Kidnapped: BookShots (A Jon Roscoe Thriller) Read online

  Contents

  About the Book

  About the Author

  Also by James Patterson

  Title Page

  Part 1

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Part 2

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Part 3

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Part 4

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Part 5

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Copyright

  About the Book

  PLEASE HELP BEFORE HE KILLS ME.

  Travelling home for the festive season, Jon Roscoe receives a desperate cry for help.

  This year, Christmas with his family isn’t quite as he had planned…

  About the Author

  JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. His books have sold in excess of 325 million copies worldwide and he has been the most borrowed author in UK libraries for the past nine years in a row. He is the author of some of the most popular series of the past two decades – the Alex Cross, Women’s Murder Club, Detective Michael Bennett and Private novels – and he has written many other number one bestsellers including romance novels and stand-alone thrillers.

  James is passionate about encouraging children to read. Inspired by his own son who was a reluctant reader, he also writes a range of books for young readers including the Middle School, I Funny, Treasure Hunters, House of Robots, Confessions and Maximum Ride series. James is the proud sponsor of the World Book Day Award and has donated millions in grants to independent bookshops. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.

  ALSO BY JAMES PATTERSON

  ALEX CROSS NOVELS

  Along Came a Spider

  Kiss the Girls

  Jack and Jill

  Cat and Mouse

  Pop Goes the Weasel

  Roses are Red

  Violets are Blue

  Four Blind Mice

  The Big Bad Wolf

  London Bridges

  Mary, Mary

  Cross

  Double Cross

  Cross Country

  Alex Cross’s Trial (with Richard DiLallo)

  I, Alex Cross

  Cross Fire

  Kill Alex Cross

  Merry Christmas, Alex Cross

  Alex Cross, Run

  Cross My Heart

  Hope to Die

  Cross Justice

  Cross the Line

  THE WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB SERIES

  1st to Die

  2nd Chance (with Andrew Gross)

  3rd Degree (with Andrew Gross)

  4th of July (with Maxine Paetro)

  The 5th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro)

  The 6th Target (with Maxine Paetro)

  7th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro)

  8th Confession (with Maxine Paetro)

  9th Judgement (with Maxine Paetro)

  10th Anniversary (with Maxine Paetro)

  11th Hour (with Maxine Paetro)

  12th of Never (with Maxine Paetro)

  Unlucky 13 (with Maxine Paetro)

  14th Deadly Sin (with Maxine Paetro)

  15th Affair (with Maxine Paetro)

  DETECTIVE MICHAEL BENNETT SERIES

  Step on a Crack (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Worst Case (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Tick Tock (with Michael Ledwidge)

  I, Michael Bennett (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Gone (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Burn (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Alert (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Bullseye (with Michael Ledwidge)

  PRIVATE NOVELS

  Private (with Maxine Paetro)

  Private London (with Mark Pearson)

  Private Games (with Mark Sullivan)

  Private: No. 1 Suspect (with Maxine Paetro)

  Private Berlin (with Mark Sullivan)

  Private Down Under (with Michael White)

  Private L.A. (with Mark Sullivan)

  Private India (with Ashwin Sanghi)

  Private Vegas (with Maxine Paetro)

  Private Sydney (with Kathryn Fox)

  Private Paris (with Mark Sullivan)

  The Games (with Mark Sullivan)

  NYPD RED SERIES

  NYPD Red (with Marshall Karp)

  NYPD Red 2 (with Marshall Karp)

  NYPD Red 3 (with Marshall Karp)

  NYPD Red 4 (with Marshall Karp)

  STAND-ALONE THRILLERS

  Sail (with Howard Roughan)

  Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro)

  Don’t Blink (with Howard Roughan)

  Postcard Killers (with Liza Marklund)

  Toys (with Neil McMahon)

  Now You See Her (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Kill Me If You Can (with Marshall Karp)

  Guilty Wives (with David Ellis)

  Zoo (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Second Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan)

  Mistress (with David Ellis)

  Invisible (with David Ellis)

  The Thomas Berryman Number

  Truth or Die (with Howard Roughan)

  Murder House (with David Ellis)

  Never Never (with Candice Fox)

  Woman of God (with Maxine Paetro)

  BOOKSHOTS

  Black & Blue (with Candice Fox)

  Break Point (with Lee Stone)

  Cross Kill

  Private Royals (with Rees Jones)

  The Hostage (with Robert Gold)

  Zoo 2 (with Max DiLallo)

  Heist (with Rees Jones)

  Hunted (with Andrew Holmes)

  Airport: Code Red (with Michael White)

  The Trial (with Maxine Paetro)

  Little Black Dress (with Emily Raymond)

  Chase (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Let’s Play Make-Believe (with James O. Born)

  Dead Heat (with Lee Stone)

  Triple Threat

  113 Minutes (with Max DiLallo)

  The Verdict (with Robert Gold)

  French Kiss (with Richard DiLallo)

  $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal (with Hilary Liftin)

  Kill or Be Killed

  Taking the Titanic (with Scott Slaven)

  Killer Chef (with Jeffrey J. Keyes)

  STORIES AT THE SPEED OF LIFE

  What you are holding in your hands right now is no ordinary book, it’s a BookShot.

