Split Image

by Robert B. Parker

  "I'm better than I was," Jesse said.

  Molly nodded.

  "Ever hear from your ex?" Molly said.

  "No."

  Molly was silent for a moment. Jesse waited.

  "How about you and Sunny," Molly said.

  "We're fine," Jesse said.

  "What's 'fine' mean?" Molly said.

  "Means I don't want to talk about it."

  Molly nodded.

  "That's what I thought it meant," she said. "Sunny's a nice woman."

  "So are you," Jesse said.

  Molly smiled.

  "True," she said. "But I'm married."

  "And Sunny isn't," Jesse said.

  "Exactly."

  "She's divorced," Jesse said. "But she's not out of it yet."

  "And you are?"

  "Yes."

  "Which," Molly said, "is why you drank yourself into a coma last week?"

  "That was regret," Jesse said. "I am done with Jenn."

  Molly nodded.

  "I appreciate what you did to cover for me while I was in the coma," Jesse said.

  "Suit, too," Molly said.

  "I know," Jesse said. "You went further out on a limb for me than you had any good reason to."

  "You're a good cop, Jesse. We didn't want one excess to end your career."

  "There's been more than one," Jesse said. "But I thank you. Being a cop is what I've got right now."

  "You have us," Molly said.

  " 'Us'? "

  "The Paradise police department, all of us, like your family."

  "Some family," Jesse said.

  "Just remember that we love you, Jesse," Molly said. "All of us."

  "You, too?" Jesse said.

  "Me especially," Molly said.

  "Does that mean that you and I could. . . ?"

  "No," Molly said. "It doesn't."

  She grinned at him.

  "But you could maybe promote me to sergeant instead," Molly said. "You know, as a gesture of gratitude?"

  "Absolutely not," Jesse said.

  Molly sighed loudly and spoke.

  "Maybe I should have said yes."

  26

  THEY WERE on the Southeast Expressway, with Suit driving. "Why are we going to Hempstead?" Suit said.

  "See what we can find out about Rebecca and Roberta Bangston," Jesse said.

  "They're from Hempstead?"

  "Yep."

  "Who we gonna talk with?" Suit said.

  "Start with the Hempstead chief of police."

  "Wow," Suit said. "Two in the same room. What am I doing there?"

  Jesse grinned.

  "We may need coffee," he said.

  Suit nodded.

  "It's good to be useful," he said.

  Hempstead was the most affluent town in the southern commuter suburbs. The police station was white clapboard with green shutters.

  "Slick," Suit said, as he got out of the car.

  "What's wrong with red brick?" Jesse said.

  "You see an awful lot of it," Suit said.

  "I suppose," Jesse said.

  The chief's office was big. It had a big desk, and a big American flag, and big windows, which overlooked a golf course. The chief was dark-haired and overweight, but his uniform was tailored to fit.

  "Howard Parrott," he said, when Jesse came in.

  "Jesse Stone," Jesse said. "And Luther Simpson."

  They all shook hands.

  "We're down here looking into a couple of former residents," Jesse said. "Twins, who, when they lived here, were Roberta and Rebecca Bangston."

  "The Bangstons are a well-known family here," Parrott said.

  "You know them?"

  "I knew Mr. and Mrs. Bangston," Parrott said. "Had a big place on the water. Had a huge picnic every year, raised a lot of money for Catholic charities."

  "The twins would be about forty-one," Jesse said.

  "So they graduated high school in 1986," Parrott said.

  He grinned.

  "I'm not that quick at math," he said. "One of my nephews graduated that year. My sister's kid. I was a patrolman then, kids had a huge beer party, and we had to break it up. I hadn't been there, he'da been tossed in the clink."

  "What's an uncle for," Jesse said.

  "You got that right," Parrott said. "To serve and protect, and get your nephew off."

  Parrott grinned again and leaned back in his chair.

  "Now he's a cop, too," Parrott said. "Works for me."

  "Probably grateful," Jesse said.

  "Sure," Parrott said. "He was a kid, you know. You guys ever drink too much?"

