Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins

18

Molly Crane’s contempt for Maxie Connolly grew exponentially as her dead friend’s mother spoke to Jesse about her daughter. Jesse caught on to Molly’s ire quickly enough — not that she hid it — but he needed Molly there to listen. She’d grown up on the same street with Ginny and Maxie. She’d been witness to some of the events leading up to the girls’ disappearance. Maxie broke down briefly when Jesse assured her there was no mistake about her daughter’s remains. She asked for another drink and Jesse gave it to her. The second drink seemed to loosen her up even more.

“She was a lot like her father, Ginny was, all quiet and to herself,” Maxie said. “I don’t know what I saw in that father of hers to begin with. Sure, Steven was a handsome man, but I swear, the minute after he said ‘I do,’ it was, like, ‘Not anymore.’ Nuh-uh. I couldn’t get him to do anything. Not go to the movies. Not screw. I’m not even sure how Ginny was even conceived. Musta been a blue moon or something. And believe me, Jesse,” she said, putting her hand on his thigh as he leaned against the front of his desk, “I’ve never had trouble getting men interested in me.”

Jesse waited a beat and then went to sit behind his desk.

“All he wanted to do was to go to work, come home, eat dinner, and sit in front of the TV and watch his beloved Sox. I think the only way I could have gotten him interested in doing me was to dress up like Oil Can Boyd. Instead I went and wasted my money on garters and bustiers.”

“When did he leave?” Jesse asked.

“Not soon enough.” She saw Jesse wasn’t amused and gave him a serious answer. “When Ginny was a baby.”

“Where’d he go?”

“First to the Dominican to get a quickie divorce, then... who the hell knows. Who cares?”

Jesse asked, “Did he ever show any interest in Ginny at all after he left?”

“He wrote to her for a few years, no return address. Then that stopped when Ginny was ten. The letters just stopped coming. Never another one after that.”

“Did you ever read the letters?”

“Never. Steve was dead to me.”

“Did Ginny ever discuss what was in the letters with you?”

Maxie shook her head. “Me and Ginny... we didn’t have that kind of relationship. She wouldn’t talk to me about stuff like that. Jeez, it near killed her when she started bleeding to come to me and let me explain the facts of life.”

Jesse came back around the desk. “Why did you leave town so soon after Ginny went missing?”

“For the same reason Johnny O’Hara split,” she said. “I needed to breathe. Without Ginny here, I had nothing to hold me in Paradise any longer. Nothing except pain, and I don’t like pain, Jesse. I’d always wanted to get out of this place anyway. Paradise! Yeah, right. If Ginny turned up, I was a phone call away. You think I wanted to bury myself alive like Tess? She never had much use for me, Tess, but I heard she’s like a ghost these days. She’s still in that little crumby house over on Crestview. Still goes to Mass every day. That was never for me.”

Molly couldn’t hold her tongue. “But you sent her to Sacred Heart all those years.”

“My folks paid for it. Said they didn’t want Ginny to turn out like me. Imagine my own folks saying that. Really knew how to hurt a girl. You got another drink there, Jesse? Suddenly I’m not feeling so chipper.”

Jesse poured her another short one just to get her through the remainder of the interview.

When she was done, Jesse went back to the interviews Maxie Connolly had done with the police in the immediate wake of the girls’ disappearance. Although the years had eroded her memory somewhat, her statement was consistent with what she had told the police back then. She was watching TV when Ginny went to meet Mary Kate and her other friends at the park for the fireworks and concert. She met friends for dinner. Had a few drinks. Got home around eleven-thirty on the Fourth. She went to bed and was woken up by a panicked call from Tess O’Hara early in the morning.

Jesse explained that he could release the remains to her as soon as she could arrange for a place to take Ginny. That did it. Maxie fell off her chair onto her hands and knees and wailed. She was shaking uncontrollably. Jesse turned to Molly for help, but she was frozen. Molly’s eyes were as distant as Jesse had ever seen them.

“Molly!” he said as he knelt down beside Maxie Connolly. He threw his arm over her shoulders. “Molly! Get her a glass of water or something. Then take Mrs. Connolly into the ladies’ room.”

Molly finally snapped out of it, though her eyes were still very far away.

Twenty minutes later, Suit was driving Maxie Connolly to her hotel. Molly was sitting across from Jesse. He said nothing. Molly knew all about Jesse and his silence. She was determined not to talk, but somehow words came out of her mouth.

“I’m sorry, Jesse. I hate that woman. I guess I always have. I thought maybe it would have gone away after all these years. That’s why I didn’t say anything when you had me go pick her up. But it’s worse now.”

Jesse nodded.

“Maxie never gave a rat’s ass about Ginny. Ginny did everything for herself. Made her own meals, washed her own clothes. She cleaned the house. Shopped. Got herself up in the morning. The only real parenting she ever got was from my folks. She raised herself. So of course it killed her to go to her mother about her first period. You won’t understand this, Jesse, but when a girl gets her period it can be special or terrible. It’s a little bit of both, I guess. Especially for a Catholic girl. We’re raised in such a schizophrenic way about that stuff. Sex is made so taboo, but having children is so meaningful. I don’t know.”

“What aren’t you saying, Molly?”

“About what?”

“You tell me.”

“Maxie Connolly was a whore and a drunk. Still is, as far as I can tell.”

Jesse opened his mouth to speak, but Molly cut him off.

“And don’t even bring up Crow to me. That was different. It was only once and it was only about sex and curiosity.”

Jesse shook his head. “That’s not what I was going to say.”

Molly flushed.

“All I was going to say was that everybody is entitled to their grief, Molly. Even Maxie Connolly. You don’t have to like her to give her that. Now, get home. We’ve got an early start tomorrow.”

As he watched Molly walk away, Jesse realized just how little he knew about her.