Valley of Shadows Read online

  Legend Press Ltd, 51 Gower Street, London, WC1E 6HJ

  [email protected] | www.legendpress.co.uk

  Contents © Paul Buchanan 2021

  The right of the above author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data available.

  Print ISBN 978-1-80031-9-394

  Ebook ISBN 978-1-80031-9-400

  Set in Times. Printing managed by Jellyfish Solutions Ltd

  Cover design by Simon Levy | www.simonlevyassociates.co.uk

  All characters, other than those clearly in the public domain, and place names, other than those well-established such as towns and cities, are fictitious and any resemblance is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  Paul Buchanan earned a Master of Professional Writing degree from the University of Southern California and an MFA in Fiction Writing from Chapman University. He teaches and writes in the Los Angeles area. The first PI Jim Keegan novel City of Fallen Angels was published by Legend Press in 2020.

  For Heidi Lup and Lyle Wiedeman,

  fellow members of the Order

  CHAPTER ONE

  KEEGAN PULLED OFF Wilshire into the north parking garage of the Ambassador Hotel. It was a Thursday night, coming on eight o’clock, so there were only a couple of cars in front of him waiting for a valet. That was a good sign, in his opinion; the Cocoanut Grove wouldn’t be too crowded. The place had never appealed to Keegan. It was too kitschy—all those fake palms and the gaudy red bunting and the hopeful tourists craning their necks to see who was coming in through the door. It was old Hollywood at its seediest: overwrought, caked with makeup, and ready for its close-up.

  But he couldn’t avoid tonight’s gathering, much as he would have liked to. The party was a send-off. Old Mike Donovan was pulling up stakes and moving out to Arizona. Donovan was one of Keegan’s old cronies, so here Keegan was. Sure, he was arriving at the party more than an hour late, but that was his prerogative.

  When he got to the front of the line of cars, he put his MG in neutral, pulled up the parking brake, and left it running. He grabbed his herringbone blazer from the passenger seat as the young valet jogged over. Keegan got out of the car, straightened up, and pulled on the jacket. The valet tore off the ticket stub and handed it to Keegan, then he tucked the other half under the windshield wiper.

  Keegan slipped the stub into the inside pocket of his jacket. He could hear distant orchestra music carried to him on the cool late-September air. The tune was something sultry and sleepy, a slow-dance number. The valet got in the car and put it in gear.

  Keegan rapped on the window. “Hang on,” he told the valet. “I forgot something.” He went behind the car and popped the trunk. The new putter was angled across the spare tire and the rusty jack. It was a Wilson club; the best one he could find without having to go too far out of his way. Mrs. Dodd, Keegan’s secretary, had wanted the gift to look a little more festive, so she’d insisted on tying a red ribbon around the shaft before Keegan left the office that night.

  Mrs. Dodd had seemed a little too happy to hear that Keegan was finally spending a night out. She was of the opinion that Keegan would be in a better mood if he had more of a social life. In her unsolicited opinion, it wasn’t natural for a man Keegan’s age—fifty-four—to stay holed up in his hilltop bungalow every night of the week. It was too remote, too lonely. He needed to get out more, make a few new pals, maybe find himself a girlfriend. Her enthusiasm when he’d told her he was going to Donovan’s send-off party had made him wish he’d never told her.

  Mrs. Dodd’s bow was a little squashed down on one side now—but Donovan wasn’t the type for frills. The gift would do nicely. He grabbed the club, slammed the trunk, and headed towards the hotel carrying the putter tucked under one arm.

  There had been a time—about a decade ago—when Keegan would have called Donovan a friend. Maybe even a good friend. For years, Keegan had covered the crime beat for the Los Angeles Times. But—long story short—he got fired and had to come up with a new career. He applied for his PI license. A month or so after that, Donovan’s pension maxed out at the LAPD, and he retired as vice detective.