  BookShots are page-turning stories by James Patterson and other writers that can be read in one sitting.

  Each and every one is fast-paced, 100% story-driven; a shot of pure entertainment guaranteed to satisfy.

  Available as new, compact paperbacks, ebooks and audio, everywhere books are sold.

  BookShots – the ultimate for
m of storytelling. From the ultimate storyteller.

  PART 1

  23 December

  CHAPTER 1

  Chicago, Illinois

  SNOW WAS FALLING and the airport road snarled as Jon Roscoe sat cramped in the rear of a Chicago cab. As the car slowly made its way into the city’s O’Hare Airport, Roscoe’s mind drifted while he gazed through the window at the wintery scene. Imagining the delight his twin daughters would find in the falling flakes, his own heart sank as the traffic ground almost to a halt. All he wanted was to be back home in London with his family.

  His car crawled forward in front of terminal buildings and as it did so, Roscoe’s attention was drawn to a news story running on the in-cab TV.

  ‘This is Katie Coakley from outside the Cook County Criminal Courthouse,’ began the reporter, ‘where late last night the manslaughter trial of Matteo Ginevra, son of multi-millionaire construction magnate Enzo Ginevra, collapsed sensationally after lead prosecution witness Jerry Davis, a former employee of Tribeca Luxury Hotels, recanted his earlier evidence.

  ‘Davis had previously testified to the Chicago PD to witnessing Matteo Ginevra force two construction workers to ride unsecured on a steel girder, as it was hoisted over fifty floors during the building of the Chicago Tribeca Luxury Hotel. Davis had also testified to Ginevra’s appearing intoxicated by liquor while on the construction site.

  ‘Yesterday evening he amended his evidence, stating Matteo Ginevra had attempted to prevent the two construction workers climbing aboard the girder. Both men were killed when the crane jammed and they fell fifty floors to the ground. Now back to the studio.’

  Roscoe thumped his hand against the screen of the in-car TV.

  Four days wasted in Chicago waiting to testify against Matteo Ginevra had been bad enough, but more than this he was incensed at the thought of a guilty man going free.

  Jerry Davis was the third, and most crucial, of the prosecution witnesses to recant their evidence. Roscoe was in no doubt all three had been bought off – and that the Ginevra family fortune had cast a long shadow over the trial.

  Two years earlier, as the recently appointed global head of security for Tribeca Luxury Hotels, a chain of the twenty-eight most exclusive hotels across the world, Roscoe had been in Chicago as a member of the team charged with developing the latest addition to the group’s luxury portfolio.

  With the hotel under construction in the city’s downtown district, Roscoe had been responsible for the security structure in and around the hotel’s core. Regularly home to some of the world’s most powerful and influential people, all Tribeca Luxury Hotels were built with a security foundation that offered the greatest possible level of resistance to the terror threats in existence across the modern world.

  That afternoon, as he walked from the hotel along the banks of the Chicago River, Roscoe had seen Matteo Ginevra drinking heavily in one of the newly opened riverside bars. Knowing Ginevra was heading up the Tribeca construction team, Roscoe had felt uncomfortable. But, telling himself Ginevra was the son of Enzo Ginevra and that the Ginevra Construction Group was one of the biggest global partners of Tribeca Luxury Hotels, he had convinced himself Matteo was finished for the day and walked on.

  It was a moment’s decision that had stayed with him every day for the next two years.

  While Roscoe had sat and eaten lunch by the river, an intoxicated Ginevra had returned to the construction site. Surrounded by his entourage, he had started to goad two of the men working on the site. Relishing an opportunity to exhibit his power in front of his devotees, Matteo had bullied the two construction workers into riding unsecured up the outside of the new skyscraper.

  The scene Roscoe had discovered when he returned an hour later was one he could still see each time he closed his eyes.

  The mangled bodies of the two construction workers had lain shattered in pools of their own blood, having plunged over fifty floors onto the newly constructed sun terrace that overlooked the graceful river.

  Now, watching the news report, his anger and frustration surfaced once more. In attempting to deliver a hotel that would provide the ultimate in security for its future guests, he had not provided that same security to the men charged with its construction.

