"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."

"Yes," Sunny said.

"Who would that be?"

"I don't know," Sunny said. "But maybe I can find out."

"You got a plan?"

"Not everyone will coerce a young woman into a place she doesn't want to go," Sunny said. "Even at the behest of her parents."

"True," Jesse said.

"And," Sunny said, "they don't seem like people who'd know someone who would."

"No, they don't."

"Unless it was a lawyer," Sunny said.

"The right kind of lawyer," Jesse said.

"Their lawyer might know the right kind of lawyer."

"Or they might just have a friend who's a lawyer," Jesse said.

"If he went to an Ivy League law school," Sunny said.

"You might try checking that out," Jesse said.

"It's all hypothesis and supposition and guessing," Sunny said.

"That's called detection," Jesse said.

"But will it be as much fun as sitting in my car in Concord," Sunny said, "watching people dressed funny ride their bicycles?"

"Hard to imagine that it could be more fun than that," Jesse said.

"But it seems worth a try," Sunny said. "Did you call just to talk about me and my case?"

"Actually, I called to talk about me and my case," Jesse said. "But I got sidetracked."

"By me and my case," Sunny said.

"Exactly."

"So, how are you," Sunny said. "How's your case."

"The time I told you about, when I went on a bender and Molly and Suit covered for me."

"Yes," Sunny said.

"One of the things that set me off was I met these women married to a couple of mobsters, who seemed perfect wives," Jesse said.

"And you went into a tailspin," Sunny said. "Why them and not me?"

"Yes," Jesse said. "You know about that kind of tailspin?"