  Suit nodded.

  Jesse said, "Now and then."

  "Sure," Parrott said. "Me, too. Why are you interested in the Bangston girls?"

  "Roberta's husband was murdered," Jesse said.

  "Really? What a shame. You suspect the girls?"

  "Nope."

  "So why you down here talking about them," Parrott said.

  "Got nowhere else to be," Jesse said.

  "That's police work for you," Parrott said, "isn't it?"

  "Gotta start somewhere," Jesse said.

  "Lemme make a suggestion," Parrott said. "I got a Rotary meeting at noon, but my nephew is here; why don't I turn you over to him. I'll bet he even knows these girls."

  "Go to high school with them?" Jesse said.

  "No," Parrott said. "He went to Hempstead High. Bangstons woulda sent their kids to Holy Spirit."

  "Catholic school," Jesse said.

  "Yeah. But the schools are close and the kids mix with each other," Parrott said.

  He leaned forward and flipped a switch on the intercom.

  "Sergeant Mike Mayo, please come to the chief's office," Parrott said.

  27

  MAYO WAS obviously a weight lifter, a big genial-looking guy with short red hair and a nineteen-inch neck. He shook hands with Jesse and Suit when they were introduced.

  "Mikey," Parrott said. "These people are interested in the Bangston twins; you know them?"

  Mayo smiled.

  "I do," he said.

  "Could you talk to Jesse and Luther about them?" Parrott said. "I gotta go to Rotary."

  "Sure," Mayo said.

  "Use my office," Parrott said. "Close the door when you're through."

  Parrott shook hands with Jesse and Suitcase and left. Mayo went around and sat behind Parrott's desk.

  "Try it out for size," he said.

  "I notice you smiled when Chief Parrott asked if you knew the Bangston twins."

  Mayo nodded.

  "Tell me why you want to know about them," Mayo said.

  Jesse told him.

  "Living side by side," Mayo said.

  "Uh-huh."

  Mayo shook his head and smiled again.

  "I knew them," he said. "We all knew them. We went to Hempstead, they went to Spirit. But we still hung together. We all believed that Spirit girls were easy. . . . You know how it was in high school."

  "Ever hopeful," Jesse said.

  Mayo nodded.

  "We used to call them the Bang Bang Twins."

  "Because they were, in fact, easy?" Jesse said.

  "Yes."

  "None of my business," Jesse said. "But did you . . . ?"

  "Most of us did," Mayo said. "But they had a trick they did."

  "Trick," Jesse said.

  "You never knew which one you were having sex with."

  "On purpose?" Jesse said.

  "Yeah, they used to like to switch so one time you'd be with one of them, and next time you would think you were with her and you were with her sister."

  "How'd you know?" Suit said.

  "When it was over, they'd tell you," Mayo said. "Sometimes they'd take turns with you and make you guess who was who."

  "Guess they didn't take all that Catholic stuff too serious," Suit said.

  "Their parents did," Mayo said.

  "They were famous for this twin sex trick?" Jesse said.

  "Yeah,
the Bang Bang Twins."

  "I wonder why they did it," Jesse said.

  "They liked it, I guess," Mayo said. "They were always into the twin thing, you know. I mean, a lot of twins dress different, do their hair different, maybe, different makeup. I mean, they don't want to be exactly the same."

  "The Bang Bangs did?" Jesse said.

  "They wanted to be identical," Mayo said. "When we were in grammar school they always came to school in the same outfits, same hair, everything."

  "So their mother probably wanted them to look alike," Jesse said.

  "I guess."

  "Know the parents?"

  "Not really. Old man was a contractor. He's dead now. They got a lot of money. Big house on the water. Big into church stuff. Probably guilt."

  "About what?" Jesse said.

  "Old man was always kind of a sleaze. Never got convicted. But a lotta talk about not meeting the specs for his construction deals. Lotta talk about sweetheart deals with the state. Stuff like that. Lotta people say he fooled around."

  "How'd he die?" Jesse said.

  "Heart attack," Mayo said. "On a business trip to Cleveland. I think he was in the saddle at the time."

