Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins

25

Captain Healy and Molly Crane showed up at the crime scene at about the same time. Jesse had just finished giving Stu Cromwell his statement.

Yes, the dead woman was Maxie Connolly, but that’s not official until the next of kin is notified and he identifies her. No, there were no obvious signs of foul play. Yes, her death would be investigated as if it were a homicide. Yes, you can quote me on that.

It wasn’t much of a statement, but Cromwell would have it first. Though Cromwell knew Jesse wasn’t giving him anything he couldn’t have figured for himself, he had a statement he could attribute to an official source. That would make all the difference when it came to peddling the finished story.

Jesse made sure Cromwell had left the area before he went over to talk to Healy and Molly.

“This is a mess,” Healy said. “You think she killed herself?”

Jesse shrugged. “Seems to be the question of the day.”

Healy and Jesse stared at Molly.

“What do you think, Molly?” Jesse asked.

She shook her head and walked to the edge of the water.

Healy was curious. “What’s with her?”

“Catholic guilt. She didn’t like Maxie very much and didn’t do a good job of hiding it.”

“What do you think, Jesse?”

“When Maxie first walked into my office, I would never have figured her for this. But by the time she left, I would have changed my opinion. She took the official notification about her girl pretty hard.”

“Guess even bad girls live in hope,” Healy said. “When you take the hope away, they crash like everybody else.”

Jesse wasn’t sure what to say to that, so he said nothing.

Healy pointed up. “You think she threw herself off the Bluffs?”

Jesse shook his head. “I don’t like it.” There, he said it out loud. “I didn’t know the woman. Spent a half hour with her, but it seems too Wuthering Heights for me, her throwing herself off the Bluffs like that. And how did she get up there? Molly picked her up at the airport and we drove her back to her hotel. A fist full of pills and half a bottle of bourbon, okay, I’m buying. But this... I don’t like it.”

“Yeah, you said that.”

“Molly,” Jesse said, “come over here a minute.”

“What is it, Jesse?”

“Did Maxie mention renting a car to you?”

Molly laughed, then caught herself. “She lost her license. She had a few DWIs down in Florida. Told me about five minutes after she got in the car, like she was proud of it.”

“Go get the husband and bring him in to the station. Don’t tell him anything, but keep him there. Tell Suit to call the cab companies in town and see if we can’t find out if one of them brought her up here. Call Connor Cavanaugh at the hotel and tell him I’ll be by later this morning to look at his security tapes from last night and early this morning. And I want any record of phone calls in and out of their room last night.”

“That it?” Molly asked.

“For now. Hold on a second,” Jesse said, grabbing her arm as she started away. “Healy, can you give us a minute?”

Healy turned and headed toward the body.

“You okay?” Jesse asked, letting go of Molly’s arm.

“Fine.”

“No you’re not.”

“I will be.”

“Better answer,” he said. “I bet you wished Maxie dead a few times when you were younger, huh?”

Molly clenched her jaw.

“I don’t know if Maxie suicided or if she was murdered, but there’s one thing I’m sure of.”

“What’s that, Jesse?”

“Your wishes had nothing to do with it. Now, go get the husband.”