Night Passage

by Robert B. Parker

  “I’m glad to be here,” Jesse said into the microphone. “Right now, everyone in the room knows more about the town than I do. I’ll need your help. Thank you.”

  He stepped away from the microphone. Hathaway looked as if he were hoping for more. But he rallied.

  “Okay,” he said, “let’s give Chief Stone a round of applause.”

  Everyone clapped. Jesse went upstairs with Hathaway and the town legal counsel, whose name was Abby Taylor, and signed several papers. While he was signing them he noticed that the town counsel was wearing a nice-looking pale yellow suit, with a short skirt.

  Then he went next door to the brick wing where police and fire were housed and sat down in the swivel chair in his new office. Lou Burke came in with a Sig-Sauer nine-millimeter pistol.

  “The one Tommy Carson turned in,” Burke said, “when he got fired.”

  “Thanks,” Jesse said. “I’ve got my own gun.”

  Burke shrugged and put the pistol on the desk.

  “Belongs to the department,” he said. “Goes with the job.”

  Jesse picked up the gun and put it in the right-hand drawer of the desk.

  “Have a seat,” Jesse said. “I might as well start learning.”

  Burke sat. He was a compact man with dark skin and an advanced case of male pattern baldness. What hair remained along the sides of his head was black and cut very close.

  “Is this a first-name department?” Jesse said.

  “Has been.”

  “Good. How feel about them bringing me in from the outside, Lou?”

  Burke sat quietly for a moment as if thinking about the question.

  “Relieved,” he said finally.

  “You didn’t like being chief?”

  Burke shook his head.

  “Why not?”

  “Pay’s not worth the aggravation,” Burke said.

  “Tell me about the aggravation,” Jesse said.

  “You’re used to a big force,” Burke said. “Big city. Lotta cops, lotta people, you get to keep some distance the civilians. Here you’re a town employee. Every-knows everybody. The civilians are in our face twenty-four hours a day. For crissake you have to attend Rotary Club meetings.”

  “Rotary Club?”

  “Yeah. They didn’t mention that to you? Chief of police here is automatically a member of the Rotary Club, meets every Wednesday at the Paradise Inn.”

  “How’s the food?” Jesse asked.

  “You like chicken pot pie?”

  Jesse shrugged.

  “That’s how the food is,” Burke said.

  “Well,” Jesse said, “we’ll see about Rotary.”

  A big yellow cat came silently into Jesse’s office and jumped up onto the window ledge and curled upon himself and went to sleep in the sun.

  “Who’s this?” Jesse said.

  “Captain Cat,” Burke, said. “Wandered in here five years ago. We feed him.”

  “Cop house cat,” Jesse said.

  Burke nodded.

  “Tell me about the town legal counsel,” Jesse said.

  “Abby? She works for the firm in town. Big firm for a small town, ten, twelve lawyers. Real estate, wills, estate planning, that kind of stuff. Gives the town about ten hours a week pro bono.”

  “You like her?”

  “Sure.”

  “What do you like best about her?”

  “She’s got a nice ass,” Burke said.

  ‘“I noticed.”

  “And she’s usually got a hair across it.”

  Jesse grinned.

  “You’re not too careful, are you?” Jesse said.

  “No,” Burke said. “I ain’t.”

  “Good,” Jesse said.

  “You didn’t ask me about Hathaway or any of those people,” Burke said.

  “Thought that might be pushing you a little hard this early in the game,” Jesse said. “I’ll find out about them myself.”

  Burke nodded.

  “Selectmen get elected by the town,” Burke said. “Town and the police don’t always agree on how things get done.”

  “Lou,” Jesse said, “no cop counts on elected officials.”

  Burke grinned.

  “Well,” he said. “You ain’t as young as you look.”

  “Maybe I’m not,” Jesse said.

  Chapter 12

  LOU BURKE SAT WITH HASTY Hathaway on the bench outside the meeting house on the town common. Hathaway had a bag of popcorn which he was feeding to some pigeons that had gathered.

