The Cracked Earth Read online

  Praise for the novels of John Shannon

  “Tough and engaging … Concrete River is my kind of L.A. novel—hard as nails with a soft spot in the middle.”

  —Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch mysteries

  “Shannon is a fine writer. Make no mistake, this is the real L.A., real people, some of them you cross the street to avoid, looking everywhere but at them. Take a walk with Jack Liffey, a brave and decent man.”

  —Kent Anderson, author of Night Dogs

  “If Raymond Chandler had written The Day of the Locust, this is the book he would have written.”

  —Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz

  “Like Graham Greene—and there are other admirable resemblances—he is an explorer of that shadowy area in which, as spurs to positive action, abstract idealism and personal psychology merge. The author has achieved one of the most stimulating of the form’s uncountable possibilities.”

  —Sunday Times (London)

  “A serious adventure … [that] draws much of its strength from a clear presentation of social and political tensions.”

  —Times Literary Supplement

  “Fast and exciting action.”

  —Daily Telegraph (London)

  “Racy, ambitious.”

  —Clancy Sigal, author of The Secret Defector

  MORE MYSTERIES FROM THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP…

  DEWEY JAMES MYSTERIES: America’s favorite small-town sleuth! “Highly entertaining.”

  —Booklist

  by Kate Morgan

  A SLAY AT THE RACES MYSTERY LOVES COMPANY

  A MURDER MOST FOWL DAYS OF CRIME AND ROSES

  HOME SWEET HOMICIDE THE OLD SCHOOL DIES

  FORREST EVERS MYSTERIES: A former race-car driver solves the high-speed crimes of world-class racing… “A Dick Francis on wheels!”

  —Jackie Stewart

  by Bob Judd

  BURN SPIN

  CURVE

  THE REVEREND LUCAS HOLT MYSTERIES: They call him “The Rev,” a name he earned as pastor of a Texas prison. Now he solves crimes with a group of reformed ex-cons …

  by Charles Meyer

  THE SAINTS OF GOD MURDERS BLESSED ARE THE MERCILESS

  FRED VICKERY MYSTERIES: Senior sleuth Fred Vickery has been around long enough to know where the bodies are buried in the small town of Cutler, Colorado…

  by Sherry Lewis

  NO PLACE FOR SECRETS NO PLACE LIKE HOME

  NO PLACE FOR DEATH NO PLACE FOR TEARS

  NO PLACE FOR SIN NO PLACE FOR MEMORIES

  INSPECTOR BANKS MYSTERIES: Award-winning British detective fiction at its finest… “Robinson’s novels are habit-forming!”

  —West Coast Review of Books

  by Peter Robinson

  THE HANGING VALLEY PAST REASON HATED

  WEDNESDAY’S CHILD FINAL ACCOUNT

  GALLOWS VIEW INNOCENT GRAVES

  JACK McMORROW MYSTERIES: The highly acclaimed series set in a Maine mill town and starring a newspaperman with a knack for crime solving… “Gerry Boyle is the genuine article.” —Robert B. Parker

  by Gerry Boyle

  DEADLINE BLOODLINE

  LIFELINE POTSHOT

  JOE WILDER MYSTERIES: Featuring struggling-novelist-turned detective Joe Wilder … “Crime fiction at its riveting best.”

  —Faye Kellerman

  by T.J. Phillips

  DANCE OF THE MONGOOSE WOMAN IN THE DARK

  THE CRACKED EARTH

  JOHN SHANNON

  BERKLEY PRIME CRIME, NEW YORK

  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.”

  THE CRACKED EARTH

  A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Berkley Prime Crime edition / February 1999

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright © 1999 by John Shannon.

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is

  http://www.penguinputnam.com

  ISBN: 0-425-16732-1

  Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  The name BERKLEY PRIME CRIME and the BERKLEY PRIME CRIME design are trademarks belonging to Berkley Publishing Corporation.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  For Pam

  Catastrophes adapt themselves to their relevant cultural order. Los Angeles represents a horizontal break, a breaking open of spaces in an intellectual sense. There never was a foundation or a profundity, but only a cracked surface.

  —JEAN BAUDRILLARD

  Contents

  Chapter 1: Completely Insulated From Unhappiness

  Chapter 2: Remarkable Powers

  Chapter 3: Different Paradigms

  Chapter 4: ÉPater La Bourgeoisie

  Chapter 5: Five-Point-Five

  Chapter 6: Always Insult What Can Hurt You

  Chapter 7: Everything Extreme Is Vanity

  Chapter 8: Nothing Is What It Seems

  Chapter 9: The Referent Is Daydreams

  Chapter 10: A Moral Reference Point

  Chapter 11: Refugees From The Twentieth Century

  Chapter 12: I Trust You. Daddy

  Chapter 13: A Serious Crunch Mode

  Chapter 14: Waving A Dead Chicken At The Problem

  Chapter 15: Caught In The Cross Fire

  Chapter 16: A Damaged Reality

  Chapter 17: Walking Drives

  Chapter 18: A Tumbleweed With Teeth

  Chapter 19: A Big One

  Chapter 20: Just Doing Your Duty

  Chapter 21: Growing Up Is Not A Speed Event

  Chapter 22: The Moral Order

  1

  COMPLETELY INSULATED FROM UNHAPPINESS

  “YOU WAIT,” THE TOUGH-LOOKING LATINA MAID SAID, AND then waddled away like a tugboat. There was nowhere to sit in the large tiled entry and his eye quickly ran out of things to look at, though a number of them had entertainment value while they lasted. A real elephant-foot umbrella stand out of Graham Greene, an oak coat tree from some monastery, and a Chinese vase as tall as his chest overflowing with unopened junk mail.

