Patterson, James - Alex Cross 14 - Cross Country

“Not very much,” I told Sampson. But it was a white lie.

I heard a woman's scream then. “Alex!… Alex!”

Bree! She was running down the block from where she'd had to leave her car. The police had completely blocked off Fifth Street now. It was starting to look like one of those gruesome crime scenes that I hated to be called in on. Only this time, it was my house, my family.

“What is it, Alex? I just got the call. Saw the address. What happened?”

“Somebody took Nana, Ali, and Jannie,” Sampson told Bree. “That's what it looks like.”

Bree came into my arms and held me tight. “Oh, Alex, Alex, no.” She made no empty promises, just gave me the only comfort she could. Her embrace, a few whispered words.

“No note, no message?” she finally asked.

“I didn't find anything. We should look again. I don't think I was too clearheaded the first time I looked. I know I wasn't.”

“You think you ought to go back in there right now?” she said and took my arm.

“I have to. Come with me. Both of you, come.”

We all went back into the house.

Cross Country

Chapter 129

WHILE BREE AND Sampson started looking around, I called Damon's school and talked to the headmaster, then got Damon on the line. I told him to pack some things. We would be moving him soon. Sampson had already made the arrangements for him to be picked up. “Why do I have to come home?” Damon wanted to know.

“You're not coming home right now. Not yet. It isn't safe here. Not for any of us.”

I joined Bree and Sampson and we searched the house for several hours, but there was nothing for us to find. No message left anywhere. The only evidence of a struggle was the mess in the kitchen and a tangled runner in the foyer.

I thought to check my computer, but there was nothing there either. No messages had been left anywhere. No threats. No explanation of any kind. Was that the message?

I decided to place a call to Lagos next. It was eight a.m. there.

I reached lan Flaherty's office, but he didn't pick up himself this time.

“Mr. Flaherty is not here at the moment,” said his assistant. She sounded nervous.

“Do you know where he is or when he's expected back?” I asked her. “It's important that I talk to him.”

“I'm sorry, I don't. There is a lot going on here, sir. It's a very bad situation.”

“Yes, I know. May I leave a message for him?”

“Of course.”

“Tell him that Alex Cross is back in Washington. They've taken my family. I think it's the Tiger or his people who did this. I need to talk to him. Please make sure that he gets this message. It could be a matter of life or death.”

“Yes, sir,” said the assistant, “it always is.”

Cross Country

Chapter 130

SAMPSON, BREE, AND I stayed in the house another hour or so. We searched every room again, looking for anything to work with.

But I understood that the two of them were here to make sure I was all right, especially since I was showing a few cracks.

Finally I told John to go home to his family and get some sleep.

No one had called or tried to get a message to me.

“There are two squad cars outside,” Sampson said. “They'll stay here the rest of the night. Don't argue with me about it.”

“I know. I can see them.”

“That's the idea, sugar. They're supposed to be seen.”

“Make sure they're on their toes,” Bree said. “I'll be here too. Tell them I'll be checking.”

Sampson hugged Bree, then did the same with me. There was no cop humor tonight, no making light of this. “Anything-you call,” he told me.

Then he started out the kitchen door. He stopped and turned back. “I'll talk to the men outside. Maybe put on one more car.”

I didn't bother to agree or disagree. I was in no shape to make decisions right now. “Thank you.”

“We'll be fine,” Bree said.

“I have no doubt,” Sampson said and nodded. “Call me if anything happens!” Finally he shut the door behind him.

I went over and locked the door, which would give us an extra few seconds if somebody tried to come in. Maybe we'd need it.

“You all right with this?” Bree asked.

I nodded. “You staying with me? Of course I am.”

She drifted over and hugged me again. “Let's go upstairs, then.” She took my hand. “Alex, come.”

I let Bree take me upstairs. I was numb and in a faraway dreamscape anyway.

“There's a phone in here,” she said as we entered the bedroom. Then she hugged me again and reached down and started to unhook my belt. I didn't think that was what I needed, but I was wrong about that.

Until the phone in the bedroom rang.

Cross Country

Chapter 131

THE CALLS TO the house started at a few minutes past four in the morning. Hang-ups, one after the other, virtually nonstop.

The calls were emotional torture for me, but I answered every time; and I didn't dare take the phone off the hook. How could I? The phone was my lifeline to Nana and the kids. Whoever was calling had them. I had to believe that.

Bree and I held each other through the night, probably the worst night of my life.

I told her some of what I'd done and seen in Africa-about the horrors and Adanne and her family-their senseless murders. But I also talked about the goodness and naturalness of the people; their helplessness, caught in a nightmare they hadn't created and didn't want.

“And this Tiger, what more did you learn about that bastard, Alex?”

"Terrorist, assassin-seems to work both sides of the street.

Anyone who pays him. He's the most violent killer I've ever seen, Bree. He likes to hurt people. And there are others like him. It's a name they have for killers for hire: Tiger."

“So he took Nana and the kids? He did this? You're sure about that?”

“Yes,” I said as the phone rang again. “And that's him.”

The phone kept ringing-and I began to pace around the house, going from room to room, thinking about my family all the while. Rosie followed me everywhere.

In the kitchen, Nana's favorite cookbook was still out-The Gift of Southern Cooking. I checked and saw it was open to a starred recipe for chocolate-pecan cake.

Nana's famous gabardine raincoat was draped over the back of a kitchen chair. How many times had she told me, “I don't want another raincoat. It took me half a century to get this one worn in right”?

I walked around Ali's room.

I saw his Pokemon cards laid out carefully on the floor. His beloved plush toy Moo. A hand-painted T-shirt from his fifth birthday party. A copy of Ralph S. Mouse spread open on the night table.

When I got to Jannie's room, I sat down heavily on the bed. My eyes ran over her precious collection of books. And the wire baskets brimming with hair accessories, lip glosses, fruit-scented lotions. Then I spotted her reading glasses, prescribed only a month or so ago. That got to me. There was something so vulnerable and telling about her new glasses sitting on the desk.

I sat there holding Rosie and heard the phone ring again. Bree picked it up.

She said, very quietly, “Fuck you.”

And she hung up on whoever it was this time.

Cross Country

Chapter 132

I WAS GOING to get my family back. I had to believe that. But was it true? What were the real odds that I would? They were definitely getting worse.

From six-thirty until close to seven that morning, I sat out on the front porch and tried not to go completely crazy. I thought about taking a drive, to see if it would relax me.

But I was afraid to be away from the house for any length of time.