The Jesse Stone Novels 1 – 5
Night Passage
Trouble In Paradise
Death in Paradise
Stone Cold
Sea Change
Robert B Parker
Praise for the Jesse Stone novels by “America’s mystery maestro” (Forbes) . . .
Night Passage
“Jesse Stone is a complex and consistently interesting new protagonist.”—Newsday
“The reigning champion of the American tough-guy detective novel, heavyweight division . . . The man has rarely composed a bad sentence or an inert paragraph. [Night Passage] proves no exception.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Stunning.”—Houston Chronicle
“A fast-paced, character-driven tale that practically reads itself.”—The Raleigh News & Observer
“A first-rate, engrossing book.”—The Florida Times-Union
“A genuine page-turner.”—Hartford Courant
High Profile
“Crisply etched characters . . . smooth, lean prose. There is a level of narrative tension—and plain polished professionalism—below which Parker is incapable of descending. High Profile will repay a quick read with . . . the wit, suspense, and psychological sophistication readers who know Parker’s work happily associate with him.”—The Boston Globe
“It’s easy to overlook how fine the writing is because Parker’s style rarely calls attention to itself, going down so easy that you can forget you are reading. His books are not so much read as inhaled.”—The Associated Press
“Parker’s most complex, ambitious novel in years. Great reading from an old hand who hasn’t lost his touch.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Robert B. Parker’s books . . . are always delightful page-turners. High Profile is no exception.”—The Tampa Tribune
“The [Jesse Stone] series deserves its own praise. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal
Sea Change
“A stunning performance by Parker.”—The Providence Journal
“A triumph.”—Boston Herald
“Crackles with wisecracks.”—Forbes
“Parker is dead-on here . . . the story swirls from whodunit into an absorbing whydunit.”—Booklist
“Strong enough to rank near [Parker’s] best.”—Kirkus Reviews
Stone Cold
“If Spenser is the invincible knight, the timeless hero of American detective fiction, then Jesse Stone is the flawed hero of the moment, a man whose deficiencies define his humanity . . . You want to cheer.”—The New York Times Book Review
“First-rate . . . Parker is in roaring good form in this one.”—The Boston Globe
“Moves like a speeding bullet. Parker doesn’t waste a word.”—Orlando Sentinel
“Parker illuminates the dark-cornered minds of sociopaths. Prose as clear and potent as a fine vodka.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Parker adroitly manages to keep the suspense quotient high.”—The Washington Post Book World
Death in Paradise
“[Parker’s found] the pitch-perfect voice for a guy who is straining every muscle to cut down on the booze, hang on to his new job as police chief and not get rattled by the body of a teenage girl.”—The New York Times
“One of the master’s best . . . A page-turner . . . as good as it gets.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Dead-on.”—St. Petersburg Times
“Hard-hitting . . . and brutally frank . . . Death in Paradise is a tough, clear-eyed, sardonic look at life and the raw deals it can dish out.”—The Providence Sunday Journal
Trouble in Paradise
“This book is so good, there’s not enough R’s in terrific.”—The Kansas City Star
“Tough and tight.”—Publishers Weekly
“A blast of the page-turning energy [Parker’s] famous for.”—New York Post
“You’ve got to like Stone . . . Harks back to Spenser and, before him, Sam Spade.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Parker’s plot is built like a smooth-running Ducati engine.”—The Sunday Newark Star-Ledger
“Parker’s new series continues explosively . . . Parker does an excellent job of building tension and weaving several subplots into an explosive finale.”—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
THE SPENSER NOVELS
Sixkill
Painted Ladies
The Professional
Rough Weather
Now & Then
Hundred-Dollar Baby
School Days
Cold Service
Bad Business
Back Story
Widow’s Walk
Potshot
Hugger Mugger
Hush Money
Sudden Mischief
Small Vices
Chance
Thin Air
Walking Shadow
Paper Doll
Double Deuce
Pastime
Stardust
Playmates
Crimson Joy
Pale Kings and Princes
Taming a Sea-Horse
A Catskill Eagle
Valediction
The Widening Gyre
Ceremony
A Savage Place
Early Autumn
Looking for Rachel Wallace
The Judas Goat
Promised Land
Mortal Stakes
God Save the Child
The Godwulf Manuscript
THE JESSE STONE NOVELS
Split Image
Night and Day
Stranger in Paradise
High Profile
Sea Change
Stone Cold
Death in Paradise
Trouble in Paradise
Night Passage
THE SUNNY RANDALL NOVELS
Spare Change
Blue Screen
Melancholy Baby
Shrink Rap
Perish Twice
Family Honor
THE VIRGIL COLE/EVERETT HITCH NOVELS
Blue-Eyed Devil
Brimstone
Resolution
Appaloosa
ALSO BY ROBERT B. PARKER
A Triple Shot of Spenser
Double Play
Gunman’s Rhapsody
All Our Yesterdays
A Year at the Races
(with Joan H. Parker)
Perchance to Dream
Poodle Springs
(with Raymond Chandler)
Love and Glory
Wilderness
Three Weeks in Spring
(with Joan H. Parker)
Training with Weights
(with John R. Marsh)
Night Passage
Robert B. Parker
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
NIGHT PASSAGE
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
G. P. Putnam’s Sons hardcover edition / September 1997
Jove mass-market edition / November 1998
Berkley premium edition / February 2008
Copyright © 1997 by Robert B. Parker.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
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375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-0-425-18396-0
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30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Contents
Cover
Praise for Robert B. Parker
Also by Robert B. Parker
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
For Joan:
Anywhere you are is Shangri-La
Chapter 1
At the end of the continent, near the foot of Wilshire Boulevard, Jesse Stone stood and leaned on the railing in the darkness above the Santa Monica beach and stared at nothing, while below him the black ocean rolled away toward Japan.