  The two of them had been little more than acquaintances up until then—the cop and the crime reporter. Donovan, a middling detective at best, had never rated much column space, and Keegan had rarely written about him. But in those uncertain months of fresh unemployment, neither man quite knew what to do with himself. They’d spent a lot of time together: afternoons at the Santa Anita Park racetrack, a couple of fishing trips to Arrowhead, too many nights sipping bourbon at the downtown dives on West Fifth Street. But then things had begun to fall into place. Both of them got their PI licenses. They were working men again, and everything changed.

  In those early days, they’d talked about maybe going into business together: D & K Investigations—or K & D—they never got far enough to even agree on a name. The idea of a partnership was chimerical at best. Both men knew, deep down, that whatever camaraderie let them sit on adjacent stools at the Frolic Room bar wasn’t nearly enough to make them compatible as business partners. Then there was Donovan’s work ethic. At the LAPD, his efforts had always been second-rate, sloppy, full of excuses. He’d never risen through the ranks so far as Narcotics, let alone Robbery-Homicide. No detective worth their salt should still be working vice by the time they retired.

  The truth was, Donovan wasn’t terribly bright. The only thing that had kept him from getting fired was his good-oldboy demeanor. He was a glad-hander, always ready to pay for a round and to laugh at a joke, no matter how many times he’d heard it before. The man was quick with a slap on the back, but he was painfully slow on the uptake. Everyone around him had covered for him, picked up his slack. A partnership with Keegan would never have worked. Donovan couldn’t have been trusted to carry his share of the weight. It wasn’t long before they had a falling out anyway—something about a spousal abuse case that came Donovan’s way; Keegan couldn’t quite remember the details anymore, just the nagging sense that Donovan valued a paycheck over any other moral consideration. At any rate, the two of them had drifted apart.

  Keegan had set up his office downtown on Sixth Street, among all the bus routes and foot traffic. Donovan had landed over in Santa Monica, where his well-heeled beachside clientele from the Palisades drove Silver Clouds and Coupe de Villes—if they couldn’t afford a chauffeur to drive the cars for them. Keegan eked out a living with divorce and insurance fraud and the occasional skip-trace. Donovan got fat doing corporate background checks and finding out whether the banker’s daughter’s new beau was a gold digger.

  KEEGAN WAS ON the concrete walkway to the Cocoanut Grove’s entrance now, and the orchestra music inside had shifted to something more upbeat. There was a welcome nip in the evening air, now that summer’s bleary heat had loosened its grip. Keegan checked his watch. It was a little after eight, so the party had been going more than an hour now without him. With any luck, he could put in an appearance, bestow his gift on old Donovan, and slip back out when the opportunity arose. When he looked up from his watch, he saw Louis Moore striding out through the Grove’s brightly lit archway, headed in his direction. Keegan glanced around, half wishing for somewhere to hide.

  Lieutenant Moore. Of course he’d have been invite
d to Donovan’s send-off. He was still the LAPD’s golden boy, after all—the black pioneer cop Keegan had so often championed in The Times as he rose through the ranks. Moore was as close to a local celebrity as a working cop could hope to get—and tonight he was the last man Keegan wanted to see.

  “Jimmy?” Moore called out, grinning. “Is that you?” He picked up his pace.

  It was just Keegan’s luck. If he’d arrived a few minutes later, the two of them wouldn’t have crossed paths. Keegan slowed his stride. He took the golf club out from under his arm and gripped it with one hand. “Lou,” he said coolly. He’d managed to avoid the Lieutenant for almost a year now. He would have happily stretched the interlude another decade.

  Moore stopped walking when Keegan got close to him, blocking the walkway, so Keegan had to stop too. The two men stood facing one another. Jaunty orchestra music lent the moment an incongruously upbeat soundtrack. The Lieutenant was still tall and lean, but he’d put on a little weight in the months since Keegan had last seen him. His hair was going a little gray at the edges now too. The effects of middle age were finally starting to show.

  “Where have you been hiding yourself?” the Lieutenant said, holding out his hand for Keegan to shake. He seemed genuinely glad they’d chanced upon one another, which made Keegan feel at an even greater disadvantage.

