Dead Eyes Read online

  Dead Eyes

  Stuart Woods

  This book is for Pegram and Ann Harrison.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  The first letter arrived on a Monday. Chris Callaway was…

  Chapter 2

  “Look at this,” Chris said, handing Danny Devere the two…

  Chapter 3

  On Friday morning, Chris attended the first reading of the…

  Chapter 4

  On Sunday night, Danny Devere showed up on time. Danny,…

  Chapter 5

  The pain had stopped, but it began again. Chris sucked…

  Chapter 6

  As soon as Chris and Danny pulled to a stop…

  Chapter 7

  By the time the Beverly Hills police arrived, Chris had…

  Chapter 8

  “Light on the makeup,” Chris said. Danny had done her…

  Chapter 9

  They parked in back of the restaurant and went in…

  Chapter 10

  On Monday morning, Chris made Danny’s breakfast, as she always…

  Chapter 11

  Melanie came into the study where Chris was sitting disconsolately,…

  Chapter 12

  Melanie showed Larsen to Chris’s study. “Chris,” she said, “if…

  Chapter 13

  Chris sat in her study and listened to Danny’s car…

  Chapter 14

  “I want to know what this is about,” the man…

  Chapter 15

  Larsen found the note on his desk when he arrived…

  Chapter 16

  When the phone rang Chris forced herself to answer it.

  Chapter 17

  The day was warm, and a breeze stirred the grass…

  Chapter 18

  Larsen sat at his desk and looked at the photograph…

  Chapter 19

  Back in his car, Larsen took the Polaroid photograph from…

  Chapter 20

  Chris blinked. The light hurt her eyes. It hurt her…

  Chapter 21

  A call to Palm Springs information produced only one Millman,…

  Chapter 22

  Larsen found the Millman house in Palm Springs and parked…

  Chapter 23

  Larsen jumped into the MG, got it started, and drove…

  Chapter 24

  Larsen pulled into Chris’s driveway, and Danny met them at…

  Chapter 25

  Chris jerked awake. She was sitting in a wing chair…

  Chapter 26

  Larsen tried not to look at the chief of detectives.

  Chapter 27

  On Saturday morning, after a couple of days’ rest, Larsen…

  Chapter 28

  Chris sat on a cushion, sipping a strange oriental tea…

  Chapter 29

  Larsen sat at his desk and waited for paper. There…

  Chapter 30

  Danny Devere left the CBS Television Studios in Burbank at…

  Chapter 31

  When Larsen got back to his office, another piece of…

  Chapter 32

  The emergency room at Cedars-Sinai was not as busy at…

  Chapter 33

  Larsen led Chris into his house and switched on the…

  Chapter 34

  They ate their steaks hungrily, with a salad and a…

  Chapter 35

  Larsen greeted Mike Moscowitz and walked him to the bedroom.

  Chapter 36

  Melvin James Parker stood on the opposite side of the…

  Chapter 37

  Larsen went in to work feeling better than he had…

  Chapter 38

  It was after three before Larsen got a call from…

  Chapter 39

  Larsen found the street easily enough. It was just after…

  Chapter 40

  Larsen was driving back along the beach when his radio…

  Chapter 41

  Mel Parker got to work late the following morning; he’d…

  Chapter 42

  Danny sat cross-legged on the floor of Chris’s study, using…

  Chapter 43

  Parker was opening the mail, and when he got to…

  Chapter 44

  Jack Berman was on the phone, and he was brimming…

  Chapter 45

  The three of them sat at Larsen’s dining table and…

  Chapter 46

  Larsen hung up the phone and looked at the expectant…

  Chapter 47

  He pulled up in front of an auto-painting shop and…

  Chapter 48

  Larsen arrived at his post late and looked for the…

  Chapter 49

  Larsen pulled into the Mendelssohn driveway and got out of…

  Chapter 50

  Larsen drove absently toward Santa Monica, his thoughts on the…

  Chapter 51

  Chris chose the Maple Drive Cafe, and Larsen liked it.

  Chapter 52

  Larsen sat and watched Chris sleep in the morning sunlight.

  Chapter 53

  Danny picked up Larsen and Chris later in the morning,…

  Chapter 54

  They came in force—Beverly Hills Homicide, the medical examiner,…

  Chapter 55

  They were having breakfast at Larsen’s house, and Larsen was…

  Chapter 56

  That afternoon, Danny came to stay with Chris, and Larsen…

  Chapter 57

  They gathered in Larsen’s living room, ready to travel to…

  Chapter 58

  Chris was talking with Jimmy, the plumbing contractor, and his…

  Chapter 59

  Larsen remembered that he had once before been in this…

  Chapter 60

  The house was full of people again. The local cops…

  Chapter 61

  Larsen and Chris walked along Malibu Beach, hand in hand,…

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Praise

  Other Books by Stuart Woods

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER

  1

  The first letter arrived on a Monday. Chris Callaway was annoyed when her secretary told her it had been in the mailbox. It was unstamped.

