Night Passage (A Jesse Stone Novel)

suspended him.”
    “Lou’s one of us,” Hasty said. “He’s a Horseman.”
    “And you think they ain’t going to find somebody out in the wild west to finger him, say, yeah, he’s the guy blew Tom Carson up? And you think when they get that they won’t squeeze him, and when they squeeze him you think he won’t spill his freaking guts?”
    “Lou wouldn’t talk.”
    “You think so, huh? I don’t know how they do it in freaking Montana …”
    “Wyoming,” Hasty said.
    “Whatever,” Jo Jo said. “I don’t know if they electrocute you or hang you or do it with an injection or a fucking firing squad, but just say you’re Lou Burke and you’re sitting in jail and they tell you they are going to hang you or, if you don’t like that idea, you can give us something and maybe we won’t. You think Lou’s gonna say gimme that noose, baby?”
    “Are you afraid to kill Jesse Stone?” Hasty asked.
    “I ain’t afraid,” Jo Jo said. “And I ain’t stupid either. It’s a lot smarter to take out Lou Burke than it is to clip Stone.”
    “I can’t betray the movement.”
    “You hit Stone and it’ll turn into a bowel movement,” Jo Jo said.
    As they talked about the crime Jo Jo’s vocabulary became more and more like a movie tough guy. Hasty hated him at that moment, more than he thought was possible. Jo Jo was a sneering, posturing bully. He cared for no cause, no person. No question of honor had ever penetrated that thick Neanderthal skull. He cared only about his muscles and the fear he could instill in people. Except Stone. Stone wasn’t afraid of him, and Hasty was pretty sure that Jo Jo was afraid of Stone. What made the hatred worse, though, so that it trembled in his solar plexus, was the fact that Jo Jo was probably right this time.
    “How would you hide the body?” Hasty said.
    “Let me figure that out,” Jo Jo said. “What you don’t know you can’t tell the cops later.”
    “You think I’d tell the police anything?”
    Jo Jo looked at him without answering.
    “You don’t understand, do you?” Hasty said. “You don’t understand commitment, or honor, or loyalty. And you certainly do not understand responsibility. You don’t even know what these things mean. All you understand is fear.”
    Jo Jo snorted.
    “What I understand, Hasty, is you want some guy iced, but you haven’t got the balls to do it. We both understand that, don’t we?”
    Hasty was silent for a time. They reached the Gloucester circle, and went around it, and started back, southbound, on Route 128.
    “All right,” Hasty said. “Kill Lou Burke, and hide the body. Make it look like he took off.”
    “There’s a little matter of price,” Jo Jo said.
    “Thirty pieces of silver.”
    “What the hell is that?” Jo Jo said.
    Hasty shook his head.
    “Same as Tammy,” Hasty said.
    “No, Lou’s a cop, and I got to hide the body. I want double Tammy.”
    Hasty felt very tired.
    “Okay,” he said. “It’s a deal.”
    “Up front,” Jo Jo said.
    “Of course,” Hasty said. “Just do it quickly.”
    “What would you do without me, Hasty?” Jo Jo said.
    The weariness Hasty felt was nearly overwhelming. He had trouble concentrating on the road. He didn’t respond to Jo Jo and they drove in silence the rest of the way.

64
     
    When Jesse answered the phone there was a pause and then he heard Jenn’s voice.
    “Jesse?”
    He felt a small tug in the center of himself. He had always felt it when he heard her voice or saw her. Goddamn it.
    “Hello, Jenn.”
    “I was in the middle of a swallow,” Jenn said, “when you answered. How are you?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “Are you having a drink?”
    “Yes.”
    “How many?”
    “First one.”
    “It’s later there, right?”
    “Yes.”
    “Are you really all right, Jesse?”
    “So far.”
    “Are you still scared?”
    “Sort of.”
    “Say more about that, Jesse. Can you get any help?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Well, have you caught the one who killed the girl?”
    “I know who he is. I can’t prove it yet.”
    “Is he what scares you?”
    “No, it’s more … well. The guy I replaced, guy named Carson, got blown up by a bomb out in Wyoming. Wyoming cops have evidence of a militia movement involvement back east. One of my cops, guy that was acting chief before me, that interviewed me for this job, guy named Lou Burke, flew to Denver just before Carson got blown up. Burke was a demolition specialist in the Navy. He’s a member of the