Robert B. Parker's Debt to Pay Read Online Free Page A

his gunshot wounds and had taken Molly’s place on patrol. Gabe Weathers had finally returned after his long, painful rehab. And, most surprising of all, the town had let him take on a new officer.
    â€œYeah,” Molly said. “We had some more vandalism along Scrimshaw.”
    â€œTires again?”
    Molly nodded. “Two cars parked a block apart.”
    â€œAnyone see anything?”
    â€œNothing.”
    â€œWho’s over there?”
    â€œAlisha.”
    â€œThe new kid,” Jesse said. “What do you think of her?”
    â€œHey, if you think I’m going to bad-mouth another female officer—”
    He cut her off. “Come on, Molly.”
    â€œShe’s very good, Jesse. I hate to say it, but you’ve got the knack for spotting people cut out for this work.”
    â€œThanks. Okay, I’m heading home. I’ll be in early. Who’s on the desk in the morning?”
    â€œAlisha. I’m doing what you said, scheduling her so she learns the whole job.”
    He nodded his approval, then turned with a wave good night. As he headed out to the Explorer, he didn’t like the feeling in his gut. Something about the vandalism was bothering him, something like the sight of those clouds at the softball field. Just as he reached his SUV, the sky opened up.

SIX
    F ull control of her body still eluded Diana Evans, not that she was so anxious to have it back. The intensity and frequency of these tremors and aftershocks were one of the perks of loving Jesse Stone. She had always enjoyed sex. But it had been this way with Jesse ever since that first drunken encounter in New York. Now that she was with him, she had trouble believing she had been willing to risk losing him. For the moment, though, she was content to feel his strong arms around her, to feel his body pressed to her back, and to listen to the crackle of far-off thunder. Rain pelted the windows as her muscles began to finally relax. She watched the wind make the tree shadows dance against the bedroom walls.
    When she felt Jesse stir, she said, “Could you get me a drink?”
    â€œSure.”
    He rolled out of bed and headed downstairs to the bar. There was no protest about how he wasn’t drinking anymore. No complaints about how her drinking made it harder on him. That was one of the other things she loved about Jesse, his oneness. Molly called it his self-containment. But whatever you called it, Diana realized that some women would have been put off or intimidated by it. Not her.She wasn’t looking for a man to complete her. She’d been looking for a complete man and she’d found him. And Jesse seemed as content with her as she was with him, seemed to love in her the same things she loved in him. Yet as she lay there in the dark, the room full of the raw scent of sex, of their sweat and her crushed herbs and cut-grass perfume, she worried about losing him. Losing him not to another woman, but to the memory of another woman. She wasn’t afraid about competing with a real woman, but it’s impossible to compete with a memory.
    When Jesse walked back through the bedroom doorway, the ice rattling around in the glass, she sat up in bed. She shook out her hair, gathered it in her hand, and tossed it over one shoulder. He handed her the scotch.
    â€œDon’t lick your fingers,” she said, a smile in her voice.
    â€œNo worries.”
    Diana took a sip, sighed. “Jesse . . . I . . .” Her voice faded into the noise of the rain.
    She had tried to have this conversation with him a couple of times since the invitation had arrived a few weeks back, but whenever she tried to put words to her fears, she felt a fool. She had tried waiting Jesse out, hoping he would bring it up to her. That wasn’t going to happen. If there was a negative to Jesse’s oneness, it was his silence. He was a man who kept his cards close to his vest, a man who liked to work