  “Here and there,” Keegan told him. He gave the other man’s hand a shake, as quick and perfunctory as he could make it. “But I guess I didn’t hide well enough.” With his left hand, he swung the golf club up, so he could hold it in front of him with both hands, a kind of barrier between them.

  The Lieutenant looked Keegan over. “You’re looking well,” he said.

  “You’re looking well fed,” Keegan told him.

  The Lieutenant grinned amiably and gave his belly a rub. “The wife’s way ahead of you,” he said. “Got me on a diet. Cottage cheese and canned peaches. It’s enough to make a man weep.”

  Keegan didn’t respond. The orchestra inside played on.

  The Lieutenant nodded, dug his hands into the pockets of his dress slacks, and jingled some coins there. “Look, Jim,” he said, “I know we never got to talk about what happened.”

  Moore was still looking Keegan in the eye, and Keegan fought the impulse to look away, to brush past the man and be on his way.

  “That was one big, unholy mess,” Moore said. “But I was just trying to look out for you. You know that, don’t you?” Moore looked past Keegan and then looked him in the eye again. “I feel bad about how it all played out.”

  It had only been a year, yet the man made it sound like some bygone minor mishap—a chipped tooth, a dented bumper—something ancient and trivial that could be swept under the rug and forgotten. But Keegan couldn’t forget. A young woman—her name was Eve—had died because of the two of them. That fact was a raw, guilty wound Keegan still tended.

  The Lieutenant watched Keegan intently, reading what he could of him, the high-beam, interrogatory gaze of the professional detective. The man seemed to read something hard and implacable in Keegan’s expression. He took a small step backwards and gave Keegan a knowing nod. “The boys are in the back corner,” he said, his voice now devoid of emotion. “You can’t miss them.” He looked down at the golf club Keegan was still holding between them in two fists. “Donovan’s going to love the putter.”

  Keegan nodded. He tried to slip past, but the Lieutenant caught him by the elbow, a grip that felt good-natured but insistent. It was a gesture only a certain kind of man could get away with, someone who knew the scope of his own considerable powers and exactly what they entitled him to. Keegan froze, looking straight ahead and not at the Lieutenant. The Grove’s grand entrance stood just a few yards away—the dangling palm fronds, the wide scalloped archway, the gaudy lighting. So close, so far.

  “Look, Jimmy,” Moore said. His voice was close to Keegan’s ear. “The two of us go way back. We need to get past this.” He squeezed Keegan’s arm. “Give me a call when you’re ready. I’ll buy you a beer.”

  Keegan kept his gaze fixed straight ahead. “Sure thing,” he said. He made no effort to make the words sound sincere. The Lieutenant let go of his arm, and Keegan strode numbly to the grand entryway and through the door, into all that gaudy light and sound.

  DONOVAN’S GROUP WAS just where Moore said they’d be, in the nightclub’s farthest corner to the left of the dance floor. The orchestra started up ‘Sleepy Lagoon’ now, and a few dozen couples, all overdressed for a Thursday night out, headed out on the dance floor. Keegan threaded his way among the close-set tables, through the haze of cigarette smoke. He had to be wary of the silver putter he carried, making sure not to hit anyone’s shin. Keegan edged past ringing laughter and bright conversation and the clinking of glassware. He felt awkward and out of place, a funeral director at a wedding.

  Donovan’s group had pushed together three round tables into an awkward clump to hold all their dirty glasses. There were seven or eight men in all—florid, stubbled faces puffed up by middle age. These were the older cops who’d been on the job when Donovan had aged out of the LAPD. Other than Donovan, Keegan didn’t know a single one of them. A couple of the silver-haired ones—near retirement themselves, no doubt—were already sloppy drunk when Keegan borrowed an empty chair from a nearby table and pulled it up to join them.

