The Bitterest Pill

Sixty-five

The next morning Jesse pulled a chair up alongside Molly’s and had her run the video of his interview with Petra North. They sat and watched in silence. When the video of the interview was finished, Molly spoke first.

“She’s lying.”

“I think so.”

“She was coached to give one-word answers and not to give a single syllable extra.”

Jesse agreed. “Just like we’re taught to testify. No embellishments, no information beyond answering exactly what’s asked.”

“She knows who the teacher is, doesn’t she?” Molly said. “When you asked her that, she looked like she was going to melt down.”

“She knows. That girl is barely treading water, and I think her parents are going to let her go under rather than have their reputations dirtied.”

He told her about what he had discovered in Boston, omitting Vinnie Morris’s presence at Precious Pawn and Loan and their lunch together. For the most part, Jesse didn’t care what other people thought of him, but Molly’s disapproval was an exception.

“I need you to find out if Dr. Wexler has stopped writing prescriptions or whether he is still at it. If he is, it’s a miracle. Severe Alzheimer’s.”

“Do you want me to do that before or after I finish the research on the teachers?” Molly asked, even as she handed Jesse a file. “That’s hers, Maryglenn’s.”

Jesse understood. “Do it before, then get back to the teacher research. I’m going to go over to the high school later to let Principal Wester know we intend to interview all the women teachers sometime in the next few days. Now that I tipped my hand by asking Petra about the teacher, word will spread.”

“Maybe not, Jesse. She might only warn the one teacher.”

“We’ll see. Can you get Lundquist on the phone?”

“Please would be nice.”

“Would it?”

“Jesse Stone!”

“Please.”

This time she went looking for the girl between classes and found her by her locker. As she walked by she whispered to the girl to meet her downstairs in the room with the discarded desks and blackboards.

It was all Petra could do not to fall apart right there in the hall, but she held it together long enough not to follow immediately.

Things in the dank, dimly lit room were very different from the last time they were there. Petra’s book bag was thrown to the floor, her lover grabbed her, pushed her gently onto one of the discarded teacher’s desks, and climbed atop her. Several minutes went by before a word passed between them.

“I’m so sorry about how I treated you the last time we were here,” she said, brushing the back of her hand along the girl’s cheek. “I want to make it up to you. Please let me make it up to you.”

But unlike in the past, when those words would have made Petra glow with excitement and vow eternal loyalty, she began sobbing.

“What is it, lover? Don’t cry. Was it the interview?”

Petra said, “They know.”

It was all the older woman could do not to slap the girl and demand straight answers, but she knew she couldn’t play it the hard way. No, this performance had to be her best, because it was all about one thing — survival, her survival.

“It’s okay, darling.” She kissed her eyes. “It’s okay. We’ll get through this. Just tell me.”

“Jesse knows about you... not your name. I would never, ever tell him your name. I would die first, but he asked me if I knew about a female teacher at the high school being involved with the drugs.”

“It’s okay. It’s okay. As long as he doesn’t know my name and we’re sure you will never betray me. You know I would never betray you.”

“I know that. But things are... bad at home. My folks know I’ve been using and they knew I was lying when I told Jesse that I didn’t know anything about you. They pushed me to give them your name. My dad said we could use it as leverage in case the police charged me with anything, that they would drop charges against me if I could give up the teacher.”

She kissed the girl. “But you didn’t.”

“Never. I couldn’t. I love you.”

“And I love you and I have a gift for you to prove it.” She climbed off the girl, retrieved her own bag, and pulled out a vial. She placed the vial in the girl’s right palm and closed her fingers around it. “I crushed up some pills for you from my stash. Snort a line or two of the powder and you will get a jolt and everything will be better. I promise. It will make it all go away for a while.” She kissed the girl softly on the lips.

“I needed this,” Petra said. “Thank you. I’ve never snorted it before, so I’m a little nervous.”

“Don’t be afraid, lover. It’s easy.”

The girl began to twist open the vial.

“No, no, darling, not here. It will be too much the first time to be in public. At home, in your room first, where no one can see you. Here, this is for now.” She handed Petra a little green pill.

The girl swallowed it without hesitation. “Can we be together soon?”

“Together, yes. Very soon. I have to go.” She kissed the girl and left.

Jesse stared at the open file on his desk. He rarely felt dirty about his job. Sure, being a cop meant you sometimes had to look at people’s lives under a microscope and that you often wouldn’t like what you found there. But this was different. He wasn’t looking at just anyone under the lens, but a woman he had twice spent the night with and for whom he had a growing affection, a woman he now suspected of possibly being at the center of a high school drug ring and having seduced a teenage boy.

Molly stuck her head in. “Lundquist on line one. I have a call in to the state medical board, but they work at their own pace.” She didn’t bother waiting for Jesse to say anything and left.

Lundquist asked, “What’s up, Jesse?”

“I may have found something bigger than a drug ring at Paradise High School.”

“What’s that?”

“First, are you in good with the Narcotics Division?”

“I have some friends over there, yeah. Why?”

“I need a favor before I say for certain.”

“Okay, ask.”

“Find out how many prescriptions Drs. Rajiv Laghari and Myron Wexler have written over the last month and what they were for.” He spelled the doctors’ names for Lundquist. “Also, can you see if the Boston PD is working a Joint Narcotics Task Force? If so, are your people involved? When you come back to me with that, we’ll talk. Any progress on the Grimm homicide?”

“I’m going over to Helton later today to look at some surveillance-camera footage.”

“Keep me posted.”

Lundquist was off the line and Jesse went back to reading the file on Maryglenn.