  “You got any pets, Lou?” Hathaway said.

  “No.”

  “I’d like to have some animals, but Cissy…” He shook head and held out a piece of popcorn on his upturned palm. A pigeon circled it, hesitated, feinted once, then darted in and grabbed the corn. “I guess Ciss just isn’t an animal person.”

  “Sure,” Burke said. “They’re not for everybody, I guess.”

  “You know Ciss, used to having her house just so. God knows what she’d have been like if we’d had kids.”

  “Easy to get set in your ways,” Burke said.

  The common was a small green triangle at the intersection of three streets. There was a white eighteenth-century meeting house set on it, where at Christmas, the women’s auxiliary of something or other, Burke had never really known what, sold greens and fruitcake and handmade satin bows.

  “So what do you think of Stone?” Hathaway said.

  He took a handful of the popcorn and scattered it on the grass in front of the bench.

  Burke was silent a moment, watching the pigeons hop and flutter after the popcorn.

  “Well,” Burke said finally, “it’s too soon to say, I guess.”

  “I realize that, but what’s your impression.”

  “He might not be the answer,” Burke said.

  “Really?” Hathaway seemed surprised. “Why do you say so?”

  “I don’t know exactly, there’s just something… he’s got more iron in him than I was expecting.”

  “Lou, he’s a lush,” Hathaway said. “He was fired for drinking on duty. His personnel file said he was unfit for police work.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Burke said. “But he doesn’t give me that feeling. He was a homicide cop in L.A., remember.”

  “And he was half gassed when we interviewed him in Chicago,” Hathaway said.

  Burke shrugged.

  “Well, let’s keep our eyes open,” Hathaway said. “What we don’t want is some born-again straight arrow poking his sober nose in where it shouldn’t go.”

  Burke nodded.

  “I still don’t see why you wouldn’t take the job, Lou.” Hathaway said. “It would have worked out so well.”

  “No,” Burke said. “I’m a lot more effective if I’m not in charge. I’m the chief and things go bad, everybody lands on me. I’m just a cop following orders and no one pays me much attention. I know as much as I would being chief, and I’m a lot less visible. I do us more good where I am.”

  “Things aren’t going to go bad, Lou.”

  “I like to plan for what’s possible, not what’s likely,” Burke said.

  “Sure, Lou, I understand, just would have been nice if weʼd been clearer on this before Tom left.”

  “He’d have had to leave anyway.”

  “Yes, I guess so,” Hathaway said.

  The pigeons still fluttered and strutted, their heads bobbing like mechanical contrivances around him, but the popcorn was gone.

  “And maybe I’m wrong,” Burke said.

  Hathaway nodded enthusiastically.

  “Yes,” he said. “I think you probably are. He seems pretty harmless to me.”

  Chapter 13

  JESSE WAS RENTING A CONDO in a waterfront development called Colonial Landing. It was a series of contiguous town houses painted gray with white shutters. Jesse’s had a living room, kitchen with dining area, and a half bath on the first floor, two bedrooms and a full bath on the second. The living room faced the ocean and
there were wall-width sliding doors that led out onto a small deck over the water. The place was new and had an unused quality to it which Jesse felt worked with his circumstances. He stood on the little deck and drank scotch on the rocks and watched the brisk chop of the Atlantic prancing in against the rust-colored stone below him. It had been a month yesterday since he’d leaned on the railing in Santa Monica late at night and watched the black Pacific and said goodbye.

  His glass was empty. He went back in to add some ice and splash in some more Black Label when the phone rang. His short-nosed Smith & Wesson in its black holster lay on the table beside the phone.

  “Jesse?”

  “Yeah, Jenn.”

  “You didn’t give me a number,” Jennifer said. “I had to call information.”

  “Here I am,” Jesse said.

  “You didn’t say goodbye.”

  “No.”

  “You don’t sound glad to hear from me.”

  “I guess I don’t.”

  Jesse took a drink of scotch.

  “You miss me?”

  “Less.”

  “I don’t know if I like you missing me less, Jesse.”

