Sunset Express Quotes

“We drove slowly, neither of us speaking, and worked our way out of the Marina, up through Venice, and along the beach. It was automatic driving, going through the motions without conscious thought or direction, movement without destination or design. Pike hunkered low in the passenger’s seat, his face dark in the bright sun, his dark lenses somehow molten and angry. It is not good to see Joe Pike angry. Better to see a male lion charge at close quarters. Better to hear someone scream, “Incoming!”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“She said, “Oh, Studly.” I could see her smile. “The law is not about justice. You know that.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“The Men’s Central Jail is an anonymous building behind Central Station, less than ten minutes from the Criminal Courts Building in downtown L.A. I parked in a neat, modern underground parking structure, then walked up steps to a very nice plaza. Nicely dressed people were sipping lattes and strolling about the plaza, and no one seemed to mind that the plaza adjoined a place housing felons and gangbangers and the wild men of an otherwise civil society. Perhaps because this is L.A. and the jail is so nice. There’s a fountain in the plaza, and it’s very nice, too.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Throughout the meal Lucy would grin with the knowledge of her secret, and I would ask, “What?” and she would say, “You’ll see.” Then everyone stopped looking at Johnny Depp and turned toward the door. Lucy grinned wider, and I looked, too. Joe came over, gliding across the floor as the room parted for him. Tall men in sleeveless sweatshirts and dark glasses and brilliant red tattoos tend to stand out in Spago. Even Johnny Depp was looking.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Lucy said, “The law is an adversarial contest that defines justice as staying within the rules and seeing the game to its conclusion. Justice is reaching a conclusion. It has very little to do with right and wrong. The law gives us order. Only men and women can give us what you want to call justice.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“He is defiling justice.” Defiling. That was probably the merlot talking.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“She didn’t say anything for a time, and then she said, “Well, in this case the powers that be are probably right.” I nodded, but she probably couldn’t see it. “I don’t believe Truly had a secret agreement with Teddy Martin. Green fabricated that, just as he fabricated the business about Pritzik and Richards.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Four hours later Pike was gone and I was cooking a very nice puttanesca sauce when I decided to call Lucy Chenier. I was most of the way through a bottle of California merlot. In the course of my life I’ve been shot, sapped, slugged, stabbed with a broken beer bottle, and I’ve faced down any number of thugs and miscreants, but talking to Lucy about moving to Louisiana seemed to require fortification. She answered on the third ring, and I said, “Guess who?” “Have you been drinking?” Don’t you hate smart women? “Absolutely not.” Giving her affronted. Giving her shocked. Then I said, “Well, maybe a little.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Twenty-eight days after the towers, Pike and I finished sealing the deck. It was slick and gleaming and smelled of marine-grade varnish. After the varnish had cured, we put the deck chairs and the Weber and the little table back and sat in the sun drinking cold Falstaff. We sat for awhile, and then Pike said, “Say something.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“The press still called, though with less frequency, and I avoided them. I listened to talk radio and gained weight, as if I felt a hunger that I couldn’t satisfy.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I went to bed at twenty minutes after one that night, and still the networks were on the air, rehashing the landing, replaying the interviews, offering taped “live” coverage of something that was no more alive than a nightmare.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I stood with Sherman, watching them go, and wondered at Jonathan Green’s lack of concern. I was thinking that maybe he was crazy, or arrogant, or brimming with the fatal flaw of hubris, but you never know. Maybe he was just used to winning.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“She looked at me with clear eyes that were free of doubt or equivocation. “Of course. I knew that we would.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I walked away. Too bad you couldn’t get a restraining order against negativity.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Joe shifted in his seat. “Reality begins changing.” Lucy crossed her arms and leaned forward. “Are you saying that Jonathan stays away from it?” “Sure. He’s got Truly. He’s got Kerris. He’s hidden by layers of people. Jonathan Green’s experience is that he has the ability to face twelve people and persuade them to accept the facts as he describes them. More often than not, the reality he constructs is false, but his entire experience is that he is able to convince a jury that this false interpretation is real.” Lucy sighed. “That’s what makes a great defense attorney.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I said, “Okay, Luke. Here’s my problem. I suspect that your mentor, Mr. Green, is suborning testimony. I think he may even be involved in murder, only I can’t figure out why a man in his position and of his stature would risk his ass by so doing. Do you understand that?”