There was no traffic on Ocean Avenue. There was the comfortless light of the streetlamps, but they were behind him. Before him was the uninterrupted darkness above the repetitive murmur of the disdainful sea.
A black-and-white cruiser pulled up and parked behind his car at the curb. A spotlight shone on it and one of the cops from the cruiser got out and looked into it. Then the spotlight swept along the verge of the cliffs and touched Jesse and went past him and came back and held. The strapping young L.A. patrolman walked over to him, holding his flashlight near the bulb end, the barrel of it resting on his shoulder, so he could use it as a club if he needed to. The young cop asked Jesse if he was all right. Jesse said he was, and the young cop asked him why he was standing there at four in the morning. The cop looked about twenty-four. Jesse felt like he could be his father, though in fact he was maybe ten years older.
“I’m a cop,” Jesse said.
“Got a badge?”
“Was a cop. I’m leaving town, just thought I’d stand here awhile before I went.”
“That your car?” he said.
Jesse nodded.
“What division you work out of?” the young cop said.
“Downtown, Homicide.”
“Who runs it?”
“Captain Cronjager.”
“I can smell booze on you,” the young cop said.
“I’m waiting to sober up.”
“I can drive you home in your car,” the young cop said. “My partner will follow in the black and white.”
“I’ll stay here till I’m sober,” Jesse said.
“Okay,” the young cop said and went back to the cruiser and the cruiser pulled away. No one else came by. There was no sound except the tireless movement of the thick black water. Behind him the streetlights became less stark, and he realized he could see the first hint of the pier to his left. He turned slowly and looked back at the city behind him and saw that it was almost dawn. The streetlights looked yellow now, and the sky to the east was white. He looked back at the ocean once, then walked to his car and got in and started up. He drove along Ocean Avenue to the Santa Monica Freeway and turned onto it and headed east. By the time he passed Boyle Heights the sun was up and shining into his eyes as he drove straight toward it. Say goodbye to Hollywood, say goodbye my baby.
Chapter 2
Tom Carson sat in the client chair across the desk from Hastings Hathaway in the president’s office of the Paradise Trust. He felt uneasy, as if he were in the principal’s office. He didn’t like the feeling. He was the chief of police, people were supposed to feel uneasy confronting him.
“You can quietly resign, Tom,” Hathaway said, “and relocate, we’ll be happy to help you with that financially, or you can, ah, face the consequences.”
“Consequences?” Carson tried to sound stern, but he could feel the bottom falling out of him.
“For you, and if necessary, I suppose, for your wife and your children.”
Carson cleared his throat, and felt ashamed that he’d had to.
“Such as?” he said as strongly as he could, trying hard to keep his gaze steady on Hathaway.
Why was Hathaway so scary? He was a geeky guy. In the eighth grade, before Hasty had gone away to school, Tom Carson had teased him. So had everyone else. Hathaway smiled. It was a thin geeky smile and it frightened Tom Carson further.
“We have resources, Tom. We could turn the problem over to Jo Jo and his associates, or, depending upon circumstance, we could deal with it ourselves. I don’t want that to happen. I’m your friend, Tom. I have so far been able to control the, ah, firebrands, but you’ll have to trust me. You’ll have to do what I ask.”
“Hasty,” Carson said. “I’m the chief of police, for crissake.”
Hathaway shook his head.
“You can’t just say I’m not,” Carson said.
“You don’t make the rules in this town, Tom.”
“And you do?” Carson said.
His face felt stiff as he spoke and his arms and hands felt weak.
“We do, Tom. Emphasis on the ‘We.’ ”
Carson was silent, staring at Hathaway. The mention of Jo Jo had made him feel loose and fragmented inside. Hathaway took a thick stationery-sized manila envelope from his middle drawer.
“You aren’t much of a policeman, Tom, and it was just a sad accident that you learned things. But you did, and you were right to come first to me. I’ve been able to save you so far from the consequences of your knowledge.”
“What if I went to the FBI with this?”
“This is what I’m trying to forestall,” Hathaway said. “Other people, people like Jo Jo, would prevail. And your family . . .” Hathaway shrugged and held the shrug for a moment, and sighed as if to himself, before he continued.