Night Passage (A Jesse Stone Novel)

local militia movement which calls itself Freedom’s Horsemen.”
    “You think he did it?”
    “I’ll bet,” Jesse said.
    “Have you arrested him?”
    “Not yet. I suspended him.”
    “Why not arrest him, turn it over to the Wyoming police?”
    “I’m not sure they can make the case yet, but even if they can, I want more,” Jesse said. “The chief selectman in town, the guy that hired me, is also the commander of Freedom’s Horsemen.”
    “You think he’s involved?”
    “He’s a married man. He’s having trouble with his wife. And he was having an affair with the girl that was murdered.”
    Again there was silence while Jenn drank some wine. Jesse’s drink sat untouched on the kitchen counter.
    “But you know who killed her,” Jenn said.
    “Yeah, but now I’m not so sure I know why.”
    “You said last time it was about you.”
    “Yeah, and maybe it is, but now maybe it was about more than me.”
    “So why don’t you confront, or arrest, or call in the FBI or whatever?”
    “I don’t know exactly if any of what I suspect is true. I don’t know who I can trust. Maybe I can’t trust anybody.”
    “Even your own policemen?”
    “Even. I’m alone here, Jenn.”
    “I could come.”
    Jesse was silent. He felt suddenly overwhelmed by the desire for her to be there.
    “Jenn … I can’t …”
    “I know, Jesse. I know.”
    Jesse was silent, struggling not to fail. “I can’t have that, Jenn. At least not yet.”
    “I know.”
    “I want it more than I can tell you, but I can’t let that happen to me again. First I have to do this. Then we can see about us.”
    “It’s awful to be alone, Jesse.”
    “If you can’t be alone,” Jesse said, “you can’t be with someone. I can’t have you here because I’m scared. You can’t come here because you’re scared for me. You understand?”
    “Yes.”
    They were quiet. Jesse picked up his drink and took a sip. He had switched his scotch from on-the-rocks to with-soda.
    “You seeing anybody?” Jesse said.
    “No. You?”
    “I’m still dating that woman, but it’s not going anywhere.”
    “Because you don’t trust her?”
    “I guess.”
    “Can’t have a relationship with someone you don’t trust,” Jenn said.
    “I know.”
    “It must be very hard, Jesse, to be alone in trouble where there’s no one to trust.”
    Jesse drank more scotch and soda.
    “Yes,” he said.
    “Stranger in a strange land,” she said.
    “I want to get them all,” Jesse said slowly. “Everybody. I want the town cleaned up. I want to know when I see somebody that they’re not a murderer or an anarchist, or whatever, you know? I want the pleasant little town I thought I was getting when I came here.”
    “Maybe that’s more than you can have,” Jenn said.
    “I want to find out.”
    “Get some help, Jesse.”
    “I can’t,” Jesse said. “I need to do this alone.”
    “Are you proving something to me, Jesse?”
    “No.”
    “To yourself, then.”
    “I guess so.”
    “I know you, Jesse,” Jenn said across the continent, “I know how tough you are. I know how smart you are. If you need to do this, you’ll do it. You won’t lose this, Jesse.”
    “I don’t know, Jenn, I mean thank you for what you said, but it’s like wrestling with smoke in the dark.”
    They were quiet again at each end of the wire.
    “You seem a little different, Jenn,” Jesse said after a time.
    “You think so?”
    “Yeah. You getting any help?”
    “Yes.”
    “Shrink?”
    “Yes.”
    “A real one, not some guy does full body rolfing?”
    “No. It’s a woman. She might be tougher than you, Jesse.”
    “Nobody’s that tough,” Jesse said and heard her laugh and felt excited as he always had when he made her laugh.
    “Yes,” Jenn said, “that’s the Jesse I know.”
    “It helps to talk with you, Jenn.”
    “Good.”
    Again they were quiet.
    “I guess I better hang up,” Jesse said.
    “Okay,” Jenn said. “Be very careful.”
    “Yes.”
    “I’m here, Jesse.”
    “I know. It helps, Jenn.”
    They hung up and Jesse stared a long time at his half-empty glass with the excitement pulsating in the pit of his stomach. He stood finally and picked it up and emptied it into the sink. Then he went into the bedroom and opened his bureau drawer and took out a picture of Jenn and set it upright on the top of the bureau.

65
     
    There were two Paradise cruisers and the fire department rescue van parked in a semicircle on Indian Hill. Lou