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can.”
    I sat there and watched Jesse walk out of the shop. As he reached the street, a police car pulled up. I could see that it was Greg who was driving. Jesse leaned in the window and the two chatted for a moment, then Jesse hit the door of the car and shouted something. Greg got out of the car, and Jesse got behind the wheel. He sped away nearly knocking down his best officer in the process.
    Greg walked toward the coffee shop and I willed him to come inside. Greg was very loyal to his boss, and my going into the street to ask what had happened would make him uncomfortable. And it would definitely be something he’d feel obligated to tell Jesse. I needed any conversation we had to seem casual, something Greg would see as two friends talking and therefore wouldn’t bother to relay. I hated manipulating Greg, but Jesse was keeping something from me. As much as I didn’t want to drive him further away by pushing too hard, I wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing while he was in need of help.
    When Greg walked into Jitters, I started to get up, ready to head to the counter for a refill on my coffee so I could bump into him. But just as I heard Greg give Carrie his order, someone hit me on the back of the head.

C HAPTER 6
    â€œN ell Fitzgerald. What are you doing sitting there?” Maggie Sweeney’s gray hair was piled high on her head, her Laura Ashley–style dress peeked out from a heavy brown wool coat. She was my grandmother’s age, and her match in personality and practicality. She was also one of my dearest friends.
    â€œWhere am I supposed to be sitting?” I asked. Greg took his coffee to go and walked out of the shop. He glanced my way, looking nervous. Maybe he’d hoped to accidently bump into me, too. “Why did you hit me?”
    Maggie plopped down next to me on the couch. “It’s a bag of fabric. You’ll recover. Besides I called your name and you ignored me. Awful morning. How is Jesse holding up?”
    I shrugged, repeating the same line to Maggie I’d given to Carrie. Just thinking about it made me feel helpless.
    â€œWell, we’ll all do what we can,” she said. “I’m bringing a lasagna over to his house this afternoon, as well as my banana bread.”
    â€œI love your banana bread.”
    â€œThen I’ll bring you some, too.” She patted my hand. “Poor Jesse. So much loss for such a young man. This was a good friend?”
    â€œI think so. He’s never talked about him before, but they were partners on the police force when Jesse lived in the city.”
    â€œCurious that he came up to see Jesse. This Roger Leighton didn’t call, didn’t e-mail. He came in person with no warning.”
    â€œHe must not have wanted to risk anyone else finding out that he was coming up here.”
    Maggie nodded. “He was just waiting in his car outside Jesse’s house, poor man, like a duck in an arcade booth.”
    I felt a knot tighten in my stomach. “I think I may be partially to blame,” I confessed. “I think Roger might have been waiting for me to leave.”
    Maggie narrowed her eyes. “But you’re assuming that Roger was coming to Jesse for help. It’s also possible he was coming to harm him,” she said. “Your being there might have prevented Jesse from being killed.” I hadn’t considered that. “Jesse is a strong man with good people who love him. You’ll be there for him, and we’ll all . . .” She hesitated until she found the right way to say it, “we’ll all help in the way we like to help.”
    â€œCan you check into him? Roger Leighton, I mean. Maybe there’s a newspaper article or something that’ll give us a clue.”
    Maggie nodded. “I’ll start looking this afternoon. And Carrie still has her friends from her days in the banking industry. Maybe there’s something in his