“Like me,” Blondie said, “and have some laughs and a good time and maybe come away with a little jing.”

“So why did Florence send him the videotape?”

“She sent it?”

“Didn’t she?”

“I don’t know who sent it. I picked up our mail in town that day. There was no return address. When I gave it to Harrison he wondered who sent it.”

“Did you see it?”

“Sure, we watched it together. It was cool. Harrison especially got a kick out of it. Wanted to try it with me. But . . .”

Blondie shook her head.

“And he wasn’t upset by it?”

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“No, of course not. What’s to be upset about. He loved it.”

“So when did it arrive? Can you remember?”

“While Florence was off the boat.”

“Off the boat?”

“Yeah.”

“So when was the last time you saw her?” Jesse said.

“She came up with us on the boat from Florida.”

“This trip?”

“Yeah, sure,” Blondie said.

“And everybody on the boat saw her.”

“Sure.”

Blondie sipped her wine. She hadn’t, Jesse noticed, eaten much of her California Salad.

“And everyone lied about it,” Jesse said.

“Of course we lied,” Blondie said. “We didn’t want anybody snooping around into our lifestyle.”

“So how come you are talking to me now?” Jesse said.

Blondie shrugged.

“I like you. I want to impress you. I’m drinking. I feel like it.”

“So how did she die?” Jesse said. “You know that, too?”

“No. She went ashore for a few days. Said her daddy was in town. The tape arrived while she was gone. I remember Harrison being excited to watch it with her and asking when she’d be back.”

“And it was mailed from Miami,” Jesse said.

“I didn’t notice,” Blondie said. “But that’s what Harrison told me.”

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“So if she were really here with her daddy,” Jesse said, “she couldn’t have mailed it to him.”

“Somebody could have mailed it for her,” Blondie said.

She poured herself some wine.

“Why would she go to that trouble?” Jesse said.

“Haven’t got the foggiest,” Blondie said. “You’re the damn master detective.”

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “That would be me.”

He sat and looked at the second half of his sandwich.

Blondie drank some wine.

“Do you remember when she went ashore to see her father?” Jesse said.

“Nope.” Blondie said. “No idea really. You know, Florence wasn’t a big deal to me.”

Blondie picked up a small tangerine segment from her California Salad and ate it.

“How was she when she came back?” Jesse said.

Blondie drank some wine and swallowed, pursed her lips and looked at the corner of the room for a moment.

“I don’t think she came back,” Blondie said.

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57

E -ZPass transponder number you gave me,”

Healy said, “belonging to Willis Plum of

Miami?”

“Yeah.”

“Was used between June first and June fourth in Mary-land and Delaware and Jersey and New York, and in the Fast Lane entrances on the Mass Pike inbound at Sturbridge and at Brighton. It was used going the other way between June seventh and twelfth.”

“Why would he have an E-ZPass transponder, living in Miami?” Jesse said.

R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“Lot of people who drive to New York a lot have them,”

Healy said. “Nice to zip past the tollbooth backups.”

“And our system works with theirs,” Jesse said.

“Convenient,” Healy said.

Jesse and Healy leaned on the iron railing at the edge of the pier above the float where the small boats docked. In the dark water along the edge of the wharf, an occasional dead fish floated, and orange peels, and indestructible bits of Styrofoam, scraps of seaweed, an occasional crab shell, one condom, and a red-and-white bobber that had come loose from a fishing line.

“Found her right there,” Jesse said. “Against the float.”

“With the other flotsam,” Healy said.

“Fancy word,” Jesse said.

“Yeah. Sometimes I read things.”

They were quiet, watching the slow water slap gently at the pier. Jesse raised his eyes and looked at the mouth of the harbor. He thought he could pick out the Lady Jane anchored there. He took in a big breath and let it out slowly.

“Maybe I should reformulate my theory of the case,” Jesse said.

“What would your new formulation be?” Healy said.

“That I don’t know what the fuck is going on and I don’t know who to believe and I have been chasing my own ass up to now.”

“You know this business,” Healy said. “You have to as-2 6 8

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sume everyone’s lying to you. But you have to act as if they weren’t.”

“The bastard was up here,” Jesse said.

“His car was up here,” Healy said.

“She went ashore to see him and never came back.”

“Blondie says.”

“Why would she lie,” Jesse said, “about this.”

Healy smiled.

“Yeah,” Jesse said. “She’d lie about the time of day if it seemed like a fun thing. Or she had an itch she felt like scratching.”

“Still,” Healy said. “He probably was here. He is probably a pedophile. He probably molested his daughters. He’s a lying bastard. What’s Cruz think of him.”

“She thinks there’s something really wrong with him.”

Healy smiled.

“I’ll bet she’s right,” he said.

“So why would he decide all of a sudden to drive up here and kill her?”

“If that’s what he decided,” Healy said.

“I know,” Jesse said. “I know. I can’t prove it yet. But let’s assume he killed her.”

“Okay,” Healy said.

“Why would he suddenly drive up here and kill her and drive home?”

“Maybe she told him it had to stop,” Healy said. “Her, the twin sisters, all of it.”

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“As far as I know she came up with Darnell from Miami, so she was around there before June. Maybe they had the falling out then.”

“And she left in a huff and came north with Darnell,”

Healy said.

“And he decided to follow her.”

“Why not kill her right there, during the falling-out moment?” Healy said.

“Maybe it was in front of the mother and he couldn’t do it then.”

“She knows, you think?” Healy said.

“Cruz says she does.”

“She know he killed their daughter, assuming he did?”

Healy said.

“I don’t know. It might be a nice piece of leverage to shake her loose.”

“Course, your original theory might actually be true,”

Healy said. “Darnell, or Ralston, or both.”

“Or they’ve just been lying every step of the way because they’re afraid of getting caught in the sex ring stuff.”

“Most of which is not illegal.”

“True,” Jesse said. “But it is not universally popular in the best yacht clubs.”

“Everybody has things to cover up in this thing,” Healy said.

“Most things,” Jesse said.

Healy grinned at him.

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“Ah, Laddy Buck,” Healy said. “The job is making you cynical.”

“Anyway, I’ve got them on the stat rape charge,” Jesse said.

“Nice to have a fallback position,” Healy said.

Jesse smiled for a moment.

“At least I can arrest somebody,” he said.

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58

W e’re going to have to talk to the Plum twins again,” Jesse said to Molly. “Can

you stay sober long enough to sit in?”

Molly blushed.

“Shut up,” she said.

“Let’s have a little respect here,” Jesse said.

“Shut up, Chief Stone,” Molly said.

Jesse nodded.

“Better,” he said. “Get Steve to cover the desk.”