Night Passage (A Jesse Stone Novel)

flowered dress answered Jesse’s ring.
    She said, “Reverend is expecting you, Chief Stone.”
    Jesse followed her into the study, where the reverend was at his desk. The room was lined with books, and there was a fire burning in the fireplace. Reverend Cotter was gray-haired and pink-cheeked. He was wearing a brown tweed jacket over his black minister’s front-and-backwards collar. He stood and shook Jesse’s hand and gestured him to a chair beside the desk. He waited until the housekeeper had left before he spoke.
    “Thank you very much for coming so promptly,” he said.
    He had a deep voice, and he was pleased with it.
    “Glad to,” Jesse said.
    Cotter unlocked the middle drawer of his desk with a small key on his key chain, and tucked the key chain back into his pants pocket. He opened the drawer and took out a five-by-seven manila envelope and placed it on his desk, taking time to center it and to adjust it so that it was neatly square in the middle of his clean desk blotter.
    “This is very embarrassing,” he said.
    “Whatever it is,” Jesse said, “it won’t be as embarrassing as other stuff I’ve been told.”
    Cotter nodded.
    “Yes, I’m sure. Indeed I often reassure my own parishioners in the same way when they come for help.”
    Jesse nodded and smiled politely. Cotter took in a big breath of air and let it out. Then he handed the envelope to Jesse. It was postmarked the previous day from Paradise. It was addressed to Reverend Cotter, probably with a ballpoint pen, in block printing, no return address. Inside was a Polaroid picture. Jesse took it out, handling it by the edges, and looked at it. It was a picture of Cissy Hathaway, naked and provocative on a bed. There was nothing else in the envelope except a piece of shirt cardboard used to protect the picture. There was nothing in the picture to identify the room.
    “Just this?” Jesse said.
    “Yes,” Cotter said.
    “Any idea why this would be sent to you?”
    “No.”
    “It came this morning?”
    “Yes.”
    Jesse sat quietly looking at the picture. He could see no real expression in Cissy’s face, though the harsh light of the Polaroid flashbulb would wash out subtlety.
    “Mind if I keep this?” Jesse said.
    “Please,” Cotter said. “I certainly don’t want it.”
    “Anything else arrives let me know,” Jesse said. “Or if anything occurs to you.”
    “Of course,” Cotter said.
    Jesse put the picture back in the envelope, and slid the envelope in the side pocket of his jacket.
    “What are you going to do?”
    “We’ll check it for fingerprints,” Jesse said.
    “Are you going to speak to Cissy?”
    “Yes,” Jesse said.
    “I … I am her minister,” Cotter said. “If I can help …”
    “Sure,” Jesse said. “I’ll let you know if we need you.”

71
     
    Jesse sat with Cissy Hathaway in her kitchen, looking out at the backyard now flowerless, the grass yellow in the weak sunlight. He handed her the Polaroid.
    “This came today in the mail addressed to Reverend Cotter,” Jesse said.
    Cissy took the picture and stared at it. As she looked at the picture she began to blush. Jesse was still. Cissy kept her eyes fixed on the picture, her face expressionless except for the bright flush that made her look feverish. She didn’t say anything, and Jesse didn’t say anything, and the silence grew stifling the longer it went on.
    Finally Jesse said, “As far as I can see, there’s no crime here. You can tell me to buzz off, if you want to. But I thought you should know.”
    Cissy put the picture facedown on the kitchen table and stared at the blank back of it. Jesse waited. Cissy got up from the table suddenly and walked to the counter. She got a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and stood with her back to him looking out the window over the sink at her driveway and the neighbor’s yard beyond it. She took a deep inhale and let the smoke dribble out. Jesse was silent.
    “Jo Jo,” she said with her back still to him. “Jo Jo Genest took that picture. He has others.”
    “Did he coerce you?” Jesse said.
    “No.”
    “Do you know why he sent the picture to your minister?”
    Cissy took another big inhale and let the smoke out, still with her back to Jesse. She seemed to be memorizing every detail of the neighbor’s lawn. Jesse was quiet. It was going to come, he knew that. All he needed to do was wait.
    “Yes,” Cissy said. “I know.”
    “Can you tell me?” Jesse said.
    Cissy took a last drag on her