Sea Change

“Oh God,” she said, and picked up her glass.

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29

S o how come I get to go on this big search,”

Molly said. “There women involved?”

“There’s some women,” Jesse said.

They were on the harbor boat.

“Otherwise you and Suit would have done it yourselves.”

“Nice to have a woman, in an isolated situation, where there are other women.”

“So I’m like the nurse in the examining room.”

“Exactly,” Jesse said.

“How come I never get to do guy cop things.”

Jesse shrugged.

S E A C H A N G E

“Next time Carl Radborn gets drunk in the Dory we’ll give you a shout,” he said.

Molly gri

“Women are nice,” she said.

Hardy pulled the boat in alongside the Lady Jane, and held it there while the three cops went aboard.

“Be awhile, Hardy,” Jesse said. “I’ll call you on the cell phone.”

“I’ll lay off here a little to the leeward,” Hardy said. “No hurry.”

“Leeward,” Suitcase said.

“I love it,” Molly said, “when you talk salty.”

Hardy didn’t respond and the three cops scrambled up onto the deck of the Lady Jane.

Harrison Darnell met them himself. His guests were gathered at breakfast. The crew, except for the captain, was serving. There were bagels and muffins. There was cheese and a platter of fruit, coffee and a pitcher of orange juice. A bottle of champagne stood in a bucket. Blondie was drinking a Bloody Mary.

“What is it now?” Darnell said.

He was in shorts and boat shoes and a flowered shirt. Jesse handed him the warrant.

“A crime has been alleged on board,” Jesse said. “That’s a warrant to search the boat.”

“Crime?”

“A young woman alleges rape.”

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“Rape? For crissake, Stone, I don’t have to rape anyone.”

“We will also require that you not leave the harbor, and that you come in for a lineup.”

“Lineup?” Darnell said. “What the fuck are you talking about. A fucking lineup?”

Jesse nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes,” Jesse said, “that’s what it’s often called.”

“You have no damned jurisdiction here,” Darnell said.

“We’re at sea.”

“You’re in Paradise Harbor, Mr. Darnell,” Jesse said.

“Why don’t you sit down over there, have a nice cup of tea or something.”

“I want a lawyer.”

Jesse shrugged.

“Call one,” he said. “Officer Crane and I will search the ship. Officer Simpson will stay with you on deck.”

“I won’t allow it,” Darnell said. “It is a travesty. There has been no crime. Ask anyone.”

He stepped in front of the stairwell.

“You are not going below.”

“Of course we are, Mr. Darnell,” Jesse said. “It’s just a question of hard or easy.”

“What’s hard?” Blondie Martin asked from her seat at the table. Her eyes were wide and full of excitement as she looked at Jesse over the rim of her glass.

“Easy is Mr. Darnell goes and sits down with you,” Jesse said. “Step aside, Mr. Darnell.”

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There was something frantic in Darnell’s resistance.

“No,” he said. “You aren’t going below.”

Jesse took the cuffs off his belt.

“You are under arrest, Mr. Darnell, for refusing a lawful order. Face the bulkhead, please. Hands on the top.”

Darnell’s voice slid up into a high vibrato.

“No,” he said. “No.”

Jesse took hold of Darnell’s right forearm. Darnell tried to pull away, Jesse started to turn him, and Darnell swung at Jesse with his left hand. Jesse avoided the punch, used the momentum it generated to spin Darnell, slammed him against the bulkhead and pi

Blondie said, “Ooooh!”

Jesse let Darnell away from the bulkhead.

“Suit, sit him down somewhere, and keep him there,”

Jesse said.

“Boy, Chief Yokel,” Blondie said. “You’re really quick.”

“Maybe Mr. Darnell is really slow,” Jesse said.

“Any time you want to play with your handcuffs . . .”

Blondie said and giggled.

Jesse heard Molly make a small sound.

“First we’ll search the boat,” Jesse said.

He and Molly started down the stairs.

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“Did I hear you snicker, Officer Crane?” Jesse said.

“You might have, Chief Yokel,” Molly said, laughter bub -

bling beneath her voice.

“Well, as long as it was a respectful snicker,” Jesse said.

“Absolutely,” Molly said.

Wearing gloves and carrying evidence bags, they went stateroom to stateroom together. Jesse never split a search. It was Jesse’s view that two people searching the same room made it less likely that either would miss something. The videotapes were right where Jesse had left them. There were two more. He took the tapes, including the empty substitute that he had substituted, so everything would look kosher.

“There is a selection of controlled substances here,” Molly said. “Some weed. Some, I assume, coke. Couple of other things I’d need help with.”

“Pack it up,” Jesse said.

“We going to arrest them for possession?”

“I might find it useful as leverage,” Jesse said.

In the night table of the master cabin, Jesse found a Browning Hi-Power and a box of shells. He took the pistol and left the shells. In the crew quarters he found a shotgun.

He left it. Most boats had a long gun aboard. He didn’t think it would do much for him. They confiscated a video camera.

They found sex toys in most of the staterooms. There were several vibrators, some anatomically correct. Molly turned one over in her hands, looking at it from all angles.

“When I was in parochial school,” Molly said, “we weren’t 1 4 0

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allowed to wear patent leather shoes, for fear someone might look up our dress in the reflection.”

“I was always hopeful about that,” Jesse said. “But I never saw it work.”

“But it probably kept you alert,” Molly said.

“I don’t want you sneaking home with that thing,” Jesse said.

Molly rolled her eyes at him, and put the vibrator back where she found it.

“Ah, the stories it could tell,” he said.

“What exactly is this,” Molly said.

“That’s a ball gag,” Jesse said, “and those are restraints.

Fetish toys. You can order them on the Internet.”

“Ick,” Molly said.

“You and hubby don’t use those?” Jesse said.

“There are times, I think, he might want to stick that gag in my mouth,” Molly said. “But not during sex.”

“Irish Catholic girls have sex?” Jesse said.

“When we go bad,” Molly said, “we go way bad.”

When they were through the search it was midway through the afternoon. Jesse made an inventory of what they’d confiscated, in duplicate, and signed it. Then he called Hardy on the cell phone.

“What did you take?” Darnell said, when they reached the deck.

“Stuff,” Jesse said. “Uncuff him, Suit.”

Simpson unlocked the cuffs on Darnell. Jesse separated 1 4 1

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the two sheets of his inventory and handed the carbon sheet to Darnell.

“You can’t take the tapes. They’re private property.”

“We’ll need you to come in and do a lineup,” Jesse said.

“All of you. Crew as well. We’ll arrange a date and get back to you.”

“Those tapes aren’t even mine. Somebody left them on board. I don’t even know what’s on them.”