Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay (27 page)

T
he pilot got on the intercom and told them to buckle up. That they were beginning their descent and would be on the ground at Logan in less than twenty minutes. If the situation wasn't what it was, Jesse thought, he could get used to private jet travel. Hale Hunsicker's Gulfstream G280, complete with flight attendant, had been waiting for them when Ari dropped them off at Love Field. Suzanne, the flight attendant, came out of the galley of the aircraft and asked them if there was anything else she could get for them before they landed. Jesse waved her off and smiled. Diana, too. She nodded at them and went back to securing things in the galley.

Jesse, who'd been pacing, sat back down in his seat. He had his stoic game face on, but Diana knew there was a lot going on inside him. He wasn't a man to show his weaknesses or worries. He didn't make elaborate gestures or make public displays of affection, and he was a man of his word, but he was more complicated than the parts of him he showed to the world. He showed them to her and that was enough.

“Listen, Jesse,” she said, “we both got caught up in things back in Dallas. No one here knows you asked me to marry you and the way
it all happened with me blurting it out just because I was with Jenn and . . .” Her voice drifted off. “I mean that if—”

“You don't have to explain. Same is true for you. You gave a great speech back in Dallas about how we'll make it work, but I know a life in Paradise isn't what you want. If you want to change your mind, that's okay. That won't change what I feel about you.”

She looked gut-punched. “I don't want to change my mind. You?”

Jesse shook his head.

Diana smiled at him. Jesse smiled back at her. The smile didn't remain on Jesse's face for more than a few more seconds, because he and Diana had made some hard choices over the last several hours, choices that might determine their own fates and the fates of the most important people in Jesse's life. Both of them had taken big risks before, with their careers, their lives, and others people's futures, but never the lives of others to whom they were so closely attached. The easiest choice was to leave Dallas and skip the wedding. Although much of their time there had been less strained than they had anticipated, had even been fun on occasion, neither of them had really wanted to be there in the first place.

“I've never been much of a believer in fate, but now I'm not so sure,” Diana said after a minute of quiet between them.

Although leaving Dallas to get back to Paradise was the obvious choice for them to make, it hadn't gone down well with Hunsicker.

“You can't be serious. Jenn'll skin me alive if you're not there tomorrow. She's really counting on you both being there. Frankly, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think she wants Diana there as much as you. There's some weird bond they have that has to do with you.”

“At least you know she'll be safe, Hale,” Jesse said. “And you can't tell her. Everyone has to think we'll be there at the country club. If
this goes the way we hope, Mr. Peepers will never trouble anyone again. We all want that. You've seen the damage he's done and what he's capable of.”

Kahan had been the easiest to convince. He immediately understood the intentions behind what Peepers had been up to and had even offered to send some of his people with Jesse and Diana back to Paradise.

“Look, at least take Ari with you. He's got experience at this sort of thing. He's the best man I've got.”

“I appreciate the offer, Scott,” Jesse said, shaking Kahan's hand, “but we can't afford to send out the wrong signals, especially if Peepers has a plant at the wedding. And we can't have people showing up in Paradise who don't belong or fit in. The risk is too big. Peepers has to believe we still think he's coming after Jenn. And I can't chance you weakening things here if I'm wrong about this and he really is coming for Jenn.”

“Okay, but I'll have a car waiting for you at Logan and it'll drop you off wherever you want in Paradise.”

The hardest decision they had to make was keeping things quiet and not letting Molly, Suit, and Healy in on what they thought was going on. His reasoning was much the same as it was for rejecting Kahan's offer of help.

“It's okay if Peepers is aware the cops and everyone else is looking for him in Dallas. He expects that. He wants that. The more focus on Dallas, the better. But we can't give him an inkling that we know where he's really headed.”

Diana played devil's advocate. “If we let word get to the media and warn everyone in Paradise, we might be able to buy some time and prepare for when he resurfaces. I can probably get an old pal at the Bureau to set up a task force focused exclusively on him. After
the bombing and the sniper stuff he pulled today, I can probably get him a terrorist designation, and you know how the government is about terror suspects.”

“You know that won't work. If he slips away from us now, we'll never see him coming the next time. He won't be sending me photos or making goading phone calls to me next time. He'll come at us the way he came at Gino Fish. And even if we all built fortresses around us, he'd win eventually. No, Di, now is our chance and we better take it. We won't get another.”

But all of those decisions were easy for Jesse compared to his decision to tell Diana the truth about what he thought was going on. His first impulse had been to lie to her, that he should do anything to protect her, to keep her in Dallas, far away from where he thought the confrontation with Peepers would go down. He was old-fashioned that way. He had always watched out for Jenn and he had always been more comfortable with Molly in the cop house with him than on the streets. But first with Sunny Randall and up to now with Diana, he had treated them as super-competent equals. The thing is, the minute he asked Diana to marry him, that all changed. Maybe it shouldn't have. Maybe it wasn't right. Maybe that made him a relic, but he couldn't deny his feelings. Still, when the time came for them to discuss their reactions to what Peepers had done at the Park Mansion, Jesse found the truth coming out of his mouth.

