Sea Change

“Yeah.”

“Who’s Nelson,” Jesse said.

“Paradise Rentals,” Guilfoyle said. “He’s the big guy in the business, right over here off the town wharf.”

3 3

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

Jesse nodded.

“I know the place. You think she made a mistake, took it back to the wrong place?”

“How do you do that?” Guilfoyle said.

He wore a pink striped shirt and white duck trousers with wide red suspenders. The shirt was unbuttoned over his chest, as if he were proud of the gray hair.

“I mean he’s here, I’m way the hell down the other end of the harbor. He’s got a hundred boats. I got fifteen. He’s short and fat.”

“And you look like Cesar Romero,” Jesse said.

“Yeah, right. So how does somebody make that kind of mistake.”

“Hard to figure,” Jesse said.

“Plus I got her damn driver’s license. I always hold it until they bring the boat back.”

“You have that with you?” Jesse said.

“Yeah. The credit card slip and her license.”

Guilfoyle took a brown envelope out of his hip pocket and put it on the desk in front of Jesse.

“Kid’s sailing the boat over to my place. I got to charge her credit card for all the time it’s been gone, you know.”

“That’ll be up to you and the credit card company,” Jesse said. “I’ll need to hang on to the license for a few days.”

“What if they want some kind of proof ?”

“I’ll make it available,” Jesse said. “I just want to see what happened to the woman.”

“Something happened?”

3 4

S E A C H A N G E

“Yep.”

“I don’t want to get involved in no trouble,” Guilfoyle said.

“Don’t blame you,” Jesse said.

“But you think I might?”

“Not unless you’re what happened to her,” Jesse said.

“It’s that dead girl they found floating down by the wharf.”

“Don’t know if it is or not,” Jesse said.

“But if you look at the picture on her driver’s license . . .”

Guilfoyle paused.

Jesse was shaking his head.

“Oh,” Guilfoyle said.

“Thanks for coming in, Mr. Guilfoyle.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want no trouble over this. I just want to get paid for the time my boat was missing.”

“And I wish you well on that,” Jesse said.

“I’m going to talk with a lawyer.”

“That’ll be swell,” Jesse said.

Guilfoyle looked at him. Jesse looked back.

“Don’t lose that license, either,” Guilfoyle said.

“Okay,” Jesse said.

Guilfoyle lingered.

“Thanks for stopping by,” Jesse said.

Guilfoyle hesitated another moment, then went.

3 5

8

I t was a Florida driver’s license. The photo was not flattering. But it showed that she was blond and thirtyish. Kind of cheap-looking, Jesse thought, and smiled. It was something his mother would have said. What the hell does it even mean? Mostly a matter of hair and makeup, probably. Her name was Florence E.

Horvath. Her address was in Fort Lauderdale. Her date of birth was February 13, 1970. Jesse took the license and credit card to the copy machine, made a copy of each and took the copies to the front desk and gave them to Molly.

“Call Fort Lauderdale,” Jesse said. “Tell them we have a body that might be this woman, see what they got on her, or S E A C H A N G E

what they can get. Dental records would be good. Then call the bank that issued this credit card and see what you can get—history of purchases this month and so forth.”

“I know you’ll explain this to me later,” Molly said.

“Being chief means never having to explain,” Jesse said.

“Might mean making your own coffee every morning, too,” Molly said.

“I’ll explain this to you later,” Jesse said.

Molly turned to the switchboard. Jesse went back to his office and looked in the phone book. There was only one Horvath listed in Paradise. He called. There was no one there named Florence, nor did they know anyone named Florence. He called the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, waded through a long menu of options, finally got someone in enforcement and arranged to have some blowups of Florence Horvath’s driver’s license photograph sent to Paradise. The he got up and went into the squad room where Peter Perkins was drinking a Diet Pepsi and reading the Globe sports section.

“You get through with the sports page,” Jesse said, “see if you can scan this license picture into the computer and send it over to Forensics. Ask them if it could be the floater.”

“Condition of the body,” Perkins said, “I don’t think they can tell much.”

“Ask them if anything here rules Florence out.”

“Okay, Jess,” Perkins said and folded the paper and put it on the conference table. “You’re the chief.”

“Yes I am,” Jesse said.

3 7

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

In the hall outside the squad room he saw Suitcase Simpson come in herding three college-aged kids, all of whom were drunk.

“I want a lawyah,” a blond kid kept saying. “I got right to a lawyah.”

“What’s up,” Jesse said. “A riot in day care?”

“They were pissing in the watering trough in the town common,” Simpson said.

“Put them in a cell,” Jesse said, “and call their parents to come get them.”

One of the kids was wearing plaid shorts and a muscle shirt he was too ski

“What charge,” he said. “Can’t lock us with no charge.”

“Inadequate potty training,” Jesse said. “Go on down there with Officer Simpson, and when you get sick try to puke in the hopper.”

Simpson herded them ahead of him toward the cell corridor. They were saying they weren’t drunk. There was no need to call their parents. They were being picked on for being kids. This was harassment. There was a mention of police brutality, then the door to the cell corridor closed and shut it off.

As Jesse walked past the desk, Molly said, “Fort Lauderdale says they’ll send a patrol car over to check on the address, and they’ll see what they can find on her. Like who her dentist is, or was. Bank will send us a copy of her last statement, and a printout of the credit card charges for the period since the statement.”

3 8

S E A C H A N G E

“Thank you,” Jesse said. “You ever piss in a watering trough?”

“That what Suit busted them for?”

“Yep.”

“I am a mother and a wife, and an Irish Catholic,” Molly said. “I don’t piss at all.”

3 9

9

T hey were eating pepper and mushroom pizza at the little table on Jesse’s balcony, with the strong salt sea smell of the harbor drifting pleasantly around them on the soft July air. Je

“When we’re together,” Jesse said, “what do you feel coming from me.”

“I feel strong vibes that I should undress and lie down,”

Je

“Really?”

Je

S E A C H A N G E

“You’re serious, aren’t you,” she said.

“Yes.”

Je

“Well, I . . . you know I don’t think much about stuff like that,” she said.

“I been talking with Dix about it,” Jesse said. “I need help with it.”

“Well, I mean, I know you love me.”

“Yes.”

“And I love you,” Je

“Perfect,” Jesse said.

“We’ve been together for a long time,” Je

“Sort of,” Jesse said.

“I mean, even at our worst and most separate we were co

“Yes,” Jesse said.

“And we are more than two people who fuck.”

“Yes,” Jesse said.