Stone cold

“Why you get the big bucks,” Jesse said.

“First I have to go see

Betty deAngelo.”

“The widow?” Healy said.

Jesse nodded.

“Lucky you,” Healy said.

“She has five kids,” Jesse said.

“Hard,” Healy said.

Jesse nodded.

“I’ll meet you at the Lincolns’

condo,” he said.

Jesse got out of the car and walked across the empty parking lot

to where his car sat alone near the east entrance of the mall.

Behind him Healy’s car drove away. Healy was right, Anthony would

have hesitated before shooting at a good-looking woman. And Healy was probably right about including the state cops. Jesse should have brought them in. He didn’t have enough people. He had more

people, maybe it wouldn’t have been Anthony. Maybe it wouldn’t have

been anybody. Maybe they’d have caught the Lincolns. His footsteps

were loud in the empty darkness. Maybe he overestimated himself and his men. Maybe thinking about it wasn’t useful. He unlocked his car

and got in and started it up. The headlights underscored how still and abandoned the parking lot was. He put the car in gear and drove.

He didn’t know the names of any of

Anthony’s children. There was

probably an Anthony Junior. He hoped the children wouldn’t be there

when he had to talk with Betty.

65

When Jesse got to the Lincolns’ condominium at 4:15

in the

morning, the state crime-scene people were begi

A couple of state homicide detectives were poking about.

“Talk to the widow?” Healy said.

Jesse nodded. Healy nodded with him.

“You ever see the den, here?”

“Lot of equipment,” Jesse said.

“Take a look,” Healy said and walked with Jesse into the

den.

On the computer screen was a candid head shot of Jesse that looked as if it had been taken when he was leaving the Paradise Police Station. The picture had apparently been cropped and blown up so that the background was hard to be sure of.

“We found it on the screen just like this when we came

in.”

“They thought I’d be dead,”

Jesse said.

“Yep.”

Healy turned and called into the living room.

“Rosario.”

One of the crime-scene technicians came into the room.

“Run these pictures through,” Healy said.

Rosario looked at the picture on the computer screen, and then at Jesse.

“Captain’s afraid of computers,”

Rosario said.

“I can’t even download porn,”

Healy said. “Run

them.”

“Yessir, Captain,” Rosario said and

clicked the

mouse.

A picture of Abby Taylor came up. Rosario clicked again. A picture of Garfield Ke

“They’re all blowups of candid

shots,” Rosario said. “One of

those digital cameras. You plug it into the computer and process it however you want.”

“And my picture was on the screen just like that when you came

in?”

“Yep.”

“Anything else interesting?”

“On the computer?” Rosario said.

“Nothing I can find. But maybe

the guys in the lab …”

“Make sure you don’t lose

anything,” Healy said, “when you shut it down.”

Jesse went back to the living room with Healy.

“Anything else interesting?” Jesse said.

“Place is immaculate. No sign of flight. Clothes, toothbrushes,

hair spray, all in place. Checkbooks show money in the bank. Couple credit cards in the drawer. Food in the refrigerator. Expiration dates suggest it was bought recently. Concierge doesn’t remember

them leaving yesterday. But you can take the elevator from their place direct to the lower level, and go out the side door to the parking lot.”

“Why are the pictures on the computer screen?” Jesse

said.

“I know,” Healy said. “It

bothers me too.”

“It incriminates them,” Jesse said.

“Decisively,” Healy said.

“So why display them?”

“They didn’t expect us to be

here?” Healy said.

“Or they did.”

Healy walked to the window and looked out. There was nothing to

see but himself and the room reflected in the night-darkened glass.

“They wanted us to know?” Healy said.

“Maybe.”

Jesse walked over and stood beside Healy, staring at the darkness.

“So how did they know we’d be

here?” he said.

“They had no reason to think they wouldn’t kill me,” Jesse

said.

“And if they had killed you,” Healy said,

“they had no reason to

think we’d suspect them.”

“But they left what amounts to a confession in plain view,”

Jesse said.

“To five murders,” Healy said.

“Or so they

expected.”

Behind them the specialists were packing up.

“We’re about done here,

Captain,” Rosario said.

Healy nodded. He spoke to one of the detectives.

“Leave a couple of uniforms here,” he said. “Case they come

back.”

“I’ll stay a while,” Jesse said.

“Sure,” Healy said. “You want to

be alone?”

“Yeah.”

“I like to do that too,” Healy said.

“Sort of listen to a crime

scene. By myself.”

“Something like that,” Jesse said.

“Okay. Paulie,” Healy said to the

detective. “Tell the troopers

to stay in the vestibule until Stone leaves.”

When everyone was gone Jesse stood in the thick silence and looked slowly around the room. The place had been measured, searched, photographed, inventoried, dusted. The computer had been removed. He walked to the bathroom. Two toothbrushes stood in holders. A barely squeezed tube of toothpaste for sensitive teeth lay on the counter. The soap in the soap dish was new. A full bottle of shampoo stood on a shelf in the shower stall beside a fresh bar of soap. On a shelf above the bathroom sink were matched jars and tubes of makeup, all barely used, all in order by size and shape. The bed seemed freshly made. He turned back the spread. The sheets seemed newly washed and ironed. He opened bureau drawers.

Tony’s shirts were carefully laid out by color, still in their

transparent envelopes from the cleaner. His socks were rolled.

Bria

The counters were washed. The refrigerator was clean and organized.

A place for everything and everything in its place. The dining room table was set with good china. The whole place looked as if they were expecting company … They were. That’s why they had left

the evidence displayed. A farewell. See how much smarter we are

than you are. They would simply disappear and, in time, someone would notice they were gone, or maybe there would be an anonymous tip. And the cops would come and there would be the confession on the computer screen. They had never pla

Here.

66

Jesse talked to the press the next morning on the front steps of

the Paradise Police Station. Yes, a Paradise police officer, Anthony deAngelo, had been killed last night. Yes, they had identified two suspects: Tony and Bria

Molly nodded toward his office.

“Je

the side.”

Jesse nodded and walked into his office. Je

edge of his desk, looking through Jesse’s side window at the turmoil of media that surged around the front lawn of the police station. Jesse closed the office door behind him.