The pilot got back on the intercom one last time to tell the flight attendant to buckle up and prepare for landing. Diana reached for Jesse's hand and squeezed it. He turned and smiled at her, then looked out the cabin window at the night sky and the welcoming lights of Boston. He couldn't help but wonder what they were being welcomed home to.

I
t was cool out for September, the wind whipping in off the Atlantic right into the heart of Paradise. Quite a change from the Dallas heat. Though it was too dark to see the color of the leaves, Jesse knew they had already turned more yellow and red than they had been only in the hundred hours since he and Diana had gotten in the car to Logan. The limbs of the trees seemed to have sagged some, turned down like lips kissed by a lover for the last time. There were signs of surrender in them, an acknowledgment that there was yet another fall and winter to come that they were helpless to stop.

Jesse turned up the collar of his jacket against the wind, collecting himself as he prepared to climb the fence at the edge of the small woods that bordered the Cranes' property. He was convinced now more than ever he needed to move back into town. That it had taken a dangerous amount of time, too much time, to collect what he needed at his house and to sneak back into town. He had looked at the
For Sale
sign in front of his house and wondered if there had been any more bites. If not, he'd lower the price. Like always, he'd do what he had to do.

Suddenly, a whole list of “have-to-dos” rushed into his head. He had to replace his old trusty, now bullet-ridden, Explorer.
With what?
he wondered. But it was the house sale that came back to him. Diana would want to be at the center of things. Paradise wasn't exactly Boston. Not even close, but he knew she needed some sense of action to keep happy, and whatever action there was in Paradise wasn't out where his house was now. He had been alone long enough. In a bizarre way, he guessed he owed a debt of his own to Peepers for the circumstances that had pushed him over the edge to commit to marriage. But he couldn't smile about it. Too much blood had been spilled and too many lives lost in the name of a stupid vendetta.

Then he remembered his last at bat in that softball game back in August that had seemed to start all of this. Remembered the news about Gino Fish. Remembered hearing about the murders in Salem, the dog's in particular. And that reminded him of who he was dealing with and why it had to come to an end, sooner rather than later. And that snapped him out of his own head and right into the moment. He knew exactly why he was there at the edge of Molly's property in the dark. He stopped thinking of what had been and what might be. He boosted himself up and over the fence.

During the flight, he and Diana had agreed to split up so that they could cover Peepers's most likely targets. Jesse made sure to put Diana on Peepers's least likely target: Healy. Healy hadn't been directly involved with the original incident, the one in which Suit was nearly killed and had wounded Peepers in the exchange of gunfire. But if Peepers was paying attention—Jesse and Diana had no doubt that he had been—then he would know how close Jesse and Healy were and now just how vulnerable Healy was because of retirement and his wife's bad heart. Diana wasn't oblivious to Jesse's impulse to
protect her. She didn't like it, but it was hard for her to argue with Jesse's rationale for his looking after Molly and Suit.

“I know Paradise,” he said. “I know how to approach their houses unseen from places not even Peepers would be aware of. You don't know Paradise at all, not really. Besides, Suit and Molly are my cops, my responsibility. If you're with Healy, then you'll both have each other's backs and we won't be presenting Peepers with even more incentive. You and Molly or you and Suit together would provide too good a target for Peepers. Remember, in some ways it's about making me suffer. And with you and Healy together, I won't be distracted worrying about the both of you.”

Over the fence, Jesse lay flat on his belly, watching, listening for anything out of the ordinary. If Peepers was already inside, there would be obvious signs. He would gather everyone in the house into one room or the basement. That was if he hadn't already hurt Molly's girls and her husband. Jesse's guts churned at the thought of that, of Peepers torturing Molly's girls in front of their parents. But Jesse pushed those thoughts down, way down. He'd never be able to do what he'd have to do if he let his head go there. He would be lost if he let his imagination control him or if he now started questioning all the decisions he'd made over the last twenty-four hours or over the last six weeks. No, he had to focus on the present, on what was happening in real time.

He'd already been to Suit's house and done a quick check. Nothing was happening there. Suit's family had all relocated and Suit was on patrol until eight in the morning. The way Jesse figured it, Suit was probably safe, at least until the end of his shift. By then, he would have Suit covered, and when the time came, he'd go back over to his house. He might also call Suit, maybe give him a heads-up, or
have him come by Molly's house. He'd worry about that when the time came.

Molly was moving around the kitchen. Two lights were on in upstairs bedrooms. Shadows moving, TVs on. That was all to the good. No way this much activity would be going on in the house if Peepers were present. Still, Jesse had to be careful not to assume Peepers wasn't close by, doing exactly what Jesse was doing. Watching. Waiting. Looking for a weakness, an opening. He meant to stay here, to watch the house all night if need be, but he was determined that there had already been enough blood. It had to stop here. Now.

