Split Image

17

IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON when Jesse went to Dix's office, but Dix looked as if he'd just stepped out of the shower. His bald head gleamed. His face seemed newly shaved. His seersucker jacket appeared freshly ironed. His white shirt was crisp. He wore a blue-and-yellow striped tie, perfectly knotted.

He nodded as Jesse sat down, and leaned back slightly in his chair as if settling in to listen with interest.

"I got drunk two nights ago and passed out and wasn't able to do my job the next day," Jesse said.

"That must be painful for you," Dix said.

"It is."

"Tell me about it," Dix said.

Jesse told him. Dix listened quietly.

"What do you suppose brought it on?" Dix said.

"All I can think of," Jesse said. "I was talking to a couple of mobsters who seem to be enjoying very happy marriages to some very appealing women."

"Hardly seems fair," Dix said.

Jesse nodded.

"And I guess I sat there, the other night," he said, "and thought, Why them, not me? And got drunk."

"Why couldn't Jenn have been like these women?" Dix said.

Jesse nodded.

"Exactly," he said.

Dix was quiet. Jesse was quiet.

"What are they like?" Dix said, after a time.

"The wives?"

Dix nodded.

"They're twins," Jesse said. "Identical twins."

Dix waited.

"They live side by side in big houses on Paradise Neck. Houses look alike, inside and outside. Like they were decorated, or whatever, by the same person."

"Pretty close," Dix said.

Jesse nodded.

Dix waited.

"They're very good-looking," Jesse said.

Dix nodded.

"And they love their husbands."

Dix waited. Jesse was quiet.

"How do you know?" Dix said.

"They are so attentive," Jesse said. "They sit beside their husband. They pat his arm. They look at him and listen to him and seem thrilled to be with him."

"Attentive," Dix said.

"Yes."

"Affectionate," Dix said.

"Yes."

"How about the husbands?" Dix said.

"Reggie Galen," Jesse said. "And Knocko Moynihan. Both mobsters. Reggie ran things mostly north, and Knocko had the South Shore."

"They still in the business?" Dix said.

"They say not, but I don't believe them."

"Why were you talking to them?"

"Guy worked for one of them, slugger named Petrov Ognowski, got killed and his body dumped on the Paradise Neck causeway."

"And you talked to the other man why?"

"He lived next door," Jesse said. "He had a record."

"Any reason to think they were involved?"

"No reason to think anything yet," Jesse said. "You used to be a cop. Guy gets killed in the neighborhood of two mobsters, you talk to them."

Dix nodded.

"These gentlemen seem to recognize their good fortune?" Dix said.

"In their wives, you mean?"

Dix nodded.

"They seem happy," Jesse said.

"Attentive?" Dix said.

Jesse shrugged.

"I guess so," he said.

"Affectionate," Dix said.

"I imagine," Jesse said.

"But it was the wives who really struck you," Dix said.

"Yes."

"Jenn ever attentive and affectionate?" Dix said.

"Before we were married," Jesse said. "And a little while after."

"So she was capable of it," Dix said.

Jesse nodded.

"What made it so frustrating," he said. "She could and she didn't."

"Yes," Dix said. "That would be frustrating."

"And she was probably that way with other men?"

"Affectionate and attentive?" Dix said.

"Yeah."

"And you know this how?" Dix said.

"Figures," Jesse said. "She wanted something."

"How about these wives?" Dix said.

"They seem genuine to me," Jesse said.

"Perhaps you want them to be genuine," Dix said.

"Why?" Jesse said. "Why would I care?"

Dix looked at his watch. It was his signal that the fifty minutes were up.

"Don't know," Dix said. "Think about it. We can talk some more on Thursday."

"These two frogs get to marry the princesses," Jesse said. "I get the whore."

"We'll talk Thursday," Dix said.