Sea Change

“Tell me,” Jesse said gently.

“Go ahead, Cathleen,” her father said.

“Sam, it’s embarrassing,” Jackie said. “She already told the woman.”

Jesse looked at Molly.

“Rape kit?” he said.

“Inconclusive. Signs of penetration, but no semen, no evidence of force.”

“You saying I lied,” Cathleen said.

“No, honey, inconclusive doesn’t mean you lied.”

“He wore a rubber,” Cathleen said. “Naturally there’s no sperm.”

“Who?” Jesse said.

“She doesn’t know for sure,” Molly said. “She thinks it was the boat owner.”

Jesse nodded.

“Could you pick him out of a lineup?” Jesse said.

“Absolutely,” Cathleen said.

“Good,” Jesse said. “How’d you happen to end up on the yacht?”

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S E A C H A N G E

Cathleen looked down and didn’t answer.

“She met one of the crew,” Molly said, “at the Dory. He offered to show her the boat.”

“How old are you, Cathleen?” Jesse said.

“Seventeen,” she said. “Ill be eighteen in September.”

“What happened when you got to the boat?” Jesse said.

Cathleen looked irritated.

“I can’t talk about stuff like that in front of them,” she said.

Sam looked at his hands, folded in his lap. He was a thick man, a landscaper in town. As he got older he’d put on weight but he still looked like someone who’d worked all his life. Jackie glared silently at everyone. Her thin self was tight with anger.

“How about me?” Jesse said.

She looked disgusted.

“No way,” she said.

“Okay, then it’ll be Molly. Take her to the squad room,”

Jesse said. “It should be empty. If anyone’s in there, give them the boot.”

Molly nodded.

Cathleen said, “I don’t like talking about it.”

“Come on, hon,” Molly said. “I’m fun to talk with.”

“Yeah, right,” Cathleen said. But she stood and followed Molly out.

“She didn’t do nothing wrong,” Jackie said. Her thin hands were clenched together in her lap.

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R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“I’m sure she didn’t,” Jesse said.

“Probably shouldn’t have gone out to the yacht,” Sam said.

“She’s a teenager,” Jackie said. “They do foolish things.”

Sam nodded. His head was down, and he appeared to be studying his thick hands.

“You got to do something about this, Jesse.”

Jesse nodded.

“I didn’t want to come here. I wanted to get some guys and go out and beat the shit out of everybody on the fucking boat.”

“Coming here was better,” Jesse said.

“I have to, I’ll go out there myself and break the fucking boat up.”

“You won’t have to,” Jesse said.

“She’s a good girl,” Jackie said. “A little wild, maybe, like most kids. But at heart she’s a good girl.”

“Anyone can see that,” Jesse said.

“She’s got a boyfriend. She’s going to UMass in the fall.”

“This will pass,” Jesse said, just as if he meant it.

“And she’s underage, isn’t she?” Jackie said.

“No, Jackie, she’s not. Not if she’s seventeen,” Jesse said.

“Statutory age of consent in this state is sixteen.”

“Well, they took advantage of a young girl.”

Jesse nodded. Everyone was quiet. Jesse was good at quiet.

Silence was his friend.

“Does everyone have to know?” Sam said.

“There might be some publicity, depends mostly on the 1 2 4

S E A C H A N G E

suspect. If he’s not newsworthy, and we stay out of court with a plea bargain, nobody needs to know. I got no need to talk about it.”

“You called him a suspect,” Jackie said. “You think she’s lying?”

Jesse shook his head. “Just cop talk, Jackie. He’s a suspect until we convict him.”

“Well, she says she was raped, she was raped.”

Molly brought Cathleen back.

“I have a full statement,” Molly said.

Jesse nodded.

“Anything else you want to say, Cathleen?”

“Nope.”

“Okay,” Jesse said. “We’ll arrange a lineup.”

“I’ll know the bastard,” Cathleen said.

“Cathleen!” Jackie said.

“Well, he is a bastard,” Cathleen said.

Sam stood.

“He gets off, Jesse, I swear, I’ll deal with him myself,”

Sam said.

Jesse stood and put out his hand.

“No need, Sam, we’re on it.”

They all shook hands, and Molly showed them out. Jesse thought that Cathleen’s handshake was not enthusiastic.

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27

W hen Molly came back into Jesse’s office, Jesse was looking out his window at the

fire trucks being washed on the firehouse driveway beneath his window. He liked the way the stream of water from the hose sluiced away the suds worked up by the sponge. He liked the way it slid smoothly off and as the water dried up, the red finish of the truck gleamed in the morning sun.

“Rape, my ass,” Molly said.

Jesse nodded. Outside the firemen began to polish the chrome. They liked that truck. Like grooming a horse, Jesse thought. If it was alive, they’d give it a carrot.

S E A C H A N G E

“Let’s hear her statement,” Jesse said.

Molly got the audiotape of her interview with Cathleen and they listened to it in Jesse’s office.

“They made me do a striptease,” Cathleen said.

“What were the circumstances?” Molly asked.

“They got a video camera, and they said I had to do a striptease or they wouldn’t take me home.”

“Who is they?” Molly said.

“The guy that raped me and other guys and some women, too.

They said I had to strip.”

“Perfect,” Jesse said.

“Keep listening,” Molly said.

“And then the guy who owned the boat took me into his bedroom and closed the door and threw me on the bed and raped me. He was like an animal. Just threw me down and jumped on me and stuck it in.”

“But, he did wear a condom,” Molly said.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Did he put that on just before he jumped on you like an animal?”

“Yeah, just before.”

“Was it in a packet?” Molly said. “Did he have to open the packet?”

“No, he just . . . he had it in his pocket and just pulled it out and put it on.”

They listened to the rest of it. She might have had a drink, but if she did, it was only one and she didn’t finish it. What kind of drink? Vodka. Straight? Yes. Who brought her home?

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Same guy brought her out. The one she met in the bar. Could she pick him out of a lineup? Yeah, ’course.

When the tape was finished, Jesse said, “She got drunk at the Dory, went on a lark to the yacht. They fed her more booze.

She got drunker and did a striptease. Then the owner brought her into his bedroom and had sex with her. They brought her home. Maybe they didn’t treat her respectfully. Maybe she just was in trouble at home for being late and being drunk. Maybe she was afraid the tape they made of her striptease would get out. Whatever, she came up with this story.”

Molly nodded.

“Her mother knows she wasn’t raped,” Molly said.

“Yes,” Jesse said. “She does.”

“I guess Sam believes her. I hope he doesn’t do something about this that will get him in trouble.”

“He’ll let us do our thing,” Jesse said. “He’s like a lot of fathers in this situation. He’s saying what he thinks he’s supposed to say.”

“What are you going to do?”

Jesse smiled.

“We don’t know she’s making this up,” Jesse said.

“We’re pretty sure,” Molly said.

“It’s not our job to decide,” Jesse said. “It’s our job to in -

vestigate. The DA and the courts decide.”

“If we got her in here alone and talked to her for a while,”