Trouble in Paradise

Forty-Six

When he got back to the station, Molly was waiting for him.

“Talk, Jesse, alone?”

“Sure.”

They went into his office and closed the door. Molly was carrying a small notebook.

“You tell your ex-wife about Mrs. Hopkins trying to get you fired?” Molly said.

“Christ, what did she do?” Jesse said.

Molly smiled without any pleasure. “She assaulted Mrs. Hopkins.”

Jesse leaned back in his chair and stared at Molly without speaking. He was thrilled that Jenn cared enough about him to do that. He was annoyed that he would have to deal with it. He was depressed that Jenn was still so far out of control that she would assault someone. He was amused at the image of her in full assault.

“Where is she now?” Jesse said.

“Down the hall,” Molly said. “Cell number one.”

Jesse nodded slowly. Molly couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Tell me about it,” he said.

“Well,” Molly said. “Kay Hopkins was at the women’s Republican breakfast at the Village Room. She was supposed to give a report on her committee’s findings about citizen participation in town government. It was in The Shopper’s News, maybe that’s where Jenn saw it. Anyway, she shows up. And when Kay Hopkins gets up to give her report, Jenn gets up and says,” Molly looked down at her notes, “‘Before you give your report, maybe you ought to explain to these ladies why you are interfering with the police department in the performance of its lawful duties.’”

Jesse leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

“‘Lawful duties,’” he said softly.

Molly was still reading from her notes.

“And Kay Hopkins says, ‘The chair has not recognized you. Please sit down and be quiet.’”

“Uh-oh!” Jesse said softly.

“You got that right,” Molly said. “Jenn calls her a bitch. Mrs. Hopkins says something like ‘How dare you talk to me that way?’ And Jenn marches up and whacks her across the face and everybody starts screaming and pushing and shoving and people are trying to help Mrs. Hopkins and somebody calls us. Peter Perkins was there because he was in the nearest cruiser, and when he got there he saw it was a woman and asked me to come.”

“And?”

Molly tried to control a smile. “And it wasn’t a pretty sight. Jenn had torn most of Mrs. Hopkins’ blouse off and given her a bloody nose. Mrs. Hopkins has got blood all over her skirt and her bra, which looked, may I add, as if it had been laundered a couple times too often. Jenn’s got blood all over her blouse. As far as I know she’s not hurt. It’s Hopkins’ blood, I’m pretty sure. There were two or three women trying to hold onto Jenn, who was kicking people and, as I arrived, was actually head-butting Gertrude Richardson, who’s the chairwoman or whatever they call her. Peter Perkins wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to do and looked so grateful when I showed up. I thought he was going to kiss me.”

“You get her calmed down?”

“No, not really. Peter and I had to pretty well wrestle her down, and I had to cuff her before we could get her under control. Thing is neither Peter nor I recognized her at first. I seen her on TV a couple times after Suitcase told me she was your ex-wife and she was a weather girl.”

“Curiosity,” Jesse said.

“Absolutely,” Molly said. “But, you know, her hair was mussed and her shirttail was hanging out and one of her high heels was broken off and she didn’t look the same. But man can she swear. She called Mrs. Hopkins stuff I haven’t even heard around the station. And I’ve heard a lot around the station.”

“Jenn was always a good swearer,” Jesse said. “She tell you she was my wife — ex-wife?”

“Yes. When we got her in the cruiser and were bringing her back. The restaurant is going to bring some sort of charge once their attorney tells them what it is. I think she broke a table and certainly some crockery. I can talk to the owner. I know her. I think she’ll back off when she finds out the whole story.”

“Mrs. Hopkins planning to press charges?” Jesse said.

“Oh, I imagine,” Molly said. “And she probably won’t back off.”

Jesse nodded as much to himself as to Molly.

“Be a surprise if she did,” he said. “How is Jenn now?”

“Scared I think,” Molly said. “But still mad as hell.”

“She’s sort of a television celebrity,” Jesse said. “The press showed up yet?”

“Not yet.”

“She want to see me?” Jesse said.

“Yes.”

Jesse took in a long breath.

“Okay, I’ll go down and talk to her. Alone.”

“Of course,” Molly said.

She left the office. Jesse sat for a moment. Then he took a bottle of Irish whisky from his desk, poured some into a paper cup, looked at it for a moment, and then drank it. He crumpled up the paper cup and threw it into the waste basket. He put the bottle back in the desk drawer. Then he stood and walked down the corridor toward the holding cells.