  "How about the mother?" Jesse said.

  "Mother's still around."

  "Can you take us over there?" Jesse said.

  "Sure," Mayo said.

  28

  MRS. BANGSTON WAS a brusque woman, not tall but erect. Her hair was iron-gray. She had pince-nez glasses, and she reminded Jesse of his elementary-school principal. They sat in the living room of her big glass-fronted modern home looking out over Hempstead Bay. It seemed totally out of keeping with the white-clapboard/weathered-shingle look of the town. It was out of keeping with the furnishings as well, which were overstuffed Victorian everywhere that Jesse could see. It was as if her husband had built the outside and she had furnished the inside without regard to each other.

  "I did not know that Roberta's husband had died," she said. "I am sorry to hear it, and sorrier still that he was murdered."

  "No one told you?" Jesse said.

  "No."

  "Perhaps they wanted to spare you," Jesse said.

  "My girls call every Christmas and Easter," Mrs. Bangston said. "I get flowers every Mother's Day. I forward their mail."

  "After all these years?" Jesse said.

  "Yes, they still get mail here."

  "Do you see much of them?" Jesse said.

  "Not very much," she said. "They are dutiful, but nothing more."

  "Do you know their husbands?"

  "I have never met either," Mrs. Bangston said.

  "Not even at the weddings?" Jesse said.

  "No."

  There were some rosary beads on the coffee table in front of where she sat. She looked at them.

  "You weren't at the weddings?" Jesse said.

  "No."

  "Either wedding," Jesse said.

  "No."

  "Were you invited?" Jesse said.

  "Yes."

  "But?"

  "I did not approve of the men they were marrying," Mrs. Bangston said.

  "What did you disapprove of?" Jesse said.

  "They were both criminals," Mrs. Bangston said.

  "How did you know that?" Jesse said.

  "My husband told me."

  "He knew these men?"

  "I don't know," Mrs. Bangston said. "My husband knew a great many people. Business was his sphere; mine was home and family."

  "Your husband did business with the men your daughters married?"

  "I don't know."

  "Do you know how they met their husbands?"

  "I do not," she said.

  She leaned forward and picked up her rosary beads from the coffee table and held them in her left hand.

  "They had the finest religious education we could give them. Holy Spirit High School. Paulus College. They made their First Communion side by side in identical white dresses. They were confirmed together . . . and they married criminals."

  "The Church is important to you," Jesse said.

  Jesse had no idea where he was going. But he wanted to keep her talking.

  "It has been the center of my life," she said. "My late husband and I attended Mass every Sunday. Since he has gone, I attend every morning. It is my consolation."

  "The girls are the most identical twins I've ever seen," Jesse said.

  "Yes. Even I cannot always distinguish them."

  "They dress alike," Jesse said. "They do their hair alike. Makeup, manner, everything."

  "Yes."

  "Did you encourage them in that?" Jesse said.

  "Of course; had God not wanted them to remain identical, he would not have created them identical."

  "Did your husband feel that way, too?" Jesse said.

  She smiled and looked past Jesse out the wide front window at the whitecaps in the bay.

  "My husband used to say he was luckier than other fathers. He had the same daughter twice."

  The room was quiet. Mayo was sitting a little behind Jesse with his arms folded. Suit sat beside Jesse with his hands folded in his lap.

  "You got any questions, Suit?" Jesse said.

  Suit looked startled. Jesse waited.

  "Were your daughters good girls?" he said finally.

  "They were angels when they were small. As adults they have disappointed me," Mrs. Bangston said.

  "Anything besides marrying men you disapproved of?" Suit said.

  "No," Mrs. Bangston said.

  Suit looked at Jesse.

  "Anything at all," Jesse said, "that you can think of that might aid us in our investigation?"

  "No."

  The room was silent. Mrs. Bangston continued to look past them at the ocean. It was as if she'd left them. The beads moved in her left hand, and Jesse realized she was praying. He stood.

  "Thank you for your time, Mrs. Bangston," he said.

  She nodded slightly and continued to move the beads slowly with her left hand.

