Robert B Parker: The Jesse Stone Novels 1-5 Read online

  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

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  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.)

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n’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

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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 mass-market edition / July 2001

  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,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ISBN: 978-0-425-18396-0

  BERKLEY®

  Berkley Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  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 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

  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.