Robert Crais - Free Fall

PRAISE FOR ROBERT CRAIS
AND THE ELVIS COLE NOVELS

The dialogues clever, and the actions lean and pictorial, with gunshots pinging like mad pinballs.

Voice Literary Supplement

Cole delivers the goods in the kind of bravura performance only a pro can give.

Kirkus Reviews

This novel shows why the Elvis Cole series has become one of crime fictions best.

Detroit Free Press

Sue Graftons Kinsey Milhone has become a fixture in the genre [and] Robert Craiss Elvis Cole ought to become one, too. Cole is fast replacing Spenser as the best of the intelligent but sensitive tough guys.

Detroit Free Press

Elvis Cole is lean, mean and completely lovable.

People

Crais flips a quick, cutting wit at Hollywood hucksters, and shows a keen ear for their inane industry prattle.

The New York Times Book Review

The ghostly influence is Robert B. Parker, including the wisecracks and the incessant attention to food. But once Crais gets past the mandatory wise-mouthing and sets his story in motion, forget influences; he is his own man.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

Cole noshes like Spenser and he views the world through the same darkly moral shades as Marlowe and Archer.

Chicago Tribune

Elvis is the greatest. [Hes] perhaps the best detective to come along since Travis McGee.

San Diego Tribune

Crais is in a class by himselfhe is quite simply the best.

Eric Van Lustbader

ACCLAIM FOR ROBERT CRAISS
AWARD-WINNING FIRST ELVIS COLE NOVEL
THE MONKEYS RAINCOAT
WINNER OF THE ANTHONY AND MACAVITY AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL; NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AND SHAMUS AWARDS FOR BEST NOVEL

Far and away the most satisfying private eye novel in years. Grab this oneits a winner!

Lawrence Block

Cole is simply the most mesmerizing new PI. in years.

Booklist

In Crais, a new star has appeared on the private eye scenea dazzling first novel.

Tony Hillerman

By Robert Crais

THE MONKEYS RAINCOAT

STALKING THE ANGEL

FREE FALL

LULLABY TOWN

VOODOO RIVER

SUNSET EXPRESS

L.A. REQUIEM

HOSTAGE

DEMOLITION ANGEL

THE LAST DETECTIVE

Available from Bantam Books

This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition.

NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.

FREE FALL

A Bantam Book

PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition June 1993
Bantam paperback edition / May 1994

All rights reserved.
Copyright 1993 by Robert Crais.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93-18361.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Bantam Books.

eISBN: 978-0-307-78991-4

Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words Bantam Books and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, New York, New York.

v3.1

For my father,
R OBERT E MMETT C RAIS ,
called away before the show.
A seat remains empty.

J ennifer Sheridan stood in the door to my office as if she were Fay Wray and I was King Kong and a bunch of black guys in sagebrush tutus were going to tie her down so that I could have my way. Its a look Ive seen before, on men as well as women. Im a detective, Ms. Sheridan. Im not going to hurt you. You may even find that you like me. I gave her my best Dudley Do-Right smile. The one with the twinkle.

Jennifer Sheridan said, Is what we say privileged, Mr. Cole?

As in attorney-client? I was holding the door, but Jennifer Sheridan couldnt seem to make up her mind whether to come in or leave.

Yes.

I shook my head. No. My records and my testimony can be subpoenaed, and under California law, I must provide them.

Oh. She didnt like that.

But there is latitude. I sometimes forget things.

Oh. She liked that better, but she still wasnt convinced. I guess theres only so much you can do with the Dudley.

Jennifer Sheridan said, This isnt easy for me, Mr. Cole. Im not sure I should be here and I dont have much time. Im on my lunch hour.

We could talk over sandwiches, downstairs. There was a turkey and Swiss on a French baguette waiting for me in the deli on the ground floor. I had been thinking about it for most of the morning.

Thank you, no. Im engaged.

That wasnt a sexual proposition, Ms. Sheridan. It was a simple offer to share lunch and perhaps more efficiently use both our times.

Oh. Jennifer Sheridan turned as red as a beating heart.

Also, Ms. Sheridan, Im getting tired of holding the door.

Jennifer Sheridan made up her mind and stepped past me into the office. She walked quickly and went to one of the two directors chairs across from my desk. Theres a couch, but she didnt even consider it.

Jennifer Sheridan had sounded young on the phone, but in person she looked younger, with a fresh-scrubbed face and clear healthy skin and dark auburn hair. Pretty. The kind of happy, innocent pretty that starts deep inside, and doesnt stop on the way out. That kind of pretty. She was wearing a light blue cotton skirt with a white blouse and a matching light blue bolero jacket and low-heeled navy pumps. The clothes were neat and fit well, and the cuts were stylish but not expensive. She would have to shop and she would have to look for bargains, but she had found them. I liked that. She carried a black imitation leather purse the size of a Buick, and when she sat, she sat with her knees and her feet together, and her hands clutching the purse on her lap. Proper. I liked that, too. I made her for twenty-three but she looked eighteen and shed still be carded in bars when she was thirty. I wondered if I looked old to her. Nah. Thirty-nine isnt old.

I closed the door, went to my desk, sat, and smiled at her. What do you do, Ms. Sheridan?

Im a secretary for the law firm of Watkins, Okum, & Beale. Were in Beverly Hills.

Is that how you found me? I work for Marty Beale, time to time. A little skip-tracing, a little missing persons. That kind of thing.

I peeked in Mr. Beales reference file. He thinks highly of you.

You dont say.

They dont know that Im here and I would appreciate it if you didnt say anything.

I nodded. On the phone you said something about your boyfriend.

My fianc. I think that hes mixed up in some kind of criminal thing. Ive asked him, and he denies it, but I know that somethings going on. I think hes scared, and that worries me. My fianc is not scared of very much.

I nodded again and tucked that away. Fearless Fianc. Okay. What kind of crime are we talking about?

I dont know.

Is he stealing cars?

I dont think so.

Is he embezzling?

No. It wouldnt be that.

How about fraud?

She shook her head.

Were running out of choices, Ms. Sheridan.