  He leaned the putter against the table’s edge where it would be out of the way. He’d wait until the orchestra took a break and make some kind of formal presentation. The other men leaned in close to talk now and again, but it was impossible to hear what anyone was saying over the music. That was fine with Keegan; he was here to make an appearance, clink a glass or two, and wait for the first opportunity to leave.

  When Donovan had called Keegan at the office last week to invite him to the party, he’d said he was headed out to some Phoenix suburb. Tempe or Mesa, Keegan couldn’t now remember. Keegan had been to Arizona a couple of times on business, and the desert air had seemed so scorched and oxygen-deprived it was barely worth the effort of breathing. Why Donovan would want to leave LA and move there was beyond Keegan’s ability to fathom. It couldn’t be money. Given Donovan’s well-to-do clientele, he had to have quite a bankroll to fall back on.

  Keegan caught a passing waitress’s eye and waved her over. He asked for a double Jameson with ice. He could nurse that one drink for the next hour or so and be back home before ten. In the morning, at the office, he’d lie to Mrs. Dodd. He’d tell her he’d had a great time and that it was good to get out of the house. Maybe it would get her off his case for a while. Mrs. Dodd was worried about how much time he spent alone, and Keegan didn’t like that kind of attention.

  Donovan was sitting directly across from Keegan, in a green plaid sports coat with no tie. He seemed to be having a great time, laughing and elbowing the other guys. Donovan, too, had put on a few pounds since Keegan last saw him, and he’d lost a bit more hair. His belly strained at the buttons on his shirt front, and he’d added an ample second chin that made his face look round and cartoonish. His cheeks were flushed with good cheer and whiskey, and he kept ducking this way and that, listening to the others as they spoke into his ear. Old Donovan had always loved a party. He leaned over and made some sly comment to one of the other men when the young waitress brought Keegan his drink. The two of them made no effort to hide the fact that they were eyeing her as she walked away.

  Two orchestra numbers later, the bandleader announced a ten-minute break, and the sudden silence that followed unveiled the sound of voices and footfalls and the clatter going on back in the kitchen. This was Keegan’s chance. He’d have a few words with Donovan, hand over the gift, slap him on the back, and slip away when the orchestra came back out.

  “Jimmy!” Donovan said, a little too loudly now that it was quiet. “I didn’t think you’d actually come.”

  Keegan nodded and wondered if Mrs. Dodd had had a word with Donovan before she’d put the call through. “Just wanted to make
damn sure you were really leaving town,” Keegan said. “It’ll be a big relief for everyone concerned to get you across state lines.” Jokes and insults. That had always been the custom among the cops Keegan knew: affection masked as animosity. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

  Donovan let loose with one of his booming trademark laughs, but it devolved into a short fit of coughing, fist to mouth. “Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy,” he said when he’d caught his breath again. “What am I going to do without you?” His red face was glossy under the overhead lamps. “You missed the L-T, by the way,” he said. “He left just before you got here. He was asking about you.”

  Keegan felt his elbow tingle where the Lieutenant had gripped him. “Well, that’s a damn shame,” he said. He picked up the putter. Gripping it by the head, he held it out to Donovan across the table. “There’s no ocean where you’re going,” he said, “so a sailboat was out of the question.”

  Donovan grinned and took the club by the leather grip. “I just put a down payment on a place that’s down the street from a golf course!” he said. He stood, with a little effort, stepped back from the table, and made a big show of lining up a putt. Then he set the club down so it was angled across the table amid all the empty glasses and patted the front pocket of his sports coat. He nodded over at the big open double door at the far side of the room. “Let’s you and I have a word in private, Jimmy,” he said.

  A private word with Donovan was the last thing Keegan wanted, but he stood gamely and tugged down the sleeves of his jacket.

  “Bring your drink,” Donovan told him. He headed toward the side doors, carrying his own half-filled glass.

  Keegan picked up his whiskey and followed Donovan across the room, past all the other tables and out the doors. Donovan led him through the big patio and around to the main pool. It was a mild night, but there was enough of a nip in the late-September air that no one was swimming. A few couples sat at the tables back under the palms, making the most of the shadows.