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Forty-two minutes later, keys worked the lock, the door swung open, and Lucas Worley came halfway through the door before seeing me. He was carrying a newspaper and a Starbucks cup. He looked surprised, but he hadn’t yet seen the dope on the table. “What the fuck is this? Who are you?” “Come inside and close the door, Luke. Can I call you Luke? Or is it Lucas? Lucas seems pretentious.” He was a little bit taller than he had looked in the car. His eyes were bright and sharp, and he spoke quickly. You could tell he was used to talking. You could tell he was used to saying bright things and having them appreciated, and you could tell that he thought he was brighter than he really was. Probably where the smugness came from. He said, “Maybe I’m confused. Isn’t this my house? Isn’t that my sofa? The only thing that doesn’t seem to belong here is you.” Showing attitude.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I said, “Luce?” She looked at me. I opened my mouth but did not speak. My mouth felt dry and there was a kind of faraway ringing and my fingers and legs suddenly went cold. There are those times when intellect fails us. There are those moments when the modern man fades to a shadow and something from the brain stem reasserts itself, and in that moment the joking is gone and we frighten ourselves with our dark potential. I said, quite normally, quite conversationally, “What do you mean, abusive? Did he touch you?” She shook her head, and then she placed both palms on my chest. “Oh, no. No, Elvis. And if he had I promise you fully that I would’ve had him arrested so fast he would’ve had whiplash.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I nodded. “I mean, God, I’m paid to advise other people, am I not?” I nodded again. Getting a lot of nod practice tonight.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I said, “Ben. Would you give your mother and me a moment alone, please?” Ben giggled. “You want me to amscray?” “Yes, Ben, I want you to amscray.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“She touched the dash again, watching her fingers move along the gentle lines. “You always follow the money.” She shook her head and made a little smile. “I’ve been doing this for twelve years. I’ve prosecuted hundreds of cases, and I have learned that people do crime for only two reasons: sex and money. There are no other motives.” “What about power and revenge?” “That’s just sex and money under aliases.” The tiny smile again. “If you’re right, and if Jonathan Green is willing to break the law, then he’s doing it for sex or money.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Of course.” I glanced at Lucy on the deck. She and Ben were at the rail. Ben was pointing at something far down the canyon and yakking, but Lucy seemed neither to hear him nor to see. As if the other presence were out there, too, and drawing her attention. I felt my own eyes fill, but, like Angela Rossi, I also knew the tricks of survival. “We’re not going to walk away, Angie. We’re not going to leave you hanging.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Jonna Lester slapped hard at the couch, then threw the glass pipe to the floor. She stamped both feet. Mad. “Life really sucks.” “That’s true,” I said. “But think of it this way.” She squinted at me, and I glanced toward the bathroom. “Death sucks worse.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“I glanced at Pike, but Pike was staring out the front door. Intimidating the neighborhood. I said, “Maybe he mentioned a buddy who worked at a Shell Station or an ex-con he would have drinks with.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“The beer came and I said, “Joe, I’m thinking that there is something larger here than an attorney’s zealous defense of his client.” The master of understatement.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Giving them room is often the better part of valor, especially when you’re trying not to make things worse.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Is it his job to lie?” “No, but you’re assuming it’s a lie. Reasonable people can disagree and have opposing interpretations of the facts. It’s Jonathan’s job to present an interpretation that’s favorable to his client. It would be malpractice for him to do otherwise.” When she said it she was stiff and testy, and it felt like we were having a confrontation.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“people worked us across the plaza and down to the parking structure. I moved with the crush of bodies the way a leaf is carried by the wind, a part of an unseen world, yet not.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“voice grew, and the fierce expression became outraged. He grabbed my shoulder again, and all the grabbing was making me uncomfortable. “The tyranny of evil men cannot be hidden from the light of truth! We have not only uncovered evidence of a specific crime, but also of gross incompetence, negligence, and a police department all too willing to obfuscate the truth in an attempt to hide their own shortcomings.” Still cameras were clicking and videocameras were panning, and they seemed to be panning toward me.”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express

“Jonathan said, “We’ll discuss the team’s progress and direction. I want you to be a part of that meeting. I don’t want you to feel left out.” I said, “You don’t have to handle me, Jonathan.” “I know that, son. I respect you.” I recovered my gun, then we stepped out into the plaza and a wall of people and cameras and microphones surged forward and enveloped us. I thought that maybe this wasn’t the jail anymore and maybe I wasn’t me. Maybe I’d stepped through Calvin and Hobbes’s transmogrifier and I was no longer a detective and Green was no longer a lawyer. Maybe we had just discovered life on Titan. Maybe we had found the cure for AIDS and were about to tell the world. Why else would so many people be here shouting questions?”
― Robert Crais, Sunset Express