Джеймс Паттерсон - The 13-Minute Murder

And then, for good measure: “Well done, every one of you. Damn well done!”

Only now does Mason glance down at his bloody shoulder. But his adrenaline is pumping so hard, he barely feels it.

Slowly, the entry teams begin exiting the farmhouse from all sides. Many are carrying confiscated firearms. Others, bags and bags of crystal methamphetamine.

Finally, Mason sees the person he’s been waiting for—and he’s shocked.

It’s one of the sole surviving suspects. In handcuffs, lip bloodied, screaming and spewing a string of profanities, being led out of the farmhouse by two agents.

“Here’s the one we found in the attic, sir,” says one of the escorting agents.

Mason just nods. He recognizes who it is right away.

The ringleader of the group. The criminal mastermind he’d been after all these months.

Mason can’t believe his eyes. He marches right over. “Abraham J. McKinley, you have the right to remain silent.”

“Goddamn murderers!” the crazy old man shouts, struggling against his restraints. “All of you! Look what you done!”

Mason ignores his theatrics and keeps going. “You’re under arrest. For multiple counts of federal grand larceny, felony assault with a deadly weapon, illegal possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to commit—”

“Boy, what the hell you talking about?” McKinley demands, getting as close to Mason’s face as he can. With his wild mane of white hair fluttering behind him, McKinley’s resemblance to the man caught on camera buying those Halloween masks is undeniable.

“The bank robbery in Plainview,” Mason answers. “The horse-auction theft. All the evidence points to you and your crew, Abe.”

“Huh? We ain’t never stole nothing and you know it!”

Mason just smiles. “What about distributing a Class 2 illegal drug? Word is, you and your boys have been doing that for months.”

McKinley shakes his head. Then he looks back into his farmhouse, at all the carnage, inside and out. Numerous suspects lie bloody and dead. He starts to lose it. He twists and writhes in his handcuffs. The agents hold him steady.

“You…you killed ’em! You pigs killed all of ’em! Look what you did!”

“No, Abe,” Mason replies calmly. “Look what you did.”

And then, as McKinley is just about to be led away, still ranting and raving, Mason leans in close and whispers, “Because you…killed him. ”

It takes McKinley a moment to realize the bombshell Mason has just admitted.

“You…you framed me?! You son of a bitch! This whole thing is bullshit!”

Mason watches in silence, betraying nothing, as the aging meth king—the man whose gang made and sold the drugs that killed Alex—is carted away.

But then, across Mason’s handsome face creeps a sly little grin of satisfaction.

45 seconds

This part of west Texas is as flat as a pancake. Not a hillside for a hundred miles. And most buildings in Hobart top out at two floors.

Tonight, that just wasn’t going to be tall enough for me.

So I took the long drive to the giant water tower on the outskirts of town.

I parked my truck. I hopped the rusty metal fence. Then I climbed up slow and steady, all the way to the top, over eighty feet high.

Yes, I was breaking the law. But after months of robbing and shooting and evidence tampering, what was a little harmless trespassing?

I settled in and aimed a pair of high-power binoculars at a multiacre farm about a half mile to the southwest. It belonged to a band of meth dealers that, I had on very good authority, was currently being surrounded on four sides by the FBI.

Stevie, Nick, and J.D. had just arrived for my dinner party and were helping me set the table when I got the text from Mason. It read simply: Thinking of you .

When I read it, I gasped. Then rushed out the door. Alone, I insisted.

Mason often sent me sweet little text messages throughout the day, but he never, ever ended them with a smiley or winking face. He thought it was childish, not cute. So did I.

Which meant, we both agreed, using one would make the perfect secret code to alert me that the FBI’s raid on the McKinley farm was a go.

For safety’s sake, Mason had refused for weeks to give me any specific details about how the case against the McKinleys was developing or when the search and arrest warrants would come through. But recently he’d started dropping hints that it was close.

I always knew this day would come. I had a feeling it might be tonight, but I didn’t know for certain until barely ninety minutes ago.

From my elevated perch, I watched the whole thing happen. The multiple teams of SWAT agents. The lumbering armored vehicles. The shooting. The screaming.

I prayed to God that Mason wouldn’t be harmed. I prayed that none of his colleagues would be, either.

But I prayed that Abe McKinley and his boys…well, I prayed that they finally faced justice. Whatever that meant. However the man upstairs decided to mete it out.

Which was the real purpose of my “hell of a plan” all along.

Yes, we needed the money to pay back the bank to save our farm. Desperately.

But more than anything, I needed to make McKinley pay… for killing my boy.

And tonight, I finally did, with the help of my then-fiancé and now-husband—who walked me through the ins and outs of a federal bank robbery investigation…who planted the assault rifles at the Golden Acres horse ranch…who “discovered” the location of the pay phone Hank used to call in the anonymous tip that turned up Stevie on camera, wearing a white wig, buying the Halloween masks.

My “hell of a plan” worked like a hell of a charm.

I’ve been sitting on the ledge of the water tower for well over an hour. Finally the shooting seems to have stopped for good. Agents are moving in and out of the farmhouse now with ease. So are crime scene techs, and paramedics.

I even think I spy Abe McKinley himself being hauled out in cuffs, thrashing and carrying on like the madman he is.

I’d love to have seen his face when he realized what was happening. And when he realized why. But I’ll settle for hearing about it from Mason secondhand.

I should probably get back home. The show’s over, folks. I still have that dinner party to throw—and now my family really has something to celebrate.

I’m sure Mason is going to be tied up at the scene for hours. But he’ll have to come home eventually. When he does, I’ll still be up, waiting. Beyond grateful.

I put away my binoculars and stand, stretching out my cramped legs.

But before I climb down, I take out a folded piece of paper from the pocket of my jeans. I carefully open it.

It’s that drawing Alex made in first grade that I just discovered tonight, of him and me floating together in outer space, the destination of his dreams.

As my eyes begin to water, all these months of pain and stress and work and agony finally coming to an end, I hold the paper to my chest.

And I look up at the night sky, a blanket of blackness dotted with a trillion points of light.

Alex, I think, you are floating in the stars. You made it after all. May you find peace and comfort and love.

Someday, I will be there beside you. Just like you dreamed.

But not yet.

1 minute

It’s my very favorite time of the day. The world outside my window is calm. Peaceful. Quiet.

It’s not quite night but not yet dawn. And I’m not quite asleep but not yet awake.

I snuggle a little more into Mason’s strapping arms. He mumbles happily and hugs my body tighter.

I nuzzle his shoulder, just above the scar from the bullet wound he got well over a year ago now, during that fateful raid on the farm.