Split Image

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

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)

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Publishers Since 1838
Published by the Penguin Group
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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
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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

Parker, Robert B., date.
Split image/Robert B. Parker.

p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-18538-4

1. Stone, Jesse (Fictitious character)--Fiction. 2. Police--Massachusetts--Fiction. 3. Cults--
Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. 5. Police chiefs--Fiction. I. Title.
PS3566.A686S
813'.54--dc22

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.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

http://us.penguingroup.com

For Joan, of course, and also for Stephen F. O'Loughlin, Jr.

M
OLLY CRANE STUCK her head into the open doorway of Jesse's office and said, "Chief Stone, there's a private detective from Boston here to see you."

"Show him in," Jesse said.

"It's a her," Molly said.

"Even better," Jesse said.

Molly smiled and stepped aside, and Sunny Randall came in, carrying a straw shoulder bag and wearing a green sleeveless top with white pants and color-coordinated sneakers.

"Wow," Jesse said.

"Wow is good," Sunny said, and sat down.

"And accurate," Jesse said. "It couldn't have been easy getting into those pants."

"For whom?" Sunny said.

Jesse smiled.

"Shall I close the door?" he said.

"No," Sunny said. "I'm actually here on business."

"All work and no play," Jesse said.

"We'll address that at another time," Sunny said.

"That's encouraging," Jesse said.

"It's meant to be," Sunny said. "Do you know of a small religious organization here in Paradise called the Renewal? Or the Bond of the Renewal?"

"I'm the chief of police," Jesse said. "I know everything."

"Exactly why I'm here," Sunny said.

She smiled.

"Tell me about the Renewal," she said.

"They're located in a house near the town wharf. Nice house; one of the elders owns it. They all live there in a kind of communal way, run by a guy who calls himself the Patriarch. About forty, with gray hair, which Molly Crane claims is artificial."

"He dyes it gray?" Sunny said.

"What Molly claims," Jesse said. "There's a couple of so-called elders, 'bout your age, I would guess."

"Hey," Sunny said.

"I mean they're not very elder-ish."

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