Vertical Coffin: A Shane Scully Novel (Shane Scully Novels Book 4)

No Warning It begins with a bang-a routine search warrant and patrolman Emo Rojas is blown away. The shooter is a wanna-be cop with an illegal arsenal. But he's not the only one making the LAPD's Enemies List: ATF agents may have known Rojas was walking into a trap. Now the LAPD wants revenge. No Accident A clandestine war between the two agencies has begun, and it's already claimed two more victims, an ATF member and an L.A. sheriff, both taken out by snipers. The investigation into the murders is handed to homicide investigator Shane Scully, an honorable man now isolated between two hostile armies. No Escape As the payback for Rojas's death escalates, Scully and his wife-and boss-Alexa are swept up in a political firestorm that's burning everyone it touches. With time running out, and no one to trust, Scully is putting his career, his life, and the lives of everyone he loves on the line. But crossing it is the only way he can get to the truth. "A fast-paced police story...I just did not want to put it down...hats off to Cannell. He knows his crime stuff, and he can write a novel even better than the many successful TV shows he created." --San Jose Mercury News "Action's been a reliable staple in the Scully series, but here Cannell gets the people right, too. The best yet for the Rockford man."- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From the Inside Flap Praise for Hollywood Tough :"Scully has ample opportunity to prove how 'Hollywood tough' he is...veteran writer/TV producer Cannell has concocted his special brand of reader candy."-- Kirkus Reviews for The Viking Funeral :"Stephen J. Cannell's The Viking Funeral is the sort of fast and furious read you might expect from one of television's most successful and innovative writer-producers."-- Los Angeles Times for The Tin Collectors :"Stephen Cannell has the screenwriter's fine ear for dialogue and great sense of timing and pacing as well as the novelist's gift of substance and subtlety.Cannell likes to write, and it shows."--Nelson DeMille"If you like cop novels, you're going to love this one. Cannell is a pro at the top of his game."--Stephen Coonts --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Shane Scully Double PackVERTICAL COFFINVERTICAL COFFIN: A term used by SWAT teams to describe any threshold. When clearing a house, police are most vulnerable to gunfire while passing through doorways.PROLOGUEJULY 14 THESE COLORS DON'T RUNTHEY SWUNG WIDE off Trancas Canyon, thirteen bikes clutching down to make the turn; high-octane Harley engines growling loudly, tearing an ugly hole in the still afternoon. Right ear down, one by one they all finished the turn and straightened up on the Pacific Coast Highway, the old Camino Real. They were ten miles northwest of Malibu, hurtling along the four-lane, timing their moves to roar around slower-moving traffic. Thirteen Harley V-twins in formation. Metal locusts growing larger and more dangerous as they swarmed, the two-second rule be damned.They called Emo Rojas "Maniac." He was prez, so he was out front, riding point. Emo's giant shoulders reaching high to grab polished ape hangers that stretched like chrome wings over hisblack Harley Softail. His four-stroke roared angrily: intake, compression, combustion, exhaust. A growling black-and-silver she-devil.Next was the ride captain Darren Zook, called "Goat" Big, with sleeveless black leathers and arms from Gold's Gym. Hard to tell where his arms stopped and the vest began--he was that black. Outrageous wraparound, chrome-rimmed darks hugged his square face like clip-on bug filters.Behind Goat was Jabba the Slut. She'd arrived just minutes before the ride, patched in club colors. An American flag do-rag wrapped her head while ink-black shades the size of welders' goggles hid her porcelain-white face. She was club treasurer and had the ride money, so she rode third. Bulging biceps and man-sized thighs straddled the 95 V-twin of her yellow-and-black Screamin' Eagle Deuce; scuffed boots thrust forward on highway pegs.After Jabba the Slut came the two-by-twos. Blam-Blam, on a chrome-and-black Harley Super Glide. A tub of guts in tootight leathers with vibrating love handles. Next to him was Drill-Bit, then Johnny Bravo and Pebbles, Wart and Shooter, Mean Mike and The Rooster.Then came Chooch and Shane Scully. Since they were not patched members of the club, only guests, they rode last: tail-gun charlies. Chooch on Emo's backup bike, a red Harley Fat Boy with a dry clutch. Shane rode Swede Petersen's modified Road King. They came out of Trancas Canyon at the end of the line, completed the turn and accelerated, hurrying to close ranks, bunching tight again, until they blocked both southbound lanes like scurrilous outlaws--riding four across, lane splitting, the throaty animal rumble of all that horsepower redefining them, the exhaust; a self-induced steroid.You could see awe and revulsion in the eyes of the Sunday drivers they passed. The beach crowd in their SUVs looked over and saw thirteen thugs on custom choppers with mean-looking, radical fork rakes. They saw the head wraps and greasy leathersand quickly looked away. The club patch--the colors--rode their leathers defiantly. Across the shoulder blades in a death font was their name: IRON PIGS. Under that the logo: a fierce warthog with curling tusks and fire blowing out of its