  “I’m trying not to worry too much about that.”

  “Whether I like something?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You all right?”

  “Sooner or later,” Jesse said.

  “You like the new place?”

  “Too soon to say.”

  “You meet anybody?”

  “Met a lot of people.”

  “No,” Jennifer said, “you know what I mean. You ought to get out more, Jesse, you ought to date, make friends. You met any nice girls?”

  “I think they call them women here, Jenn.”

  “Well did you?”

  “Day at a time, Jenn.”

  “What time is it there?”

  “Eight-forty-five in the evening.”

  “It’s quarter to six here.”

  “That would have been my guess.”

  “I got a nice audition tomorrow, new series on Fox. I think I’m just fight for the part.”

  “I’m sure you are,” Jesse said.

  He twirled the small revolver aimlessly as he talked to her, the phone hunched between his left shoulder and his neck. With his right hand he swirled the ice in his glass for a moment, then drank some more scotch.

  “You drinking, Jesse?”

  “Couple.”

  “You need to be careful of that.”

  “Sure.”

  “You still mad at me about Elliott?”

  Jesse kept his voice flat.

  “Elliott and everything else,” he said.

  “I don’t want to lose you, Jesse.”

  “You don’t show it much,” Jesse said.

  “I know. It sounds crazy. I mean here I am with another man and we’re divorced and yet I don’t want to look at my life and think ‘No Jesse.’ I can’t imagine my life without you in it, Jesse.”

  “Un huh.”

  “Am I losing you, Jesse?”

  “There’s some danger of it, Jenn.”

  “Oh God, well I can’t talk now. I got to work out, I have to get my hair done. Can I call you again, soon?”

  “If you want to, Jenn.”

  “I do, Jesse.”

  “Fine.”

  After he hung up Jesse continued to stand at the table looking at the phone, slowly twirling the Smith & Wesson in its holster. Then he stopped and went back to the sideboard and made himself another drink. He carried the drink to the refrigerator and looked in. There was half of a mushroom-and-green-pepper pizza there on the second shelf, wrapped neatly in Saran Wrap, left over from Monday night’s supper. He got it out, unwrapped it, and put it in the microwave. When it was hot he slid it onto a dinner plate and took it out onto the deck and ate it, sitting in a chair, drinking scotch between bites, looking out at lights across the harbor on Paradise Neck.

  “I guess I don’t want to lose you either, Jenn,” Jesse said aloud, “but maybe I’ll have to.”

  Chapter 14

  THE CALL CAME IN TO THE dispatcher at 2:43 in the afternoon. She put it through to Jesse.

  “It’s Simpson, Jesse. DeAngelo and I are at Thirteen Sylvan Road. People named Genest. Domestic dispute. I think you need to come over.”

  “Do I need the siren?” Jesse said.

  “I think you should get over here quick,” Simpson said.

  “Here I come,” Jesse said.

  The house was a big white one, back from the street and up a slight rise. It was white clapboard with dark green shutters, and a very big maple tree shaded much of the front of it. A Paradise cruiser was parked in the driveway. Jesse shut the siren off as he pulled in behind it and got out. The Chief of Police badge was pinned to his white uniform shirt. He wore pale amber Oakley sunglasses, and no hat, the short .38 on his right hip. The side door of the house stood open and he went in without knocking. In the den to his right were his two officers, a woman, and a bodybuilder with longish blond hair combed back like Kirk Douglas, and a nice tan. The woman was crying.

  The bodybuilderʼs name was Jo Jo Genest. The woman was Jo Jo’s ex-wife.

  “For crissake,” Jo Jo said. “The chief. Nice shades, chief, very L.A.”

  Jesse stared at him without any expression at all.

  “Don’t we have a restraining order on you, sir?” Jesse said.

  “It ain’t working too good, is it?” Jo Jo said.

  “What’s the story?” Jesse said to Simpson.

  Suitcase Simpson was a sturdy kid with fair skin and red cheeks. He’d been a tackle in high school. He was twenty-two. His partner was Anthony DeAngelo.