  The tone was friendly, not too worshipful, not too familiar.

  Dear Ms. Callaway,

  Your work has given me such a lot of pleasure that I felt I had to write to you. Somehow I had missed your films until last week, when I saw Heart of Stone on late-night television. I was so impressed that I saw Valiant Days in Westwood the following night. I have since rented the videos of Mainline and Downer, and I was impressed with your very high standard of work in all of them.

  Have you ever had the experience of meeting someone and feeling that you had known him for a long time? I have that feeling about you.

  Thank you again for your fine work. You’ll be hearing from me.

  Admirer

  When Chris had bought this house, she had taken a lot of trouble to keep the address strictly private. All her bills went to her manager’s office, and when she found it necessary to give an address, she used a box number. Her friends sent their Christmas cards to the box, damn it, she thought, and now some fan had found her. She handed the letter back to Melanie, her secretary. “Answer it cordially, and refer him to the box number.”

  “There’s no return address,” Melanie said, turning over the envelope.

  Chris felt oddly frustrated at not being able to reply to the writer. Many of the actors she knew didn’t answer their fan mail at all or referred it to a service for handling, but she had always replied to everything, and it amounted to twenty or thirty letters a mont
h, jumping to a hundred after the release of a new film. Melanie wrote the replies, and Chris signed them.

  “Then call the security patrol and ask them to keep a watch on my mailbox.”

  Melanie gave her the “you-can’t-be-serious” look. “Chris, don’t you think you’re overreacting? It’s a letter, not a bomb.”

  Chris laughed. “You’re right.” Jesus, she thought, why am I letting a little thing like this get to me?

  Melanie glanced at her watch. “You’re due at Graham Hong’s in twenty minutes for your class, and Danny’s doing your hair here at one.”

  “Right, I’d better get going.” Chris grabbed her duffel and entered the garage through the study door. A moment later, she was driving down Stone Canyon, past the Bel Air Hotel, toward Sunset in the Mercedes 500SL convertible. It amused her that in Bel Air and Beverly Hills, there were so many of the flashy little cars that she could think of hers as anonymous.

  Graham Hong turned out to be big for an Asian—over six feet and well-muscled, yet lithe. He taught in his home and it was nothing like a gym, more of a teahouse. Hong greeted Chris with a cup of tea and asked her to sit down.

  “Have you ever had any martial arts training?” he asked. His voice was accentless California; no trace of anything Asian.

  “None,” she replied.

  He beamed at her. “I’m so glad.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “Any dance experience?”

  “I started as a dancer, in New York.”

  “Very good. Do you work out with a trainer?”

  “No, I have a little gym at home. I’m in good shape.”

  “Good, then you will not tire easily.”

  “Graham,” she said, “if I tired easily I wouldn’t be an actress.”

  He laughed appreciatively.

  “Why is dance training better than martial arts?”

  “I’ve read the script,” he said. “What we want for this picture is not anything ritualistic, but simply dirty fighting. Your dance experience will help greatly with your balance, and ultimately, it will make you more graceful.” He stood. “If you’ve finished your tea, let’s begin.” He slid back a screen, revealing a good-sized room furnished only with a wall-to-wall mat and a canvas dummy. One wall was mirrored, with a ballet barre.

  “First, some basics,” Hong said. “Let’s say that you find yourself in a fight—a fight with a man who is larger and heavier than you. How would you approach this fight?”

  “I’d kick him in the crotch,” Chris replied.

  “Why?”

  “Because I’ve been led to believe that would disable him.”

  “It might, if you caught him unawares. You might have more success kicking him in the shin, or better, the knee.”

  “Why there, instead of the crotch?”

  “The idea is to inflict as much pain as possible with your first strike. It is the pain that is disabling. There is nothing in the testicles that is inherently disabling, except the pain caused when they are struck. If you are wearing hard shoes, you can inflict disabling—or at least, very distracting—pain in the shin. But if you kick in the knee, you can actually disable, even while barefoot or wearing soft shoes. The knee is a complex and vulnerable structure.”

  “Very interesting,” Chris said.

  “I would not recommend that, in a street scuffle, you kick someone in the knee, simply because you are likely to inflict such damage that lawsuits and serious medical expenses could result. However, if someone attacked you with a weapon or other deadly force, the knee would be an excellent choice.” Hong took her by the shoulders and stood her in the center of the room. “Relaxed, weight on both feet, slightly forward, arms at the sides. This is the position from which to either attack or defend.”

  Chris held her hand up in a boxing stance. “Not like this?”

