High profile

“I guess,” Suit said. “We go

“Yes.”

“We going down to New York again?”

“Maybe,” Jesse said.

Jesse looked at the ceiling, as if there were something up there. Suit waited. Jesse didn’t speak.

“You see the guv on TV this morning?” Suit said.

“No.”

“He says he’s taking a more active part in the investigation,” Suit said. “Says he’s bringing the full resources of his office to bear. Probably solve it by this evening.”

“Maybe not,” Jesse said. “See what you can find out about Lorrie Weeks, before she became Lorrie Weeks. What was her name? Where was she from? How did she know Lutz? Anything you can come up with. Probably be useful if you got a blowup of her driver’s license photo from New York DMV.”

“If I track her down,” Suit said, “will it go in my perso

“You’ll be a lock for detective,” Jesse said.

“If we ever have detectives,” Suit said.

“Absolutely,” Jesse said. “You’ll be one of them.”

“What I like,” Suit said, “is the guv comes up here to let the press look at him and blows a lot of smoke about how he wants the case solved, and the only thing he did helpful he doesn’t even know it.”

“He was a

“Just another empty shirt and tie,” Suit said. “Why the hell are they all like that.”

Jesse shrugged and shook his head.

“It’s the kind of guy the job attracts.”

“No good guys?”

“Few,” Jesse said. “Would you want to be governor?”

“No.”

“President?”

“Christ, no,” Suit said.

“Why not?”

“Too much bullshit,” Suit said.

“So who would want that kind of a job?” Jesse said.

“A bullshitter,” Suit said.

Jesse smiled at him.

“If you’re good with a hammer,” Jesse said, “you look for a nail.”

“Wow,” Suit said. “No wonder you made chief.”

49

Je

She hugged him when he came in.

“Oh boy,” she said. “I feel so safe with you. I mean, Su

“That’s probably true for me, too,” Jesse said.

“With me?” Je

“Something,” Jesse said.

They stood with their arms around each other for a moment, then stepped apart.

“What’s in the envelope?” Je

“I’ll show you in a while,” Jesse said.

Je

“Well,” she said. “Here we are.”

“Yes.”

“No matter what happens,” Je

“I know,” Jesse said.

“What is wrong with us, Jesse?”

“Different things, maybe.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe what’s wrong with me isn’t what’s wrong with you.”

“And yet,” Je

Jesse nodded. He picked up the brown envelope from the coffee table and took out two eight-by-ten photographs. Enlargements of the pictures Su

The moment she saw the photograph, Je

Jesse waited.

“What are these pictures?” Je

“You and a guy,” Jesse said.

“Where’d you get them?”

Jesse shrugged.

“I don’t know this man,” Je

“The guy with his arm around you?” Jesse said. “This guy? With your head on his chest? Him?”

“Oh, Jesse, don’t be jealous,” Je

“If I knew how you were for sure,” Jesse said, “maybe my life would be simpler.”

“I don’t even know that man, we were just at some beach party somewhere. Just kidding around.”

“His name is Timothy Patrick Lloyd.”

“Could be,” Je

“You know him?”

“Not really,” Je

“His e-mail address is in your computer,” Jesse said.

“My computer?”

“Tpat at cybercop-dot-com,” Jesse said.

“Goddamn you, you searched my apartment.”

Jesse shook his head.

“I didn’t give you a key so you’d come snooping around,” Je

Jesse didn’t speak.

“You bastard,” Je

Jesse said nothing.

“I had a nice di

She began to cry. Jesse took in some air and sat. Je

After a time, Je

Jesse handed her a cocktail napkin from the pretty arrangement on the coffee table. Je

“It was going to be a nice evening,” Je

Jesse nodded.

“I don’t have many of those anymore,” Je

Jesse nodded at the pictures on the coffee table.

“That’s your stalker, Je

“I don’t—”

Jesse put up his hand as if stopping traffic.

“We both know it,” he said. “Did he rape you?”

Je

“No, he didn’t rape you?” Jesse said.

Je

“Did he rape you?” Jesse said.

She didn’t answer.

After a time, Jesse said, “There’s nothing so bad I can’t hear it, Je

His voice was hoarse.

“We had sex, when I didn’t want to,” Je

Her voice was muffled against his chest.

“If that were rape,” Jesse said, “most of the women in America would have a case.”

Jesse could feel her head nod slightly against his chest.

“Did he rape you?” Jesse said.

“You’ll never…”

“There’s no never, Je

She raised her face a little from his chest. Her eyes were red, and her eye makeup was streaking.

“Is there an always?” she said.

Jesse looked down at her. The question hung in the silent room like blue smoke.

“Yes,” Jesse said. “I don’t know what kind of always, or what kind of life it implies, but yes. There will always be an always between us.”

The blue smoke that was only a metaphor seemed to dissolve. Je

Then she said softly, “No. He didn’t rape me.”

Jesse patted her shoulder.

“I told him I’d been an actress. He was impressed,” Je

Jesse continued to pat her shoulder. Je

“So we had a little fling,” she said.

Jesse nodded.

“But nothing worked out much. He didn’t ever seem to have the right spot for me in what he was doing…and he wasn’t that much fun.”

They were quiet while Je

“There’s a lot of men like him,” she said. “A surprising number of them. They’re eager for sex, but not very good at it. They just want to sort of…” She paused, aware of Jesse.

“Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am,” Jesse said.

“They’re mostly interested in their own experience,” Je

“So sex with Tim Lloyd wasn’t worth it for its own sake,” Jesse said.

“God,” Je

“It is what it is,” Jesse said.

“It wasn’t working out,” Je

“And?”