Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins

66

Tamara Elkin’s condo was in a new development built to look old. It was in Swan Harbor, the village just to the north of Paradise. Swan Harbor was a lovely place with its own rocky beaches and bluffs. It was a little more upscale and a bit snobbier than Paradise, owing to the fact that it was founded when burning witches and handing out scarlet letters were the favorite local pastimes. Tamara’s development was close to the center of town, near enough to the beach to get great views of the ocean. Problem was that most of her unit’s windows faced due west.

“Too bad the Rockies block your views of the Pacific,” Jesse said, looking out her living room window at the Swan Harbor firehouse.

“Who says police chiefs don’t have a sense of humor? Wine or scotch?” she asked, holding a bottle of each.

Jesse pointed at the wine. As he watched the wine pour into the glasses he thought that he should consider moving back into the heart of Paradise. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy his house. He did. It was awfully pretty out where he lived — peaceful, too — but it had never quite suited him. He wasn’t lonely, not exactly. While not a total disaster, his experiment with cat ownership hadn’t done the trick. His house was the kind of place to share with a woman and he was less sure now than ever that he would get married again.

He supposed that if Sunny Randall had been able to extricate herself from her marriage, they might’ve worked together. But she was equally inept at distancing herself from Richie as he from Jenn. Though they still kept in touch, that ship had sailed. He thought about Diana again. They could definitely work. He would be willing to try. The thing was, he didn’t know if she was willing. She made the right noises about it and when they were together that one weekend none of the magic between them had gone away. He wondered if Diana was too independent and too much about the action to be tied to a small-town police chief. Her physical beauty notwithstanding, the things that attracted Jesse to Diana probably made her an unlikely bride. Maybe that’s why he had never fully let go of Jenn.

Jesse shook his head at himself. All this wondering, all these what-ifs, were new to him. He had never been the type of man to go round and round with himself like this. He’d never been a man to second-guess or to waste too much energy on regret. Then he laughed silently to himself. Jesse had a sneaking suspicion that Dix’s views on these matters would likely differ greatly from his own. He would probably never know, as Dix seemed to delight in not sharing his own feelings about Jesse with Jesse. He could hear Dix’s voice in his head. It’s not important how I feel about it. How do you feel about it, Jesse? Suddenly, Jesse got out of his own head, stopped looking at the wine being poured, and readjusted his eyes to the woman doing the pouring. He just felt very lucky that Tamara Elkin had come to the door.

“You seem deep in thought,” Tamara said. She handed him his wine and sat down on the sofa next to him. They clinked glasses and sipped. “What were you thinking about?”

“Luck.”

“What about it?”

He shrugged. Tamara moved farther away from Jesse so she could study his expression.

“What?” he said.

“You’re an interesting fella, Jesse Stone.”

“Better than being a dull one, I guess.”

“Interesting’s not the right word.” She tilted her head as she continued staring. “No, definitely not.”

He took a long sip of wine and played along. “Then what is?”

“You’re what my daddy calls a Chinese box.”

“A Chinese box?”

“Beautiful on the outside, full of secrets, and impossible to open.”

“Not impossible,” he said.

“Certainly not easy.”

“What fun is easy?”

She laughed. “I don’t know. Sometimes easy ain’t too shabby.”

He nodded. “Point taken. Then let’s go back to the beautiful-on-the-outside part.”

“After dinner,” she said. “Dinner was promised and dinner you shall have.”

“We can skip a meal if you’re not up for it.”

“Not this one, Jesse. I’m hungry. Get in the dining room.”

“Sure, Doc.”

Jesse stood, wine in hand, and walked to the table. As he walked past Tamara she shook her head at him.

“A Chinese box, all right,” she said. “A Chinese box.”