You're sure? Jesse said.

I got no idea, Katie said.

Jesse nodded and took a breath.

Okay, he said. There's no easy way to say it. I have a videotape of you having sex with a man named Harrison Darnell.

You're lying, Katie said. It's not me.

No, honey, Jesse said. It's you.

Mrs. DeWolfe said in a strangled voice, Katie? No way, Katie said.

I can play the tape, Jesse said.

It's not me.

Jesse nodded. He picked up the remote from his desk and aimed it and clicked and the tape began to roll with a closeup of Katie's face, looking straight up at the camera over a man's shoulder. Katie dropped her head and closed her eyes. Her mother stared at the tape. The camera pulled back to show the two of them naked and copulating.

Stop it, Mrs. DeWolfe said. For Christ's sake, stop it. Jesse clicked the tape off.

She's fifteen, Mrs. DeWolfe said.

I know, Jesse said.

Mrs. DeWolfe looked at Molly.

Molly, for crissake, she said, what am I supposed to do? If Katie cooperates, Molly said, we can probably work something out?

Cooperates? Katie said. I didn't do nothing wrong.

No, Jesse said. But he did.

I'm not ratting Harrison out, she said. No way. No way. Mrs. DeWolfe said, Katie, my God.

Oh, like you're so lily pure. You been oinkin' a different guy every week since Daddy left.

Katie, that's not true. And if it were, it doesn't mean you should. I'm a grown woman, for God's sake.

So am I, Katie said.

She stuck her chest out, so that her small breasts pushed against her cotton tank top.

You seen the movies.

Her mother slapped her across the face. Katie slapped back at her and her mother gripped her wrists and they grappled there, still seated. Jesse put his head back against the back of his swivel chair and closed his eyes for a moment.

Molly, he said.

But Molly was already up and separating the two women. Jesse opened his eyes.

Who's on the desk? he said.

Arthur, Molly said.

Jesse picked up the phone and called the desk.

Arthur, he said. Step into my office for a moment. He hung up and the door opened and Arthur Angstrom stood there.

Take Mrs. DeWolfe out to the front, Jesse said. Get her seated and be sure she stays there until I holler.

Okay, Jesse.

I'm not going anywhere, Mrs. DeWolfe said.

You are, ma'am, Jesse said. Easy? Or hard?

She lingered for a minute but Jesse could tell her heart wasn't in it and she stood.

I'll be right outside, she said to her daughter.

Arthur took her arm and they went out. Molly closed the office door. Jesse leaned back in his chair and looked at Katie. She looked back at him, trying for defiance.

So? she said.

Jesse smiled.

So, he said.

Like you never had sex?

I'm proud to say I did have sex, and hope to again, Jesse said.

So, you think I'm too young?

Probably, Jesse said.

You never had sex when you was my age?

No, Jesse grinned again. But it wasn't for lack of trying. Everybody my age has had sex, she said.

Probably not all of them with a stranger forty years older, in front of a video camera, Jesse said.

Turn you on? she said.

She looked at him with her eyes wide open. Jesse looked back. Big, blue, innocent and stupid, he thought.

You were maybe the twenty-fifth person I looked at, Jesse said. I was a long way past turning on.

So, you gonna arrest me, or what?

I don't quite know what to do with you, Katie. Let's try talking about things, just sort of pleasantly. I won't be a tough guy, and you won't be a sexpot, and we'll see where the conversation takes us.

She frowned, trying to puzzle out what he had said. You married?

Divorced, Jesse said.

Got a girlfriend?

Jesse smiled. Actually, I'm living with my ex-wife, he said.

That's weird.

Jesse continued to smile.

Yes, he said. It certainly is.

If you're divorced, how come you live together. It has to do with love, Jesse said.

You love her?

I think we love each other, Jesse said.

So how come you got divorced?

Long answer, Jesse said. The short version is, we had problems we couldn't solve.

And now you can?

Maybe.

You gonna get married again?

I don't know.

They got divorced five years ago, Katie said.

Your parents, Jesse said.

Yes, Katie said. I don't care.

Jesse nodded.

And I don't want you giving me a lot of crap about broken homes and that shit, Katie said.

Okay, Jesse said.

I always been kind of wild, she said.

Must worry the hell out of your mother, Jesse said. She's scared out of her gourd I'll get pregnant, like she did. Which was why she married your father?

Yeah, and had me.

Your father worry about you? Jesse said.

He's in Louisville, Kentucky, she said.

So you don't see him so often.

For sure, she made it one word. He got married again. Got a kid.

And, Jesse said, I gather your mother dates.

She's boy crazy, Katie said. Like me.

Or occasionally, Jesse said, man crazy.

You mean Harrison? Yeah. I really showed him something. He said he couldn't believe how great I was. He's got this huge yacht and tons of money. My mother's probably jealous. She's always pigging these losers.

So how'd you meet Harrison? Jesse said.

Actually I met Tommy first and he introduced me to Harrison.

Tommy? Jesse said.

Tommy Ralston. He's got a yacht, too. The Sea Cloud. How'd you meet Tommy? Jesse said.

Cathleen Holton, Katie said. Cathleen brought a bunch of us out to Tommy's boat. She said it was a chance to meet some really cool guys.

She have a boat? Jesse said.

Naw, Tommy sent a launch for us.

How many were you?

Excuse me?

How many of you went out.

Me, she said. And Cathleen, Beth, Nancy and Brittany, five all together.

All around your age?

I'm the youngest, she said. I always hang around with older kids.

Jesse nodded.

Tell me about what happened on the boat.