High profile

He stood for a time in the living room, listening to nothing, feeling the emptiness. Then he went outside and walked down to the beach and looked at the water. It was restless and active on the outer side of the island. There were whitecaps. The tide was high and there wasn’t much beach above the reach of the waves. The way the coastline curved, there were no other houses in sight, and he couldn’t see the road from where he stood.

He took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed.

“Molly,” he said. “I’m at Five Stiles Island Road. Send Peter Perkins out here with all his stuff. Tell him he’s going to be looking for blood.”

“Whose blood?” Molly said.

“I don’t know yet.”

“Has it to do with Walton Weeks?” Molly said.

“I don’t know yet.”

“But it might?” Molly said.

“Or it might not,” Jesse send. “Could you see if you can find Peter Perkins.”

“Yessir,” Molly said.

36

Su

“I need to swing by my place,” Su

Je

“What’s your ex-husband like?” Je

Su

“Richie’s father and uncle run a mob,” she said.

“They’re gangsters?”

“Yes.”

“How about him?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You were married to him?” Je

“I don’t think Richie is even sure.”

“Is he a criminal?” Je

“No,” Su

“Even if it means being, ah, you know, illegal?”

“Yes.”

“How do you feel about that?” Je

“It scares me,” Su

She turned right off the northbound surface road and onto the Summer Street Bridge. Fort Point Cha

“But,” Su

“I envy you that,” Je

“You don’t have family, or you’re not close?”

“Not close,” Je

“He’s nearly impervious,” Su

“At you?”

“No,” Su

“Sounds a little like Jesse,” Je

“Yes,” Su

“Jesse is so controlled, but you know that he has something very dangerous in there.”

“Dangerous to you?” Su

Je

“No,” she said. “Not to me.”

They parked on the street in front of Su

“It’s exciting, isn’t it?” Su

“Exciting?” Je

“Yes, having that kind of power.”

Je

“I never quite thought of it that way,” Je

“So why are we both divorced?” Su

“I don’t know. I wish to God I did know. He’s like the one necessity in my life. He’s all I have for family. I know he loves me. I would trust him with my life.”

“But?” Su

“But I can’t stay with him. I can’t be faithful to him. When I try I get claustrophobic.”

“And you don’t know why,” Su

“No. Do you?”

“No,” Su

“We?”

“My shrink and I,” Su

“Oh God,” Je

“If at first you don’t succeed,” Su

They got out of the car and went into Su

37

Healy sat in Jesse’s office with his hat on and one foot against the edge of Jesse’s desk.

“Okay,” Healy said. “You were right. It’s Weeks’s blood and the girl’s.”

“Carey Longley.”

“Yes.”

“So they were killed there,” Jesse said. “Or somewhere, and put in there, and kept cold.”

“So we have no real idea when they were killed,” Healy said.

“Which means everybody’s alibi is essentially meaningless,” Jesse said.

“Which is probably why they were cold-stored in the first place,” Healy said.

“Somebody knew what they were doing,” Jesse said. “They just kept them cold and didn’t freeze them. The ME would have been able to tell that they’d been frozen.”

“Remember it sounded like Lutz was establishing an alibi sitting in the lobby and such.”

Jesse nodded.

“How would he know when we’d decide they died?” Jesse said.

“He wouldn’t,” Healy said.

“So I guess he just likes to hang around hotels,” Jesse said.

“I guess,” Healy said.

“And I guess we’ll have to reinterview everybody with the new understanding that we don’t know when they died.”

“Looks like,” Healy said.

“Might dig them up,” Jesse said.

“Might. If the Weeks estate would let you.”

“Or we got a court order,” Jesse said.

“In New York,” Healy said.

“Or we could dig her up,” Jesse said.

“Carey,” Healy said. “Nice idea. I talked to the ME already. Without knowing when they died and how long they were refrigerated…”

Healy shook his head.

“Not worth the trouble,” Jesse said.

“No.”

Healy tipped his chair back slightly on its hind legs and teetered there, keeping his balance with one foot on Jesse’s desk, rocking slightly.

“Well,” Jesse said. “Whoever did it knew about the dream house on Stiles Island.”

“Did they follow them there and kill them?” Healy said. “And see the walk-in refrigerator and improvise?”

“Or did they know about it ahead of time, and kill them there in order to refrigerate them?”

“No blood anywhere else in the house,” Healy said.

“None we could find,” Jesse said. “We looked hard.”

“So either shot in the walk-in cooler,” Healy said, “or shot someplace else and dumped there.”

“Which would account for the small amount of blood,” Jesse said.

“They could have been shot there, and the killer cleaned up.”

“And missed the minuscule amounts we picked up with the blue light,” Jesse said.

“They’d have bled a lot when they were shot,” Healy said.

“And bled for a while,” Jesse said. “You’d have had to do several clean-ups.”

“Having, under this theory, just murdered two people,” Healy said, “with no certain assurance that nobody heard the shots.”

They were both quiet for a time.

“I like it better that they were shot somewhere else and moved there after they died,” Jesse said.

“And the blood traces were just a little postmortem seepage.”

“Yes.”

Again the two men were quiet.

Then Healy said, “Yeah. Me too. Which means that whoever did them knew about the house.”

“Which they bought under her maiden name to keep it a secret.”

“Which makes Lutz look pretty good for it,” Healy said.

“It does,” Jesse said. “On the other hand, a lot of money changed hands.”

“So maybe his lawyer knew,” Healy said.

“Or his manager,” Jesse said.

“Or one of the wives.”

“Swell,” Jesse said. “We’ve got all the suspects we had before.”