you when you come home?”

“Same reason they’ve been flirting with me, buying me lunch,

being my pals,” Jesse said.

“They are, after all, crazy,” Molly said.

“I tend to forget

that.”

“So not everything they do is logical to us,” Jesse said. “On

the other hand crazy doesn’t mean stupid. They’ve chosen a public

place with many exits. The parking lot leads to many roadways that lead in many directions. It is a good place to escape from. It is an easy place not to be noticed. And it is a hard place for us to start shooting.”

“So we put our people there, early, around the food court,”

Molly said. “Suit and I can be there as a married couple shopping

for cruise wear.”

“You’re ten years older than

Suit,” Jesse said.

“Yes. But I do not look it.”

“True,” Jesse said. “But it

can’t be Suit. They know

him.”

“Well, me and Anthony then,” Molly said.

“We keep Suit out of

sight.”

“I don’t want it to be you,

Moll,” Jesse said.

“Why not?”

“You got kids and a husband,” Jesse said.

“And Anthony has kids and a wife,” Molly said.

“I was afraid you’d remember

that,” Jesse said.

“It’s because I’m a

woman,” Molly said.

Jesse was silent.

“It is, isn’t it,” Molly said.

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s lovely and chivalrous of you,” Molly said. “And I

know you do it because you care about me. But it still demeans me.”

“I know,” Jesse said.

“God, you’re irritating. I can’t

even fight with

you.”

“You and Anthony can be snacking in the food court,” Jesse said.

“Wear your vest.”

“You too,” Molly said.

Jesse nodded.

“Spring fashions,” he said.