By Robert Crais
The Monkey's Raincoat
Stalking the Angel
Lullaby Town
Free Fall
Voodoo River
Sunset Express
Indigo Slam
L.A. Requiem
Demolition Angel
Hostage
The Last Detective
The Last Detective Robert Crais An Orion paperback
First published in Great Britain in oo3
by Orion
This paperback edition published in oo3
by Orion Books Ltd,
Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin's Lane,
London wczH 9EA
Copyright 9 Robert Crais 2003
The right of Robert Crais to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN O 75:Z84 949 2
Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
for Wayne Warga
who maintained his post under intense enemy fire and did not waver even as he was overrun.
The Church of Pike Angoon, Alaska
The cold Alaskan water pulled at the fishing boats that lined the dock, the boats straining against their moorings to run free with the tide. The water here in the small harbor at Angoon, a fishing village on the western shore of Admiralty Island off southeast Alaska, was steel-black beneath the clouds and dimpled by rain, but was clear even with that, a window beneath the weathered pilings to a world of sunburst starfish as wide as garbage cans, jellyfish the size of basketballs, and barnacles as heavy as a longshoreman's fist. Alaska was like that, so vigorous with life that it could fill a man and lift him and maybe even bring him back from the dead. A Tlingit Indian named Elliot MacArthur watched as Joe Pike stowed his duffel in a fourteen-foot fiberglass skiff. Pike had rented the skiff from MacArthur, who now nervously toed Pike's rifle case. 'You didn't tell me you were goin' after those bears up there. It ain't so smart goin' in those woods by yourself. I don't wanna lose my boat.' Pike secured his duffel between the skiff's bench seats, then took hold of the gun case. Pike's weapon of choice that day was a stainless- steel Remington tModel 7oo chambered in .375 Holland & Holland Magnum. It was a powerful gun, built heavy to dampen the .375's hard recoil. Pike lifted the case with his bad arm, but the arm failed with a sharp pain that left his shoulder burning. He MacArthur didn't like this business with the arm. 'Now you listen. Goin' after that bear with a bad arm ain't the brightest idea, either. You're gonna have my boat, and you're gonna be alone, and that's a big bear up there. Has to be big, what he did to those people.'
Pike strapped the rifle case across the duffel, then checked the fuel. It was going to be a long trip, getting from Angoon up to Chaik Bay where the killings had taken place.
'You better be thinkin' about this. Don't matter what kinda bounty the families put up, it ain't worth gettin' killed for.'
'I won't lose your boat.'
MacArthur wasn't sure if Pike had insulted him or not.
Pike finished with his gear, then stepped back onto the dock. He took ten one-hundred-dollar bills from his wallet and held out the money.
'Here. Now you won't have to worry about it.'
MacArthur looked embarrassed and put his hands in his pocket.
'Let's just forget it. You rented it, it's yours. You're makin' me feel like a miser and I don't appreciate that.'
Pike put the money away and stepped down into the skiff, keeping his weight low. He cast off the lines.