  “That is a defensive stance,” Hong said, “unless you are in a formal boxing match. In a street fight, you would only be telling your opponent that you were thinking of hitting him. If you, a woman, are up against a man, surprise must be your first weapon. Watch; this is slow motion.” Hong stood facing her, lifted his left foot, and gently pushed against the inside of her right knee. It buckled, and she fell to that knee.

  Hong helped her up. “Now you try, in slow motion. Simply put your left instep to the inside of my right knee.”

  Chris followed his instructions, and Hong fell to his knee.

  “Now,” he said from the floor. “This is what you have done. First, if you have kicked me really hard, you have damaged my knee, perhaps so badly that I cannot walk on it again without surgery. Second, because you have buckled the joint and made me fall, I am on one knee and vulnerable to further attack. Third, simply by falling with my weight on my knee, I may have damaged it even further. Someone with experience, when kicked in this manner, would avoid falling on his knee, then roll and come up with his weight on the other leg. Of course, if you have done your work well, he would have to stand on one leg only and would be very vulnerable indeed.”

  “Gotcha,” Chris said.

  “Now, can you kick above your head?” Hong asked.

  Chris turned and did a high kick for him.

  “Very good. What would work very well in your first fight scene would be simply to kick him in the face.” He stood facing her and, again in slow motion, demonstrated.

  “I can do that,” Chris said.

  “Then do it,” Hong replied. “I want you to kick me in the face as quickly and as hard as you can. Leave it to me to protect myself.”

  Chris, who was standing ready, whipped out a leg and sent her instep at Hong’s chin. To her astonishment, she connected solidly, and Hong flew backward. She rushed to his side. “Jesus, Graham, did I hurt you?”

  Hong lifted his head and shook it. “I did not believe you could be so fast,” he laughed, spitting out blood. “You are a ruthless woman, and I will not underestimate you again.”

  When Chris got home there was another unstamped letter in the mailbox.

  CHAPTER

  2

  “Look at this,” Chris said, handing Danny Devere the two letters. “Can you believe it?”

  Danny was brushing Chris’s thick brunette hair, shaping it around her shoulders. He put down his hair dryer and picked up a letter. “Well, Sweets,” he said feigning a lisp, “looks like you got yourself a fella.”

  “Not that one,” Chris said. “Read the second one.”

  Danny read the second letter and quoted, “‘You’re certainly athletic. I’d hate to come up against you in a dark alley.’ What the hell does that mean?”

  “I just came back from Graham Hong’s house; he’s training me for the new film. We had this little session and I accidentally—well, not exactly accidentally—but inadvertently dumped him on his ass.”

  “You dumped Graham Hong on his ass?”

  “He asked me to kick him in the face, and I did. He just didn’t get out of the way fast enough.”

  Danny hooted with laughter. “God, I’d give anything to have seen that!”

  “The point is, Danny, whoever wrote this letter saw it. The sonofabitch followed me this morning.”

  Danny read the letter again. “I think you’re jumping to conclusions. This guy’s just seen you in the movies. Remember when you hit the guy with the bottle in…what was it?”

  Chris shook her head. “No, this guy was watching us.”

  Danny began to rub Chris’s shoulders. “Relax, Sweets; you’re making too much of this.”

  “That’s what Melanie said this morning, when the first letter came. Neither of them was stamped; he put them in my mailbox. How the hell did he find out where I live?”

  “Sweets, anybody can find out where anybody lives; don’t you know that?”

  “Danny, I never give this address to anybody. I get my Christmas cards through the P.O. box. The only mail I get here is catalogues, addressed to ‘Resident.’”

  “Look, I bet when you buy somethi
ng at Saks or Neiman’s you have it sent here, don’t you?”

  “No. I take it home; or, if something is being altered, Melanie picks it up. I never give anybody this address, unless they’re coming to dinner or to play tennis. And this…” she held up the letter, “…did not come from somebody I’d invite to dinner. This is creepy. I’ll tell you how this guy found out where I live; he followed me home, that’s how.”

  Danny took her head in his hands and pointed it at the mirror. “Look at me,” he said. “Don’t do this to yourself. You’re starting a new movie next Monday, and you can’t get yourself all tensed up about something that you’re probably imagining.”

  Chris slumped. “You’re right, I guess; you always are.”

  “If you call the cops, they’ll treat you like a nut case.”

  “I know, I know.” She sighed. “The fame side of this business has never rested easy with me. I hate being recognized, having strangers come up to me and demand autographs or want their pictures taken with me.”

  “It’s the price you pay, Sweets.”

  “It’s too high a price. When I get the new house built and get some money in the bank, I’m going to back out of this business.”

  “Listen, you love what you do. You just have to come to terms with the fame thing. I know a good shrink.”

  She spun around in her chair and faced him. “You think this is my problem? You think I somehow deserve to have this creep following me around and leaving notes in my mailbox? This is not some fantasy, Danny; it’s happening, and what can a shrink do about that?”