Fool Me Twice Read online

  Fool Me Twice

  Jesse Stone [11]

  Brandman, Michael

  Penguin Group (2012)

  * * *

  Tags: Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone

  Robert B. Parkerttt Jesse Stonettt

  * * *

  Summer in Paradise, Massachusetts, is usually an idyllic season?—but not this time. A Hollywood movie company has come to town, and brought with it a huge cast, crew, and a troubled star. Marisol Hinton is very beautiful, reasonably talented, and scared out of her wits that her estranged husband's jealousy might take a dangerous turn. When she becomes the subject of a death threat, Jesse and the rest of the Paradise police department go on high alert.

  And when Jesse witnesses a horrifying collision caused by a distracted teenage driver, the political repercussions of her arrest bring him into conflict with the local selectment, the DA, and some people with very deep pockets. There's murder in the air, and it's Jesse's reputation as an uncompromising defender of the law—and his life—on the line.

  NOVELS BY ROBERT B. PARKER

  THE SPENSER NOVELS

  Robert B. Parker’s Lullaby

  (by Ace Atkins)

  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

  Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues

  (by Michael Brandman)

  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

  ALSO BY ROBERT B. PARKER

  Brimstone

  Resolution

  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)

  ROBERT B. PARKER’S

  FOOL ME TWICE

  A Jesse Stone Novel

  MICHAEL BRANDMAN

  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 © 2012 by the Estate of 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

  Brandman, Michael.

  Robert B. Parker’s Fool me twice : a Jesse Stone novel / Michael Brandman.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-101-60021-4

  1. Stone, Jesse (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. City and town life—Massachusetts—Fiction. 3. Police chiefs—Massachusetts—Fiction. I. Parker, Robert B., 1932–2010. II. Title. III. Title: Fool me twice.

  PS3602.R356R55 2012b 2012026694

  813'.6—dc23

  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.

  For Joanna,

  who makes the world go round . . .

  and for Joan and Bob

  Contents

  Also by Robert B. Parker

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  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

 
Acknowledgments

  Fool me once, shame on you.

  Fool me twice, shame on me.

  1

  Jesse Stone’s cruiser pulled up to the stop sign on Paradise Road, preparing to make a right turn onto Country Club Way.

  A warm fall breeze blew gently through the cruiser’s open windows. The red and yellow leaves of the elms and maples fluttered haphazardly in the wind. Jesse raised his face to the early-morning sun.

  He noticed the car on his left, a late-model Audi A5 coupe, come to a complete stop beside him.

  When the driver looked in his direction, Jesse nodded to him.

  The Audi pulled away and proceeded through the intersection.

  A Mercedes sedan barreled through the stop sign and broadsided the Audi. The Mercedes was doing at least fifty in a twenty-five-mile-per-hour zone.

  The Audi collapsed into itself. The impact punched it off the road and into a ditch, where it bounced precariously a couple of times before sliding to an upright stop.

  The alarm systems on both cars began to shriek. Front and side air bags deployed in a vicious rush of compressed air, pinning both drivers to their seats.

  The Mercedes was driven by a young female. Jesse had seen her looking down as she ran the stop sign. She must have been texting.

  He grabbed his cell phone and called the station.

  Molly Crane answered.

  “I’ve got a bad one at the corner of Paradise and Country Club. Send the entire sideshow. Ambulance. CSI unit. Hazmat team. Also Suitcase.”

  “I’m on it, Jesse.”

  “Oh, and call Carter Hansen, will you? Tell him I’ll be late.”

  Jesse switched on the flashing light bar on top of his cruiser and inched closer to the accident. He stopped in front of the Audi, got out, and walked over to it.

  The driver had been immobilized by the deployed air bags. He was sandwiched tightly between his seat and the bag.

  He was middle-aged and overweight, wearing a navy blue sport jacket, a button-down white dress shirt, and a gray-and-pink polka-dot bow tie. A chevron-style mustache concealed his upper lip. He was unconscious.

  Jesse called out to him.

  “Can you hear me, sir?”

  There was no response.

  Jesse pulled open the door. He reached inside, disabled the alarm system, and used his Leatherman to deflate the air bags.

  The man slumped back in his seat. Blood seeped from his nose.

  Jesse checked for a pulse.

  At least the guy was alive.

  Jesse turned and stepped over to the Mercedes.

  The teenage driver had also been pinned by the air bags. She wore a uniform bearing the insignia of one of Paradise’s best private schools. Unlike the other driver, she was awake and alert.

  “Are you hurt,” Jesse said.

  “I don’t think so,” she said.

  Jesse nodded.

  “Just get me out of this fucking car,” she said.

  Jesse looked at her. Satisfied that she wasn’t injured, he circled the Mercedes, checking for damage. Despite the intensity of the crash, the car was relatively intact. He opened the passenger-side door and spotted the item he was looking for.

  He walked back to the cruiser, retrieved an evidence bag, then returned to the Mercedes. Slipping a rubber glove on his right hand, he reached beneath the still-inflated air bag and grabbed the iPhone from the car floor.

  “What are you doing,” the girl said. “Why aren’t you getting me out of here?”

  Jesse ignored her.

  He bagged the phone and put it inside his cruiser.

  When he returned to the Mercedes, the girl was attempting to wriggle her way out of it.

  “Be easier if I deflate the air bags,” Jesse said.

  “Then what are you waiting for,” she said.

  Jesse poked the air bags with his Leatherman. He also disabled the alarm system. The quiet was a blessing.