  "We'll find our way out," Jesse said.

  Again, a slight nod.

  The three cops left.

  29

  THE BANG BANG TWINS ," Suit said, as they drove back up Route 3 toward Boston.

  "Yep."

  "Wish we'd had them when I was in high school," Suit said.

  "Luck of the draw," Jesse said.

  "You said those sisters were so nice," Suit said.

  "I did," Jesse said.

  "And you didn't know the half of it," Suit said.

  Jesse nodded.

  "I think we need to find out if they are still the Bang Bang Twins."

  "Want me to see what I can learn?" Suit said.

  "I do," Jesse said. "You grew up in this town. They've lived here awhile. Maybe you know some of the same people."

  "I don't know any people like that," Suit said.

  "Maybe Hasty Hathaway's wife?" Jesse said.

  Suit's face turned red.

  "Man, you don't forget nothing," he said.

  "Of course not," Jesse said. "I'm the chief of police."

  "Mother was kind of weird," Suit said.

  "She's religious," Jesse said.

  "Like I said."

  "It works for some people," Jesse said.

  "Not for the Bang Bang Twins," Suit said.

  "So young, so judgmental," Jesse said.

  "What? You think what they do is okay?"

  Jesse shrugged.

  "You think Mrs. Bangston knows about the Bang Bang stuff?" Suit said.

  "Yes."

  "Because she sort of clammed up when you asked her about why she was disappointed in them?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "See," Suit said. "I notice stuff."

  "You do," Jesse said. "There's a donut place at this next exit."

  "You notice stuff, too," Suit said, and turned into the exit.

  They sat in the car in the parking lot and had donuts and coffee.

  "All-American grub," Suit said.

>   "Highly nutritious," Jesse said. "I wonder how the father knew Knocko and Reggie were bad guys."

  Suit swallowed some donut and drank coffee.

  "Maybe they done some business or something," Suit said. "Mike says the old man was kind of shady."

  "Be good to know," Jesse said.

  "Why?"

  "Because we don't know," Jesse said.

  "That's what you always say."

  "Except when we do know," Jesse said.

  "Except then," Suit said. "Is any of this going to solve our two murders?"

  "Maybe," Jesse said.

  "Or maybe not?"

  "Or maybe not," Jesse said.

  "I guess we should look into that, too," Suit said.

  "I'll do that," Jesse said. "You work on the Bang Bang Twins."

  "So, why'd you drag me along all the way down to Hempstead?"

  "Training," Jesse said.

  "So I could become a crack sleuth like you?"

  "Observe and learn," Jesse said.

  "I do," Suit said. "I've already picked up the vocabulary. Maybe. Might. Possibly. I don't know."

  "If Paradise ever gets a slot for detectives, you'll be the first appointed," Jesse said.

  Suit grinned.

  "Maybe," he said.

  30

  THE MARKHAMS LIVED at the head of a circle off a street that ran from downtown Concord out toward Route 2. Sunny parked her car across the street from the circle and maybe fifty yards up the street. It was her second week. Her cell phone rang. It was Jesse.

  "Oh, good," Sunny said. "I'm so bored I'm close to fainting."

  "What are you doing?" Jesse said.

  "Sitting in my car doing surveillance on Mrs. Markham."

  "Cheryl DeMarco's mother?"

  "Yep."

  "Can't let it go, huh?" Jesse said.

  "Nope," Sunny said. "I'm worried about the kid."

  "Anything so far?"

  "Mrs. Markham takes yoga, and she shops for food," Sunny said.

  "Of course, she may not know where her daughter is," Jesse said.

  "Possible," Sunny said.

  "Could Cheryl be in the house?" Jesse said.

  "I don't think so," Sunny said. "They're the kind of people would send her somewhere."

  "Who would they send her with?"

  "When they first hired me they asked if I knew someone who would kidnap her."

  "So it is not beyond their thinking," Jesse said.

  "No."

  "Somebody had to encounter her," Jesse said, "and persuade her to go with them to a place, and the place would need to persuade her to stay there."