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  Stranger in Paradise

  ( Jessie Stone - 7 )

  Robert B Parker

  Stranger in Paradise

  THE SPENSER NOVELS

  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

  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

  ALSO BY ROBERT B. PARKER

  Appaloosa

  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)

  Stranger in Paradise

  ROBERT B. PARKER

  G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

  New York

  G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

  Publishers Since 1838

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA •

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:

  80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Copyright © 2008 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.

  Published simultaneously in Canada

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Parker, Robert B., date.

  Stranger in paradise / Robert B. Parker.

  p. cm.

  ISBN: 1-4295-9344-X

  1. Stone, Jesse (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Police—Massachusetts—Fiction. 3. Kidnapping—Fiction. 4. Police chiefs—Fiction. 5. Massachusetts—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3566.A686S77 2008b 2007044773

  813'.54—dc22

  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, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  For Joan: with whom I am no stranger

  Stranger in Paradise

  Contents

  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 49

  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

  1.

  Molly Crane stuck her head in the doorway to Jesse’s office.

  “Man here to see you,” she said. “Says his name’s Wilson Cromartie.”

  Jesse looked up. His eyes met Molly’s. Neither of them said anything. Then Jesse stood. His gun was in its holster on the file cabinet behind him. He took the gun from the holster and sat back down and put the gun in the top right-hand drawer of his desk and left the drawer open.

  “Show him in,” Jesse said.

  Molly went and in a moment returned with the man.

  Jesse nodded his head.

  “Crow,” he said.

  “Jesse Stone,” Crow said.

  Jesse pointed at a chair. Crow sat. He looked at the file cabinet.

  “Empty holster,” he said.

  “Gun’s in my desk drawer,” Jesse said.

  “And the drawer’s open,” Crow said.

  “Uh-huh.”
/>   Crow smiled. He seemed entirely calm. But so much energy had been compressed into his physical self that he seemed ready to explode.

  “No need,” Crow said.

  “Good to know,” Jesse said.

  “But you’re not shutting the drawer,” Crow said.

  “No,” Jesse said.

  Crow smiled again. It was hard to say exactly what it was, Jesse thought, but there was a vague trace of American Indian in his features, and his speech. Maybe he really was Apache.

  “Nothing wrong with cautious,” Crow said.

  “Last time I saw you was in a speedboat dashing off with a lot of money,” Jesse said.

  “Long time back,” Crow said. “Longer than the statute of limitations.”

  “I’d have to check,” Jesse said.

  “I did,” Crow said. “Ten years.”

  “Not for murder,” Jesse said.

  “You got no evidence I had anything to do with murder.”

  “Homicide during the commission of a felony,” Jesse said.

  “I doubt you could prove that,” Crow said. “All you know is I was with some people, and then I drove away in a speedboat to escape a shoot-out.”

  “With a guy who turned up dead, in a boat that turned up empty.”

  “Can’t tell you about that,” Crow said. “I got off the boat five miles up the coast.”

  “So you didn’t come here to turn yourself in,” Jesse said.

  “I got some business in Paradise,” Crow said. “I come here to see that you and I wouldn’t be scraping up against each other while I was here.”

  “Two of my cops died when the bridge to Stiles Island got blown,” Jesse said. “Some people on the island.”

  “Yeah,” Crow said. “Macklin was a bad guy.”

  “And you?” Jesse said.

  “Pussycat,” Crow said.

  “You gonna be in town long?” Jesse said.

  “Awhile,” Crow said.

  “Why?” Jesse said.

  “I’m looking for someone,” Crow said.

  “Why?”

  “Guy hired me,” Crow said.

  “Why you?”

  “I’m good at stuff like that,” Crow said. “The guy trusts me.”

  He grinned at Jesse.

  “And,” he said, “I know the territory.”

  “Me, too,” Jesse said.

  “I know,” Crow said. “And if we can’t coexist it’ll make my job a lot harder. That’s why I stopped by.”

  “Who you looking for?” Jesse said.

  “Don’t have a name,” Crow said.

  “Ever seen him?”

  Crow shook his head.

  “Got a picture?”

  “Not a good one,” Crow said.

  “Want to show it to me?” Jesse said.

  “No.”

  “So how you going to find him?’

  “I’ll work something out,” Crow said.

  “What happens when you find him?”

  “I report to my employer,” Crow said.

  Jesse nodded slowly. “As long as I have you in town,” he said, “I’m going to do everything I can to put together a case against you.”

  “I figured that,” Crow said. “I say you won’t be able to.”

  “Limitation is sort of complicated,” Jesse said. “There was bank robbery involved, kidnapping, these fall under federal statutes. I’ll talk to an ADA tomorrow, see what they can tell me.”

  “Ten years covers most things,” Crow said.

  “We’re going to watch you all the time you’re in town,” Jesse said.

  “But you’re not going to harass me.”

  “If we can put a case together on you, we’ll arrest you,” Jesse said.

  “Until then?” Crow said.

  “We’ll wait and watch,” Jesse said.

  Crow nodded. The two men sat silently until Crow spoke.

  “You know about me,” he said.

  “I checked you out,” Jesse said. “When you were here before.”

  “What they tell you,” Crow said.

  “Be very careful,” Jesse said.

  Crow smiled.

  “Macklin was good,” Crow said.