H
is body ached something fierce, but it had been worth it. He had kept his position in the Cranes' backyard until all the lights had gone off in the house and then given it another hour. At that point, when he was sure Molly and her family were all asleep, he checked the perimeter of the house by going back over the fence and making wide circles of the area on foot. Each circle a little bit closer in to the Crane house than the previous one. If Peepers was here, he was even better than everyone assumed he was. He would have to have been a ghost.

As Jesse had walked his tightening circles, he had been careful not to make assumptions that would get people killed. Peepers obviously had skills other than torture and invisibility. The way he'd murdered Gino Fish's receptionist said he was good with a knife. The way he'd killed the old woman, the cabbie, and the dog in Salem said he was great and accurate with a handgun at close range. That he had made a successful head shot through draperies at a few hundred yards said he was good with a rifle. He could also manage to build a working explosive device. So as he walked those circles, Jesse checked up trees and under cars, searched for cases and
packages, anything that didn't seem to belong. He took no comfort when he came up empty.

After he watched Molly's husband leave for work, waiting for her to put her girls on the school bus, Jesse returned to her backyard. It was a day off for her. He hadn't risked approaching her when her family was home and he could not approach through the front door. There was always the chance that Peepers was watching. Even when he was certain the house was empty, Jesse didn't approach her back door directly, either. Instead, he threw pebbles at her kitchen window and back door windows from the cover of the side of the shed. Molly, an annoyed scowl on her face, flung the door open and stepped out onto the small back deck.

“Okay, wiseass, who's—”

“I'm the wiseass,” Jesse said in a voice not much above a whisper, “and I'm over by the shed. Come over here and pretend to fuss with the bushes.”

The scowl left her face as she seemed to immediately understand the situation. She stepped off the small deck, opened the shed door, got out some pruning shears, and snipped away at a few leaves.

“Is he here?” she asked, fear in her usually steady voice.

“In Paradise, yes. But I don't think he's near here, at least not yet. I've been watching your house since last night.”

“Where, then? He can't hurt my kids, Jesse. What if—”

“Stop it, Molly. Don't go there.”

“But how and why are you even here?”

He did a brief rundown of what had transpired over the last twenty-four hours. As he spoke, Molly's hands began to shake and her pruning became angry and erratic. It was clear to Jesse that Molly could think of nothing else but the danger to her kids. And once again, he felt that sense of relief at never having had kids.

“Who's on the desk this morning?” Jesse asked.

“Alisha.”

“When we're done here, call her and tell her to put Gabe on patrol at your girls' school. Don't have him sit on the school. Have him circle.”

“Thanks, Jesse.”

“I don't think he'll go after your family, but I can't have you worry too much.”

“So what's the plan?”

As Jesse opened his mouth, the phone rang in the house. Molly didn't move to answer it.

“Go get that, Molly. Don't do anything out of the ordinary. Just put the shears down and answer. Maybe it has something to do with Peepers.”

Molly came back out onto the deck a few minutes later, her face white. Her expression screamed to Jesse. He shot out from behind the shed and ran to her.

“What is it?”

She didn't answer him, but kept staring off into the distance. Jesse took her by the biceps and shook her. As he did, he repeated the question. Then, “Is it your kids? Your hus—”

“Suit,” she said.

“What about Suit?”

“He hasn't come back in off patrol and he won't answer his radio.”

“Fuck!”

“Alisha has the guys out looking for his car.”

“Did they check his house?” Jesse asked, even as he pulled his cell from his pocket.

“He's not there.” Molly's voice was near cracking. Suddenly, something like a smile came across her lips.

“What is it?”

“I think I know where he might be.” The smile disappeared. “Oh, no. Oh, shi—”

“What?”

“While you were gone, Suit got engaged.”

“Engaged?”

“To Elena Wheatley. She used to teach at the high school before you came to town. She moved back to Paradise a few months ago when her mom passed. Suit reconnected with her and they've been quietly seeing each other since. He wanted to tell you about it himself when you got back because he wants you to be best man.”

“Get dressed and go to the station. Alisha is good, but she's not ready to handle what you can handle.”

“Should I call the staties and get everyone over there?”

“No! I don't want a cruiser or another cop within a half-mile of that house. I'll handle this. What's Elena's address?”

“But—”

“No, Molly. That's an order. This is on me. You just be ready if I need you.”

“Should I drive you over there?”

Jesse shook his head. “It'll be almost as fast if I cut through the woods. Besides, I don't want you anywhere near Peepers or that house.”

He turned and walked to the back fence.

“Jesse,” Molly said, calling after him, “be safe. I can't lose you.”

He smiled at her but didn't say a word.