nostrils. The bottom rocker said "California."Only the baddest club in the state was allowed to wear a bottom rocker. In the eighties that was the Hell's Angels. Then the Mongols blew in and changed all that. They shot a few Angels, ripped the bottom rockers off the dead bikers. The Mongols said you wore the California patch at your own risk. It had been the rule ever since. All bikers knew that if you were caught by a Mongol with a bottom rocker under your colors, you were dead. Mongols alone wore the patch.Mongols, and of course, Iron Pigs.The thirteen riders snaked down PCH. The Pacific Ocean glittered on the right, the Malibu Mountains dressed in dry, beige summer colors framed the left. Finally they turned on Mulholland Highway, climbing into the hills. Now the roar of bored pistons and straight pipes bounced off mountains, pinging loudly in the granite canyons. Another left turn off Mulholland took them to Las Flores Road, the hawgs slowing as the road wound dangerously. The late afternoon sun glinted off polished chrome and lacquered paint. A few people heard the deafening rumble and came out of their houses to watch them pass. Then up onto Puma Road, two-by-two, a growling metal centipede making its way slowly along the narrow highway.Shane looked over at Chooch and saw him grinning. Hard not to feel the rush of all that energy and power. They were nearing the end, rolling in, loud and dangerous. Around the corner, up ahead, was a biker hangout high in the Malibu Mountains.They rounded the last curve and saw The Rock Store. The parking lot was full. Almost a hundred bikes lined up like soldiers at parade rest, all dressed right, leaning on metal kickstands. Mostly, it was American iron, Harleys and Indians,with a few Japanese rice-burners. The Rock Store was Mecca for Southern California bikers. It was the high church--hawg heaven.Maniac pulled in and, one by one, the Iron Pigs backed their bikes into a line, then shut them down. Silence filled their ears, laid tight against their skulls. Goat dismounted and turned to face the Pigs."Ride captain buys the beers," he said. A cheer was followed by a round of vicious insults."I got your ride money, Goat. Right now, you couldn't buy a Hoover Street hooker," Jabba the Slut scoffed. Then she threw a canvas bag full of cash at him. The Iron Pigs whistled and hooted.Chooch and Shane climbed off their borrowed bikes. "I'll buy you a beer if you don't tell your mother," Shane whispered, instantly realizing he sounded like a Boy Scout at a truck stop."I own you now, Dad," Chooch teased. "If I tell Mom about this, you'll be in honey-do jail until Christmas.""You gotta take a few chances in life," Shane grinned, and threw an arm around his son's shoulder as they all walked toward The Rock Store.Shane heard a bike start up and looked around just in time to see Jabba the Slut pulling out on her custom Softail. Then he remembered she said she was on the mid-watch and had to get to work. She deep-throated the yellow-and-black Harley, roaring down the road, laying rubber, kicking ass on her way back to L.A."I wonder what she looks like under those goggles and do-rag?" Shane pondered.The Rock Store had been a stagecoach stop in the early 1900s. Ed and Veronica Sazko owned it since the sixties. They made it into a convenience store. The rock foundation was responsible for its name. Two old red-and-white gas pumps sat out front dinging off the gallons like antique slots. In the seventies,the Sazkos had added a dining room and bar. They'd sold one hell of a lot of beer since then. Most L.A. bikers eventually hit the Rock Store. Everybody from Jay Leno to old-time, beein-the-teeth Harley roughnecks hung there. Shane, Chooch, and the remaining Iron Pigs found three open booths, crowded in, and drank beer as the roof shadows grew long, stretching across the porch into the dirt yard. The place started to clear out by seven. By seven thirty most of the Iron Pigs had left. Maniac, Goat, Chooch, and Shane hung on stubbornly, not wanting the ride to end. Alexa was in Chicago at a police convention so Shane and Chooch were spending some guy time together. Maniac and Goat took off their head wraps and the cool biker handles disappeared with them. They were back to being Emo and Darren.Chooch was explaining the Wing-T offense he quarterbacked at Harvard-Westlake High School, finger painting plays on the table using the moist condensation from their beer cans. Emo watched closely as the play was diagrammed on the sawed wood."Don't you run any options off that formation?" Emo asked. His overdeveloped shoulders and muscular build made him look like a linebacker, but Shane knew he'd once played quarterback at Cerritos Junior College."Yeah." Chooch drew another play as he talked. "You can fake to the halfback, coming across like this; or do a naked rollout pass run option. We also have a pitch to the trailing back."Emo leaned over and looked down at the diagram painted in water on the chipped cedar table. Then he added a play of his own."You should tell your coach to put in a Z-Option off the rollout. You throw back to the wingback on the far side." He drew the pass pattern and Chooch looked carefully at the play."Countermotion," he said, and Emo Rojas nodded.Shane thought this was just about perfect. He and his sonwere making the important, but difficult, transition from parent and child to buddies.They heard the four Harleys pull in, but