  A single English phrase broke through a flood of Spanish: “Don’t use the word ‘kidnap.’…” That got his attention, all right. The woman’s voice had a strange familiar timbre to it.

  On his way up into the Hollywood Hills, he’d wondered idly who still lived up here in the big houses around the cul-de-sacs like Avenida Bluebird. The movie folk had mostly gone west to Bel Air and Malibu, leaving the hills to the coke dealers and the ruthless new music execs. He’d been sent to see a woman named L. Bright, and he’d guessed that she’d turn out to be the widowed third wife of a very rich dentist.

  He heard that honeyed voice again, and then it was lost in the burring of a leaf blower that started up out front. The maid came back finally and beckoned him in. When the heavy door closed, it snuffed the sound of the leaf blower right out. The large room was craftsman, Norman, and Moorish in equal proportions, with sunlight streaming in through motionless gauze curtains. But he didn’t look at the furnishings for long. He couldn’t help staring at the woman.

  “Yes, I’m Lori Bright.”

/>   He wondered if the young lawyer who’d referred him had been playing a joke. But the young guys didn’t know the older stars anymore.

  “I’m shorter than you thought.” She smiled with a rueful confidence and brushed back one side of the glossy blond hair that looked like it had been labored over by a half-dozen hairdressers. “And older.”

  “Hell, I’m older than I thought,” he said. “Jack Liffey.” He took her hand, small and firm, and tried to keep his eye from drifting across her body. Somewhere in the back of his brain, a calculator was working out her age. When he was fourteen, he’d probably masturbated to the famous Life picture of her in a half-off slip, but she’d only have been nineteen or so herself. She wore a kind of peasant getup that he associated with Ava Gardner.

  “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “What are you having?”

  “Herb tea.” She pronounced the H with that marvelous gravelly voice. He tried to remember if she was married to somebody British, but he had never followed who movie stars married.

  “That’ll be fine.”

  “I could have Anita get you something stronger.”

  He shook his head. He didn’t drink—or smoke or do a lot of other things—but it was complicated to explain why and he wasn’t there to talk about himself. She stooped to pick up a telephone, with a lot of bobbling going on under the peasant blouse, and punched in one digit.

  “Two teas,” she said, and set the phone down. “Please sit. You’re making me nervous.”

  “Really?” He forced himself to tear his eyes off her for a moment and sat in a leather Mission chair that looked like it had once belonged to Will Rogers. Being ambushed by celebrity must have unsettled something in him. “Maybe it’s because my curiosity would kill a whole bunch of cats.”

  She smiled and sat on a Mission sofa. “You’d best get over the awe before we talk. Then I’ll have your undivided attention.”

  He didn’t know quite what to say. He wondered if Marilyn Monroe had ever sat in the chair he was in, the spirit of her rump communing now with his, or maybe Jane Fonda, or Billy Wilder. A Week in Palm Springs, he thought. Lori Bright had lounged in the bubble bath while Cary Grant, caught in the wrong room in one of his last movies, tried to keep his eyeballs from ripping sideways out of their sockets.

  “Don’t feel bad. I see that reaction a lot. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why we’re envied. You’ve been to college, right?”

  He nodded. He had a master’s degree in English literature, but that was something else he wasn’t there to talk about.

  “Actors hang out with other actors. Maybe two in a hundred have been to college. They can say witty words, but they don’t think them up. Mostly they can’t cook or build things or carry a tune. They’ve been around the world but only in hotels and only staring in mirrors. Famously, their eyes go blank when the conversation wanders away from their own doings. What’s to envy?”

  “I think the money helps.”

  “But it’s not the point, is it? You don’t envy the CEO of IBM. I have no idea what glamour is supposed to be. As far as I can figure, it’s just circular. You’re enviable for being envied.”

  He never liked these instant overconfidings that were so common in L.A., and he was also annoyed at himself for reacting to her like an out-of-towner gaping in a restaurant. “When was your last movie?” he said.

  Her eyes went hard as steel and everything about her face stiffened. It was probably a trick, but it was really chilling. “You’ve got a mean streak.”

  “Look, you can’t do this poor-little-rich-kid routine on me. You’ve got everything people want. The house, the friends, the travel, the money. And you were the most attractive star of the sixties for my money, because you always played smart.”

  She opened her mouth, but he forged on. “I’ve seen photos of you all my life, and you’ve never seen a photo of me. Okay? Offhand, since you bring it up, I’d say glamour is about the illusion of a life that’s completely insulated from unhappiness. But I don’t think you asked me up here to talk philosophy.”