  Jesse nodded.

  “I wasn’t sure anybody could take him,” Crow said.

  “Except you?” Jesse said.

  “Except me.”

  “Now you know,” Jesse said.

  Crow nodded. They were quiet again. Both men motionless, looking at each other.

  “You let the hostages go,” Jesse said.

  Crow nodded.

  “They were all women,” he said.

  “Yes,” Jesse said.

  They looked at each other some more. The room felt charged, Jesse thought, as if a thunderstorm were near. Then Crow rose gracefully to his feet.

  “I guess we know where we stand,” Crow said.

  “Stop by anytime,” Jesse said.

  Crow smiled and went out the door, past Suitcase Simpson, who was leaning on the wall just to the right of Jesse’s door, and past Molly Crane, who was on the other side.

  Crow nodded at them both.

  “Officers,” he said.

  And went on out of the station.

  2.

  Molly and Suit came into the office.

  “I remember him,” Simpson said.

  “I called Suit in from patrol,” Molly said. “I thought extra backup would be good.”

  “What’d he want?” Suit said.

  Jesse told them.

  “Brazen bastard,” Simpson said.

  Molly and Jesse both looked at him.

  “Brazen?” Molly said.

  Suit grinned.

  “I been taking some night courses,” he said.

  “You have no idea who he’s looking for?” Molly said to Jesse.

  Jesse shook his head. “I’m not sure Crow does, either,” he said.

  “He say what he’d do when he found him?” Molly said.

  “Said he’d check with his employer.”

  “Guy like that looking for somebody,” Simpson said, “not good for the somebody.”

  “No, it’s not,” Jesse said.

  “Think he’ll find him?” Molly said.

  “Yes.”

  “Hard to make a ten-year-old case,” Molly said.

  Jesse nodded.

  “Isn’t he some kind of Indian?” Simpson said.

  “Claims he’s Apache,” Jesse said.

  “You believe him?”

  “He’s something,” Jesse said.

  “He’s a hunk,” Molly said.

  “A hunk?” Simpson said.

  “He’s absolutely gorgeous,” Molly said.

  “Isn’t he a contract killer, Jesse?” Simpson said.

  “That’s what they tell me,” Jesse said. “Probably part of his charm.”

  “Probably is,” Molly said. “It makes him sort of exciting.”

  “Not if the contract’s on you,” Jesse said.

  “No, but there’s something about how complete he is, how, what, interior, independent.”

  “Power,” Jesse said.

  “Yes,” Molly said. “He reeks of power.”

  “I guess I better take more night courses,” Simpson said. “I don’t know what you people are talking about.”

  “He’s a little like you, Jesse,” Molly said.

  “Except that I just reek.”

  “No. You have that same silent center. Nothing will make you turn aside. Nothing will make you back up. It’s…what do the shrinks call it…?”

  “Autonomy,” Jesse said.

  “Yes. Both of you are, like, autonomous,” Molly said. “Except maybe you have scruples.”

  “Maybe he does, too,” Jesse said.

  “For fantasy purposes,” Molly said, “I hope not.”

  “Fantasy?” Simpson said. “Molly, how long you been married?”

  “Fifteen years.”

  “And you got how many kids?”

  �
��Four.”

  “And you are going to have sex fantasies about some Apache hit man?”

  Molly smiled at Simpson.

  “You better believe it,” Molly said.

  3.

  “I wish to have nothing to do with this,” Mrs. Snowdon said when Molly showed her a picture of Crow.

  “Have you ever seen him before?” Molly said.

  “No.”

  They were in the vast Snowdon living room in the huge Snowdon house on Stiles Island. Mrs. Snowdon sat on her couch with her feet on the floor and her knees pressed together and her hands clasped tightly in her lap. Suit stood across the room by the French doors to the patio. Molly sat on a hassock across from Mrs. Snowdon.

  She looks too small for the gun belt, Suit thought. But she’s not.

  “Was he here with other men when they looted the island,” Molly said, “and locked you and your husband up in the lavatory?”

  “Late husband,” Mrs. Snowdon said.

  Her blue steel hair was rigidly waved. She wore a black-and-red flowered dress and a red scarf, and a very large diamond-crusted wedding ring.

  “Was this man in the picture one of the men?” Molly said.

  “I don’t wish to discuss it,” Mrs. Snowdon said.

  “Are you afraid?”

  “My husband is deceased,” Ms. Snowdon said. “I am a woman alone.”

  “The best way to ensure your safety is to give us reason to arrest him.”

  “I will not even consider it,” Mrs. Snowdon said. “It was a moment in my life I decline to relive.”

  “Has he threatened you?”

  “Threatened? He’s here? In Paradise?”

  “Yes.”

  “My God, why don’t you arrest him?”

  Standing by the door, Suitcase smiled without comment.

  “If you’d help us,” Molly said.

  “I’m not a policeman,” she said. “It’s your job to arrest him.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Molly said. “But we’re not allowed to arrest anybody we feel like. At the moment our only hope would be that he could be charged with participating in a capital crime. Otherwise the statute of limitations applies.”

  “He has to have killed someone?”

  “Someone had to die in a criminal enterprise of which he was a member,” Molly said.

  “Oh, God,” Mrs. Snowdon said. “Gobbledygook. A number of people were killed, weren’t they?”