nobody paid too much attention. Darren Zook went to the restroom to tap a kidney. Shane went to get another beer from the bar. He had just paid when he heard angry voices coming from the other room."Do I look like I give a fuck?" he heard somebody shout.Shane moved out of the bar and stood in the threshold of the dining room. He saw four scruffy looking bikers leaning over the booth where Emo and Chooch sat. Shane knew at a glance these were outlaws. One-percenters. Chooch was trying to get to his feet, but one of the large thugs had his hand on the boy's shoulder holding him in place. Hard to do because Chooch, at eighteen, had grown into a six-foot-three, 225-pound college football prospect. These four outlaws were patched. When one of them moved, Shane saw the Mongol's colors riding his back like a dangerous insult."This ain't gonna work, dickhead," one of the Mongols said to Emo. He was big. At least two hundred and fifty pounds, with a red beard and deep-set eyes. He looked mean, but slow."Hey Rainman," one of the other Mongols said to red beard, "this kid ain't patched. Maybe he's a prospect."Rainman leaned in and glared at Chooch. "Then you're prospecting for dead people." He turned and growled at Emo. "You wear the bottom rocker in our state, you eat shit and die."Chooch was still being held in place. But then without warning, he bolted up, spun, and shoved the Mongol behind him hard, using a forearm shiver. Suddenly everyone was moving at once. Emo Rojas ducked under Rainman's wild right and bolted out of the booth. Chooch scrambled out beside him.A hard-eyed Mongol with GEEZER stitched on his pocket was holding the door. He pulled a cut-down out from under his three-quarter-length coat--a shotgun with a four-inch barrel.Cut-downs were illegal in California, but these guys made their own laws. Geezer chambered the piece and everybody froze."You got one way outta this place," Rainman said to Emo. He was smiling through his red beard, but his slit eyes offered little humor and no hope. "You get down on your belly and ya crawl out the door. I'm gonna break you up, rip that bottom rocker off, and stuff it up your ass. Then if you suck this prospect's dick, I might let you run."Now a slight smile appeared on Emo's face. Adrenaline, or some form of street insanity. Chooch was on the balls of his feet and ready.Shane left the bar threshold and moved quietly along an adjoining wall, then looped right and ran through the service door. Geezer didn't see it coming until it was too late. Shane dove over a table and hit the gunman between the shoulder blades, right in the middle of the ugly, snarling Mongol logo, taking the man to the ground. The shotgun flew from his hands, discharging into the air. It landed, then bucked out the door into the dirt.How long the fight lasted was a topic of dispute for months. Darren Zook, who heard the shotgun blast and ran out of the can, said he thought he was only in the brawl for about thirty seconds. Shane and Emo felt it had lasted over three minutes--but to be honest, fish and fight stories always get bigger with each telling.Most dustups end up on the ground, so the LAPD and the L.A. Sheriff's Department teach a version of Brazilian jujitsu, which is a ground-fighting technique. Tough guys and heroes like to stand toe-to-toe and trade punches, but Emo, Shane, and Darren all took their guys down fast, wrapping them up in arm locks and leg holds. Geezer screamed as Shane applied too much leverage and broke his right wrist. Rainman hit Chooch, who shook it off and countered with two sharp left hooks that dumped him.Whether it took a minute or an hour, the end result was the same. Shane, Darren, Emo, and Chooch were standing over the four dazed Mongols. It was a moment that would bond them forever."Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. You're under arrest," Emo said, as he flashed his deputy's star and cuffed Rainman.Shane flashed his LAPD badge, then grabbed his cuffs and hooked Geezer up. Darren and Emo cuffed the other two, who called themselves Crash and Nasty, then went through the bikers' pockets and finally found enough meth in their saddlebags to add Possession with Intent to Distribute to the charge sheet. Afterwards, they escorted their captives outside and waited for the LASD transport van.The Mongols shook their heads in dismay. "You guys are cops?" Rainman asked. "I thought you were outlaws."Darren said, "Iron Pigs don't ask if they can wear the bottom rocker, because you gotta be a cop to join." Then Emo reached out and tore Rainman's California rocker off his leathers and stuffed it in the trash can out front. He tapped his own club logo. "These colors don't run."When the sheriff's van pulled away with the four Mongols, it was almost dark. Shane and Chooch said good-bye to Emo and Darren then walked back to their borrowed bikes. As Chooch turned to get on his Fat Boy, Shane saw that he had a cut on his eyebrow trickling blood. His lip was also beginning to swell."Your mom's gonna kill us," he said."We didn't run, Dad," Chooch said proudly."Yep. We hung solid," Shane agreed. As he started his Harley he thought this boy had surely been sent to him by God.VERTICAL COFFIN and THE TIN COLLECTORS. Copyright © 2004 by Stephen J. Cannell. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Booklist The firefight played out like a mini-Waco conflagration. Vincent Smiley, a wanna-be cop with a fondness for bragging about his weapons cache, battles elements of the Los Angeles Police and County Sheriff's Departments until a SWAT team brings in the heavy weaponry, and Smiley's home burns to the ground with Smiley apparently in it, firing until the end. The incident takes on political repercussions when it's learned that the battle erupted as Smiley was served with a misdemeanor weapons warrant by an LAPD patrolman. An intradepartmental squabble ensues when the LAPD learns a division of the Feds was aware of Smiley's violent proclivities and may have sacrificed one of their patrol officers to serve a warrant and force Smiley's hand. Shane Scully, an LAPD homicide investigator and his wife, Alexa, an LAPD Division commander, are handed the political hot potato of sorting out the who-knew-what-when mess. Rapid deterioration sets in when two officers involved in the case are shot dead by a sniper. Are law-enforcement agencies at war? Cannell, a veteran TV producer of such hits as The Rockford Files, has made the transition to crime fiction easily; this is his fourth Scully novel along with several stand-alone thrillers. The Scully series, though, brings out the best in him: adept characterization, sharp dialogue, breakneck plotting, and great entertainment value. Wes Lukowsky Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. From Publishers Weekly The title of the latest entry in Cannell's Shane Scully LAPD series (Hollywood Tough; The Tin Collectors; The Viking Funeral) is police jargon for any doorway, which is where cops are most vulnerable when clearing a house. As the novel begins, Shane stumbles into a full-scale barricade shootout between gunman Vincent Smiley and surrounding police. After one of two competing SWAT teams at the scene burns down the barricaded house with Smiley in it, a fight over who is to blame begins to smolder. Several subsequent cop shootings (with all victims caught in the aforementioned vertical coffins) fan the SWAT team turf tussle into a conflagration that Shane and wife Alexa, the acting head of the LAPD Detective Services Group, are assigned to investigate. Shane, an old school detective, insists on starting from zero and looking into shooter Smiley's past. Everyone else wants him to forget the gumshoe routine and come up with an instant solution. The pleasure of Cannell's work isn't in the writing ("Bullets whined and ricocheted in a deadly concert of tortured metal"), but lies more often in the interesting procedural elements ("It's very hard to protect a crime scene, so I always start at the far edges first, and work in toward the body"). Shane's still a little rough around the edges, but despite too many pop psychology musings, he's a dependable and satisfying character. Readers will enjoy watching him puzzle out the twists and turns of the plot and watch breathlessly as he undertakes a climactic high-speed chase in a souped-up dune buggy on a military shooting range. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition. “Scully has ample opportunity to prove how ‘Hollywood tough’ he is...veteran writer/TV producer Cannell has concocted his special brand of reader candy.”— Kirkus Reviews --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From AudioFile With VERTICAL COFFIN, Stephen J. Cannell has added another winner to his list of award-winning novels and television shows. This title is Cannell's latest thriller featuring LAPD detective Shane Scully, whose acumen is put to the test when he investigates why LA sheriffs and ATF agents appear to be shooting each other. Scott Brick's reading is the latest in a string of superb performances. Brick's ability to inject irony and wit into the novel adds to his performance, particularly because his sense of timing is impeccable. The only drawback is that there's quite a bit missing from this abridgment. A shame. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. In his thirty-five year career, Edgar and Emmy Award-winning writer STEPHEN J. CANNELL has created over forty television series. Among his hits are The Rockford Files , Silk Stalkings , The A-Team , 21 Jump Street, Hunter , Renegade , Wiseguy , and The Commish . He has also penned the bestsellers The Plan , Final Victim , Riding the Snake , The Devil’s Workshop, King Con , Runaway Heart , The Tin Collectors , The Viking Funeral , and Hollywood Tough . He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife and children.Scott Brick has performed on film, television and radio. He appeared on stage throughout the United States in productions of Cyrano, Hamlet, Macbeth and other plays. In addition to his acting work, Scott choreographs fight sequences, and was a combatant in films including Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has also been hired by Morgan Freeman to write the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama . Scott first began narrating audiobooks in 2000, and after recording almost 400 titles in five years, AudioFile magazine named Scott a Golden Voice and “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy.” He has read a number of titles in Frank Herbert’s bestselling Dune series, and he won the 2003 Science Fiction Audie Award for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad . He has also won over 40 AudioFile Earphones Awards. In 2007, Scott was named Publishers Weekly ’s Narrator of the Year. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Read more