  Once again a strange kind of confidence stole over her features. She cocked her head as if she’d just noticed one of his features, maybe an extra nose. “You really get your back up. That’s a plus.” She got up and pulled the curtain aside to look out in a strange theatrical gesture. “I wonder if you can be bought.”

  That really tore it. What movie was this? he wondered. He kept his mouth shut.

  “It isn’t an empty question, Mr. Liffey. My daughter has disappeared. I think when you look for her, you’re going to have to ask questions of some pretty rich and powerful men.”

  “Gosh, maybe you’d prefer a rich and powerful detective.”

  “Don’t be angry with me, please.” Now she was vulnerable and defenseless, dark clouds scudding in over her sunny plain. Being around her a lot would be a real emotional whirlwind.

  But then he decided he could use the money.

  “Tell me about your daughter.”

  “Lee is fifteen going on twenty-five. Her retro style of choice at the moment seems to be beatnik. She’s a sophomore at Taunton School, but she disappeared from there a week ago Thursday.”

  She seemed to lose interest in whatever was outside the window.

  “I take it she boards.”

  Lori Bright nodded with her lips pursed. “I suppose you don’t approve of private schools. A part of me doesn’t either, but it seemed to settle her down. At some ages girls do a lot better when they’re out of sight of the boys. She came home most weekends.”

  He got out a tiny pad, just to look professional. “What was her major?”

  “They don’t believe in that at Taunton. Everyone’s a generalist until the last year. She thinks she wants to study film, heaven forbid.”

  “You don’t want her following in your footsteps?”

  “Or her father’s. He’s Lionel Cohn.”

  “I see. Is he still in the picture?”

  She turned and stared thoughtfully at him. “Interesting diction. No, Lionel is not in the picture. Twelve years ago he started grazing in greener pastures, and I do mean greener. He sees Lee now and then between jobs. He’s on location right now up in the Owens Valley shooting a killer-robot film. Poor dear. He despises them more than I do.”

  “She has a boyfriend?”

  “Last year at Hollywood High there was a black football player, but I believe she’s settled in chastely at Taunton. She’s always been a very shrewd and unconfiding girl, at least with me. You’ll have to ask her girlfriends at school.”

  The maid knocked twice and then glided in with the tea.

  “Has she ever run off before?”

  With the tiniest of gestures, Lori Bright requested he wait until after the tea was served. He wasn’t even sure how she did it. He wondered if they gave acting classes in signals like that. The maid set the tray down in front of her.

  “Thank you, Anita. If Bruce or Tennyson call, I’m taking una pequeñita siesta.”

  “Sí, madam.”

  She left quickly, loose flat shoes slapping against her soles, and shut the door softly.

  “You don’t want her to know?”

  “She knows. It’s just not polite to air intimacies in front of the help as if they didn’t have their own curiosity. It’s rude, don’t you think?”

  “It’s not something I think about a lot. Has your daughter ever run away from home before?”

  “Never. Oh, there was once. When she was very little I punished her unfairly—for something a playmate had done—and she pretended to run off and hid next door until after dark. She has a fierce sense of justice.”

  “Drugs?”

  “No, thank you,” she said quickly, and then laughed. It was so infectious he had to laugh, too. She was still smiling as she poured the tea. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. I had my own bout with cocaine when Lee was about eight and she disapproves mightily.”

  “What about religio
n?”

  “No thanks again.” She didn’t laugh this time. He got up to take the steaming cup of perfumy tea. “Her father is Jewish, but secular. I’m just plain secular, and so is Lee, as far as I know. In my experience the only grown-ups who believe in anything are Catholics. Especially among actors. It’s the hold of all that ritual.”

  “I was thinking cults.” He took a long sip of the tea that smelled like some shrub you’d find on the hillside.

  “I doubt it. She’s not a joiner.”

  “How did you and she get along?”

  “You and she in the nominative.” Lori Bright smiled and raised her carefully plucked eyebrows at him, and he wondered why she was trying to charm him now. Maybe it was just a routine with her, a habitual approach to the postman, the store clerk, the passerby, a way of buying her way back from glamour to reality. “You have been to college. We spatted now and then. I’m fairly strict about her hours when she’s staying here, in by midnight on Friday and Saturday. She just turned fifteen.”

  “Do you have a man friend she might object to?”

  “I’m in between,” she said, staring straight back at him, and he swore it was meant to be taken as flirtation. He was suddenly nervous again. He remembered her distress in Enough Is Never Enough and he couldn’t imagine anyone not wanting to comfort her the way Mitchum had.

  “Do you have any guess where she’s gone? A friend, her father?”

  “No. I’m sorry if I don’t seem to be taking it too seriously. I’m sure she’ll turn up, but Lionel would kill me if something happened and I didn’t try to track her down.”

  “I need a contact at the school and a recent photograph if you have one. But first, I’d like to see her room.” He swilled down another mouthful of the abstemious tea, and that was plenty. His spartan urges had their limits.

  “Privacy has always been a luxury in my profession.” She stood up. “But it’s a bit of a trial having a stranger actually prowl the house. I suppose you’re not such a stranger now.” She took his upper arm in one strong hand and led him through an archway beside a baronial fireplace.