  Now freed, the young woman opened her door and started to get out.

  Jesse pushed the door closed.

  “Stay where you are until the medics arrive.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” she said, struggling to open the door.

  “I’m instructing you not to get out of the car until you’re seen by a medic.”

  “I’m totally fine. Even a moron can see that.”

  Jesse looked at her.

  He removed a pair of handcuffs from his service belt. He grabbed the girl’s left wrist and cuffed it to the steering wheel.

  He heard sirens in the distance.

  “What do you think you’re doing,” she said.

  “You do know it’s illegal to text while driving?”

  The girl didn’t respond.

  “There’s an injured man in the car that you hit.”

  “It was an accident.”

  “Caused by you.”

  “Have you any idea who I am?”

  “Have you no concern for the other driver?”

  “Yeah, sure. Of course. Courtney Cassidy.”

  “What?”

  “I’m Courtney Cassidy.”

  “Nicely alliterative.”

  “What?”

  Jesse remained silent.

  “My father is Richard Cassidy.”

  The sirens grew closer.

  “I want my phone,” she said.

  “It’s been placed into evidence.”

  “What do you mean it’s been placed into evidence?”

  “I confiscated it.”

  “I want to speak to my father.”

  “You can make a phone call when you get to the police station.”

  “I’m not going to the police station.”

  Jesse looked at her for a few moments. Then he walked away.

  “Hey,” she called after him.

  He ignored her.

  She called again.

  “Hey, dickwad,” she said.

  Another police cruiser and an ambulance appeared on Paradise Road, sirens blaring, lights flashing. They pulled to a stop near Courtney’s Mercedes.

  Suitcase Simpson emerged from the cruiser. He spotted Jesse and walked toward him.

  Two EMTs got out of the ambulance. Jesse pointed them to the Audi.

  “What happened,” Suitcase said.

  “Girl was texting. She ran the stop sign and hit the Audi.”

  Suitcase looked over at her.

  “Why is she cuffed to the steering wheel?”

  “Disobedience.”

  “Okay.”

  “If the medics clear her, you can arrest her.”

  “Charges?”

  “Reckless endangerment. Running a stop sign. Texting while driving. Resisting arrest. Arrogance.”

  “I don’t think arrogance is a chargeable offense, Jesse,” Suitcase said.

  “Okay. Forget arrogance. Make a big deal out of reading her her rights, though. Do it slowly and deliberately.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t like her,” Jesse said.

  The medics were now at the Mercedes, evaluating Courtney. One of them stepped away and spoke to Jesse and Suitcase.

  “Guy’s floating in and out of it,” he said. “Looks like he suffered some head trauma. We’ll take him to Paradise General.”

  “The girl,” Jesse said.

  “She seems okay,” the medic said. “If you’re going to have an accident, probably best it be in a Mercedes.”

  “You taking her to the hospital, too,” Suitcase said.

  “We’re not quite finished examining her, but it doesn’t appear necessary. Is there anyone who can remove the handcuffs, by the way?”

  Jesse handed the key to Suitcase.

  “Cell phones,” Jesse said with a snort. “Big-time dangerous. There need to be more serious consequences for using them while driving. The current laws are a joke.”

  After her handcuffs were removed, Courtney got out of the damaged Mercedes and headed in Jesse’s direction.

  She mi
ght one day be pretty, Jesse thought, but today wasn’t that day. Her flat-ironed yellow hair hung limply around her plain round face, still plump with the last vestiges of baby fat. Her makeup was heavy and inexpertly applied. Her green plaid uniform was as flattering as a prison jumpsuit. Her pale blue eyes, however, flashed defiance.

  “Will one of you call my parents. I want to go home,” she said.

  “No, ma’am,” Jesse said.

  She moved closer to him.

  “I said I want to go home.”

  “You’re under arrest,” Jesse said. “You’re going to jail.”

  “Arrest?”

  “Correct.”

  “You can’t arrest me. I’m Courtney Cassidy.”

  Jesse looked at her.

  Then he turned to Suitcase and said, “Book her, Danno.”

  2

  The insistent ringing of the doorbell at her Beverly Hills estate finally caught Marisol Hinton’s attention.

  She struggled to stand. Once she was on her feet, she was reminded of the pain all over again.

  She peered through the peephole. Standing outside was her agent, Sarah Fine.

  Sarah was a severe-looking woman engaged in a losing battle with her weight. A loose-fitting black Armani suit worn over a gray silk blouse barely camouflaged her problem. The five-hundred-dollar José Eber haircut helped only a little.

  “I’m not really up for company,” Marisol said, loudly enough for Sarah to hear.

  “I’ll keep ringing until you let me in,” Sarah said.

  After a while, Marisol sighed, unlocked the door, and stepped aside so that Sarah could enter. Then she closed the door and locked it.

  Marisol Hinton was currently one of Hollywood’s flavor-of-the-month starlets. She was an adroit comedienne, still a beauty at age twenty-seven, and sexy enough to hold the screen opposite the rash of young leading men who were themselves vying for stardom.

  “Let me look at you,” Sarah said.

  Marisol shied away, hiding her face.

  “Show me,” Sarah said.

  She turned her face to Sarah.

  Her left eye was deeply discolored and swollen shut. There was a cut on her left cheek, the result of his ring having raked her face when he hit her.

  “My God,” Sarah said. “You have to do something.”

  “I changed the locks. I heightened the security watch.”

  “That’s not enough. You have to call the police.”

  Marisol shrugged.