Thirty-Seven Jimmy

THIRTY-SEVEN

Jimmy

JIMMY IS NEARLY TO Amagansett when Jane calls to tell him she's making the short drive over to Jacobson's rental house.

Jimmy tells her he'll meet her there. Jimmy knows Jacobson prefers meeting with Jane alone, but Jimmy's convinced Jacobson has the hots for her, whether or not he's ever verbalized that. Even the idea of them together gives Jimmy the creeps.

"Somebody take another shot at him?" Jimmy asks.

"I'm sure he would have mentioned it."

"Can't blame me for being a dreamer," Jimmy says.

She looks more tired than usual when Jacobson lets him in, as if she needs getting out of the house about as much as she needs a hole in the head. But she's here, and Jimmy knows why.

Because she's Jane.

"Rob seems to think that everything that's happened and keeps happening might all be connected."

"Yeah, it is," Jimmy says. "Connected to his sorry ass."

Jimmy sees Jacobson start to say something, then swallow it. It has been a while since Jacobson went out of his way to piss Jimmy off.

"Listen," Jacobson says. "I know you don't like me, or like working for me. But we're still on the same team here."

"Even though I keep asking myself who chose up these sides," Jimmy says. "And for the record, how were we all on the same team when you knew Joe Champi was ready to take her out one day when he left the big house you used to live in?"

"I couldn't control him. Nobody could!"

"So you were just going to let Jane put him out of your misery."

"This isn't getting us anywhere," Jane says, sounding like a referee. "So, before I fall asleep in this chair, Rob, why don't you explain why you got me over here?"

"I think the whole thing actually runs through Eddie Mc-Kenzie," he says.

He talks for a long time then about McKenzie, how he was like a little brother Jacobson bullied. About how obsessed Mc-Kenzie was with him, wanting everything Jacobson wanted, starting with girls in high school. And how obsessed McKenzie became later after the kid he treated like his hero set him up on the rape.

"So he waits all this time and starts killing people just to frame you?" Jimmy asks him.

"In a word? Yes," Jacobson says calmly.

"So he's the mastermind of a conspiracy as complex as the plan to get bin Laden?" Jane asks. "Seriously?"

"I'm not saying he did it by himself," Jacobson says. "But I've done some checking."

"Leave the investigating to us, hotshot," Jimmy says.

Jacobson ignores Jimmy and turns to Jane. "May I finish?"

She nods. "Proceed."

"So, I asked around and found one more thing that scared the shit out of me, as if that was even possible after I nearly got my ass shot off."

"What did you find out?" Jane asks.

"Not what as much as who," Jacobson says. "Turns out there was a guy who was a body man for Eddie and his old man, the way Joe Champi was for my dad and me. I just never knew until now."

"A fixer, you mean," Jane says.

She throws a nod at Jimmy.

"The guy who jumped me talked about fixing things, and for us to not go around trying to unfix them," Jimmy says.

"Licata is his name." Jacobson is looking at Jimmy now. "Ex-cop. You ever hear of him?"

"As a matter of fact, I think I ran into him not long ago," Jimmy says.

"Where?" Jacobson asks.

"My house."