Джеймс Паттерсон - The 13-Minute Murder

“Yes?” said Ivan’s voice on my phone.

The trail of evidence along this ten-person graveyard was way too damning for anyone to tolerate. A man like Ivan would be only too willing to dispose of the aftermath.

“Ivan,” I said into my phone. “I’m here with the man who ordered the death of your beloved son.”

“Father,” cried Vatroslav toward my phone. “It’s lies. He’s lying.”

There was a pause.

The kid repeated his plea. “Father, please. It’s all a lie.”

It was enough to paint the entire picture for Ivan. The feud. The handsome, Harvard DNA versus the jealous DNA. I could hear him at the other end of the phone, weighing the implications. Michael Ryan has never once missed—or misjudged—his mark.

“Father, get me out of here!” cried the son. “Father!”

This ushered in an epoch of a pause.

Until Ivan quietly spoke. “You know what the job is,” he said. Then hung up.

“Father—!”

Blam.

Eight. Eight victims in three days.

The gunshot was a lot louder than my previous essay on acoustics would’ve had him believe. I didn’t care. Vatroslav Mesic was gasping quietly for his last breath. I stepped forward and half knelt to him. I estimated I had twenty-five seconds before the closest librarian would hustle over to look into whatever lofty book had dropped.

He tried to grab my gun. Futilely. He had no strength. Fifteen seconds.

“I don’t want to spoil it, but at the end of Le Parfum …the villagers get their vengeance on the villain.”

Eight seconds. I took hold of each of his limp forearms.

“The line is, ‘For the first time, they had done something out of love.’ Which is saying that they did what they did out of compassion…which is saying that brutality can come from love …which, let’s be honest, is not possible for any of us.”

I started to drag his corpse toward the nearest book cart.

“But I’ve enjoyed pretending otherwise.”

Want More James Patterson?

See what’s coming next, win advance copies, find deals...

The official James Patterson newsletter.

About the Authors

JAMES PATTERSONis the world’s bestselling author. The creator of Alex Cross, he has produced more enduring fictional heroes than any other novelist alive. He lives in Florida with his family.

CHRISTOPHER FARNSWORTHis the author of the President’s Vampire books and several other novels, most recently Flashmob . He worked as an investigative and business reporter before selling his first screenplay. He lives in Los Angeles with his family.

MAX DiLALLOis a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He lives in Los Angeles.

SHAN SERAFINis a novelist and film director whose works include Seventeen , The Forest, and The Believer . His most recent collaboration with James Patterson is Come and Get Us .

Triple Homicide

I couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring together my greatest detectives in three shocking thrillers. Alex Cross receives an anonymous call from someone threatening to set off deadly bombs in Washington, DC, and he has to discover whether it’s a cruel hoax or the real deal. But will he find the truth too late? And then in possibly my most twisted Women’s Murder Club mystery yet, Detective Lindsay Boxer investigates a dead lover and a wounded millionaire who was left for dead. Finally, I make things personal for Michael Bennett as someone attacks the Thanksgiving Day Parade directly in front of him and his family. Can he solve the mystery of the “holiday terror”?

The Family Lawyer

The Family Lawyer combines three of my most pulse-pounding novels in one book. There’s Matthew Hovanes, who’s living a parent’s worst nightmare when his daughter is accused of bullying another girl into suicide. I test all his attorney experience as he tries to clear his daughter’s name and reveal the truth. Then there’s Cheryl Mabern of the NYPD, who is one of my most brilliant detectives. But does that brilliance help her when there’s a calculating killer committing random murders? And finally, Dani Lawrence struggles with deciding whether to aid in an investigation that could put away her sister for the murder of her cheating husband. Or should she obstruct the investigation by any means necessary?