High Profile

11

“Late night?” Molly said.

Jesse nodded.

“How’s Sunny,” Molly said.

She was sitting with Jesse in his office, a notebook open in her lap.

“Very good,” Jesse said.

“I like her,” Molly said.

“Me too,” Jesse said.

“You want my opinion on the two of you?”

“No.”

“I think you’d be perfect together,” Molly said.

“What’s in your notebook?” Jesse said.

Molly smiled, mostly to herself, and looked down at her notebook.

“ME found some interesting stuff,” Molly said.

Jesse waited.

“They’ll have a formal report for us later,” Molly said, “but here’s what they know now.”

Jesse waited.

“Aren’t you even going to say, ‘What? What?’” Molly said.

Jesse looked at her.

“Okay,” she said. “First off, the bullets that killed her match the ones that killed Weeks.”

Jesse nodded.

“Second off, she was ten weeks pregnant.”

Jesse nodded again.

“Third off,” Molly said, “they did a DNA match. Weeks was the father.”

“That all?” Jesse said.

“You bastard,” Molly said. “No, that’s not all. Fourth off, she was killed about the same time Weeks was.”

“With the same gun,” Jesse said. “While carrying his child.”

“Perhaps the crimes are related,” Molly said.

“Good thinking,” Jesse said. “They have an ID on her?”

“No. Fingerprints aren’t in the system.”

“Or they are and the system lost them,” Jesse said.

“Wow, that’s cynical.”

“I been doing this for a while,” Jesse said.

“Oh, for heaven’s sakes, Jesse. You’re not much older than I am,” Molly said.

“But a lot uglier,” Jesse said.

“True,” Molly said. “I called the Langham. They tell me Weeks had a one-bedroom suite and two other rooms.”

“Who was in the other rooms?”

“Lutz the bodyguard,” Molly said. “And a woman named Carey Longley.”

“Get the bodyguard in here,” Jesse said.

“He’s coming in today,” Molly said.

“Okay, get some pictures of her from Peter Perkins. We’ll see if Lutz knows her.”

“She doesn’t look so good,” Molly said.

“It’s as good as she’s going to,” Jesse said.

Molly nodded. She closed her notebook and stood and walked to the door. With her hand on the knob, she stopped and turned and looked at him.

“You know I love you, Jesse.”

“As much as your husband and four kids?” Jesse said.

“No. But you’re next.”

Jesse smiled.

“Close enough,” he said.

“You deserve Sunny Randall,” Molly said.

“Not Jenn?” Jesse said.

“You deserve to be happy.”

“And you don’t think Jenn will make me happy?”

“How’s it been going so far,” Molly said.

Jesse nodded slowly.

“Of course, you can tell me to mind my own business,” Molly said.

“Mind your own business.”

“No,” Molly said.

She smiled at him and opened the door.

“I won’t,” she said, and went out.