Chuck Pennington was there with Candace, and Joe Marino was with Bo.

“He threatened Candace,” Chuck Pennington said quietly. “He told

her if she testified against him he’d kill her, and if he had to

he’d kill Feeney too.”

“The hell he did,” Joe Marino said.

“He told her anything it was

she should stop lying about him.”

“Anyone else hear the threat, Candace?”

Jesse

said.

“No, but he said it.”

“Liar,” Bo said.

“See, nobody heard him,” Joe Marino said.

“It’s just his word

against hers.”

“Don’t force me to make that

choice,” Jesse said.

“What’s that mean,” Marino said.

“It means that I have found Bo to be a chronic liar, and a bad

creep.”

“See that, they’re all out to get me. I didn’t do nothing to the

bitch.”

Chuck Pennington stood up quite suddenly. He showed no change of

expression as he reached across the table and yanked Bo Marino out of his chair and dragged him headfirst over the table.

“Hey,” Joe Marino said and stood up.

Chuck Pennington punched Bo twice in the face with his left hand. Bo’s father grabbed Chuck from behind and wrestled him away

from Bo. Pennington shrugged Marino off, and turned and hit him a right hook that set Marino back on his heels and another one that knocked him down. Jesse put a hand softly on Candace’s shoulder.

Otherwise he did nothing. Bo floundered across the tabletop, his nose bleeding. He was a big kid, a weight lifter and a football player, but he looked like neither with the blood running down his face and tears welling in his eyes. He swung wildly at Chuck Pennington, who tucked his chin inside his left shoulder and let the punch slide off his arms. Then he hit Bo with a straight left and a right cross and Bo sat down hard on the floor. Bo’s father

was scrambling to his feet.

“Arrest him,” Joe Marino screamed at Jesse. “You saw it. I want

the sonovabitch arrested for assault.”

“Assault?” Jesse said.

“You seen him,” Marino shouted.

“Sit down, Mr. Pennington,” Jesse said.

“I promise you they

won’t assault you again.”

“Wait a minute,” Marino said.

“You was sitting right

here.”

Pennington sat down. He still had no expression on his face but

he was breathing a little harder. He didn’t look at his daughter,

who stared at him with her mouth open.

“And I saw you and your son insult Candace Pennington and

assault her father,” Jesse said. “You see it any different?”

“That’s the way I see it,” Chuck

Pennington said.

“Me too,” Candace said.

Her small voice was startling in the big room.

“He punched my kid for no reason,” Marino said.

Bo had gotten to his feet and was holding a paper napkin against

his bloody nose. He was crying.

“I think there was a reason, Mr. Marino,”

Jesse

said.

46

Jesse came into the Gray Gull out of the bright winter day, and

stood for a minute to let his eyes adjust. The maitre d‘ saw him

and came over with some menus under his arm.

“This isn’t a raid, is it,

Jesse?”

Jesse smiled.

“I’m meeting someone,” he said.

“I know, she’s here already. I put her by the window, that

okay?”

“Swell,” Jesse said.

Rita Fiore was sitting sideways to the table with her legs crossed, sipping a glass of white wine. She was wearing a black suit with a long jacket and a short skirt. Her white blouse had a low scoop neck, and the sun reflecting through the window off the harbor made her thick red hair glisten. She smiled at Jesse.

“I feel like I walked into some kind of fashion shoot,” Jesse

said.

“Yes,” Rita said as he sat down.

“My plan is that you’ll be so

taken with my appearance that you’ll do whatever I want.”

“It’s working,” Jesse said.

The maitre d‘ put the menu down in front of Jesse, took Jesse’s

order for a cranberry juice and soda, and departed.

“Thanks for meeting me,” Rita said.

“Didn’t want to run the press

gauntlet?”

“I thought it might be nicer if we stayed away from all of

that,” Rita said.

She sipped her wine and looked out at the harbor.

“This is a lovely spot,” she said.

“How’s the

food?”

“Adequate,” Jesse said. “The

view’s better.”

A waiter brought Jesse his cranberry and soda. He looked at Rita’s glass, and she shook her head. Sitting across from her,

Jesse could feel her energy. There was a sense of intelligence and of kinetic sensuality that radiated from her in equal portions.

“Are you thinking long thoughts?” Rita said.

“Mostly I’m thinking, wow!”

“Good,” Rita said. “I like

wow.”

“In the small moments between thinking wow, I’m wondering why

you wanted to see me.”

Rita looked at him for a while without speaking. Somehow she managed to sit with a wiggle. I wonder how she does that?

“Like so much in life,” Rita said,

“there are several reasons,

including the hope that you might in fact think wow.”

Jesse smiled. The waiter came. Rita ordered a Caesar salad.

Jesse ordered a club sandwich. The waiter left. Jesse waited.

“First, I now represent only Bo Marino,”

Rita

said.

“Nice,” Jesse said.

Rita wrinkled her nose.

“Everyone is entitled to the best defense he can get,” she

said.

“Which would be you.”

“Yes.”

“Reagan know?”

“I have so notified the Essex County DA.”

“So why tell me?”

Rita smiled.

“Because the Marinos wish to sue you for dereliction of

duty.”

“Is that in the penal code,” Jesse said.

“Not exactly,” Rita said. “But

pretty much everything is in

there if you’re a good enough lawyer. They are also suing Chuck

Pennington for assault.”

“Really?”

“They claim he assaulted them in your presence and you did

nothing to prevent it.”

“It all happened so quickly,” Jesse said.

“I’m sure,” Rita said.

“I can tell already that you’re kind of slow to react.”

“Well,” Jesse said, “the thing

is Bo attacked Chuck, who

responded in self-defense. Then Joe Marino jumped in and Chuck had to defend himself from both of them.”

“And you?”

“Broke it up as soon as I could,” Jesse said. “Restraining the

Marinos was difficult.”

Rita smiled faintly. “I’m sure,”

she said.

The club sandwich was cut into four triangles. Jesse picked up one of the triangles and bit off the point.

“And,” Rita said. “If I were to

talk with the Pennington father

and daughter, I’d probably hear the same story.”

“Sure,” Jesse said.

“Verbatim,” Rita said.

Jesse smiled. “We all saw the same thing,”

Jesse

said.

“And that’s how you’ll all

testify.”

“Absolutely,” Jesse said.

“So it will be your word against theirs.”

“And I’m a distinguished law officer here in Paradise,” Jesse

said. “And Bo is a rapist.”

Rita nodded and ate a crouton and looked out at the harbor, and

across at Paradise Neck, with Stiles Island at the tip, tethered by the new causeway.

“Did you know that Chuck Pennington was a boxer in college?” she

said.

“I did,” Jesse said.

Rita ate another crouton and half a romaine leaf.

“Doesn’t that make Bo seem kind of

foolhardy?” she

said.

“Bo isn’t smart enough to be

foolhardy,” Jesse said. “And, of

course, he didn’t know what Pennington did in college.”

“Be hard to demonstrate that he did,” Rita said.