  “This is Carole Genest,” Simpson said. “She called us.” Alleges her husband forced his way into the house and threatened her.”

  “That right, ma’am?”

  She nodded. Her eyes were red, and her nose was running. She sniffed.

  “The bastard,” she said in a thick voice, “is going to kill me someday.”

  Jesse nodded.

  “Kids?” he said.

  “I sent them upstairs,” Carole said. “They’re frightened of him too.”

  “Anthony,” Jesse said. “You got kids?”

  DeAngelo nodded.

  “Three,” he said.

  “Okay, go upstairs and find the kids and do what you can to make them feel safe.”

  “Hey, you got no right talking to my kids,” Jo Jo said.

  Jesse paid no attention to him. He nodded at DeAngelo and DeAngelo headed for the stairs.

  “Did he say he was going to kill you, ma’am?” Jesse said.

  “He says that all the time. And he’s not my husband. We’re divorced.”

  “Maybe you’re divorced, slut, I’m not,” Jo Jo said. “You’re my wife until I say you’re not.”

  “Can’t you people do anything about him?” Carole said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jesse said. “We can. Did he hit you or otherwise assault you?”

  “Not this time. I called the cops the minute he showed up.”

  “Did you invite him in?”

  “No fucking way,” Carole said. “I tried to lock him out but he’s still got a key.”

  “It’s my house,” Jo Jo said. He was smiling like a man patiently indulging some children. “It’s my wife. I’ll come and go as I fucking please.”

  “Did he force his way in?”

  “Yes. I tried to hold the door, but he’s—look at him—what am I supposed to do against him?”

  “You did what you should have done, ma’am,” Jesse said.

  “How about you, Slim?” Jo Jo said to Jesse. “What are you supposed to do against me?”

  “But he didn’t assault you?”

  “Not this time. He didn’t have time. He beat the shit out of me last time he came. He raped me once. I shoulda gone to the cops then, but we weren’t divorced yet, and… you know conjugal rights… and the kids… I mean how do they feel, everybo
dy talking about how their father raped their mother?”

  Her voice trailed off.

  “There was no rape and you know it, a husband can’t rape his wife,” Jo Jo said. “You didn’t go to the cops because you loved it.”

  As they argued, Jesse nodded, almost absently, as if he were thinking of something else.

  “We probably don’t have an assault charge here,” Jesse said to Simpson. “We might get forced entry, even though he had a key. We obviously have him for violating the restraining order.”

  Jo Jo laughed.

  “Big fucking deal,” he said. “Restraining orders don’t mean shit and you know it.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jesse said. “I know.”

  “I go to court with my lawyer. They issue a new restraining order. I walk out of court twenty minutes later.”

  “That’s how it usually works, sir,” Jesse said pleasantly, “especially if you’ve got some money.”

  “Which I do,” Jo Jo said. “And some clout and I can come in here and grab her crotch, or whatever else I want to grab, anytime I goddamned want to.”

  “Is that right.?” Carole said to Jesse.

  Jesse shook his head.

  “Oh?” Jo Jo said. “You just admitted you couldn’t do shit about it.”

  “No, sir,” Jesse said. “I said the restraining order probably wouldn’t work.”

  “Same thing,” Jo Jo said.

  “Not really,” Jesse said, and kicked Jo Jo in the groin.

  The movement seemed casual. But it was a very quick movement. And hard. Jo Jo gasped and doubled up and fell over and lay on the pale blue flowered carpet of the den and moaned. Jesse bent over him with a look of blank disinterest and grasped Jo Jo’s hair with his left hand and held his head up and put his face very close to Jo Jo’s and spoke to him.

  “You’re all mouth and show muscle,” Jesse said gently. “If you come near this woman again, or if anything happens to her or her kids, no matter what, and no matter whose fault it is, I will kick you around town until you look like roadkill. And if you are annoying, like you were today, maybe Iʼll shoot you.” Jesse tapped Jo Jo on the bridge of the nose with the muzzle of his revolver. “Right here… capeesh?”