  He had failed them.

  Listening to the end of the news report, he could still hear Matteo’s voice from that tragic afternoon: ‘Dead Hispanics are nothing more than a cost of doing business in the construction trade,’ he had said to Roscoe as he walked away from the scene.

  Roscoe wouldn’t rest until Matteo Ginevra was behind bars.

  CHAPTER 2

  WITH THE SNOW still falling, Roscoe’s cab made its way round to the American Airlines terminal. His attention was drawn to a teenage girl hurtling out of the front of the building. With no regard for her own safety, she ran through the airport traffic, slamming her hand against the hood of Roscoe’s car. Roscoe’s driver jammed on his brakes and Roscoe was hurled forward against the cab’s partition, only his outstretched arm breaking his fall.

  And then, almost instantly, the cab was hit from behind. Roscoe was tossed forward, his head crashing into the divide.

  ‘You okay back there?’ said the driver as Roscoe, dazed and with a bloodied temple, pulled himself up off the floor.

  ‘Fine,’ said Roscoe, wiping away the blood from his forehead. He felt a pain rip through his right shoulder.

  ‘Stupid kid,’ said the driver. ‘Gonna get herself killed if she don’t watch where she’s going.’

  Roscoe looked out of his window at the girl, who continued to weave erratically through the traffic, now making her way across the elevated airport approach road.

  ‘Cops coming after her,’ said the driver. Roscoe turned to see two police officers exit the terminal building in pursuit of the girl. ‘Maybe she’s one of those Islam terror women, beholden to their menfolk. She can be beholden to me any time she likes,’ he added, laughing to himself.

  The driver’s last comment was lost on Roscoe, who was already opening his door. Car horns blared and frustrated drivers shouted at the stacked-up vehicles around them, as he ducked through the traffic in pursuit of the girl.

  ‘Hold up!’ he called as she ran towards the edge of the elevated road. ‘Please, wait!’ he shouted. He glanced behind to see the two police officers now with their weapons drawn. With more snow now lying on the ground, he saw one of the officers take a Bambie-style slide across the road, his feet suddenly flying above his head. Car horns sounded with greater intensity in apparent celebration of the officer’s undignified fall.

  The girl was running across the rail track that encircled the airport to ferry passengers from terminal to terminal. Roscoe doubled his pace.

  ‘Stop! Let me help you,’ he shouted again.

  The girl turned and looked over her shoulder. Roscoe could see genuine fear etched into her young face.

  But she did not stop.

  Instead he could only watch as the girl climbed the barrier that edged the elevated road so that she was standing precariously on the concrete ledge.

  Roscoe slowed to a stop.

  The girl was staring down at a hundred-foot drop below.

  CHAPTER 3

  ‘COME AWAY FROM the edge,’ Roscoe pleaded, fearful his voice would be drowned out by the deafening engines of a departing plane, soaring above them.

  Blinded by the snow, he moved closer. He could just see the girl’s bleached-blonde hair, much of it tucked beneath a Chicago Bears cap, contrasting with her dark, Mediterranean skin. She half turned to look at him and he caught sight of the desperation in her deep brown eyes.

  Quickly, she turned back and edged forward to the drop.

  ‘Wait!’ called Roscoe, pushing his sodden blonde hair back from his forehead. Looking round, he could see the police officers quickly coming up behind him. Knowing they would only succeed in spooking the girl further, he turned and held up his hands, showing them he was unarmed.

  The officers slowed an
d Roscoe turned back to the girl.

  ‘What’s your name?’ he called to her, realising the need to engage her in conversation. ‘Mine’s Jon, and I’m starting to wish I’d grabbed my jacket before I ran after you.’

  But the girl said nothing. She continued to balance perilously on the ledge, refusing to face Roscoe.

  ‘Can we talk inside the terminal?’

  She still didn’t reply.

  ‘The police are backing away,’ he called, turning to the officers and waving his hand back. With the girl standing on the very precipice he shouted again, frantically trying to make himself heard above the noise of another departing plane. ‘We really want to help you!’ he called. ‘Can you take one step towards me?’

  The girl didn’t move.

  Roscoe edged forward until he was standing directly behind her.

  ‘Nobody’s going to hurt you,’ he said. Car horns started to blare out once again. ‘I’m getting real cold out here, so I’m guessing you’re not great either.’

  ‘You’re bleeding,’ she said, suddenly turning towards him.

  ‘Not my day,’ he said with a smile.

  ‘Mine neither.’ Roscoe could see the tears well in her eyes as she spoke to him.

  ‘Let’s not make it any worse,’ he said, reaching towards her. ‘I can help you.’

  The girl shook her head and turned away abruptly.

  ‘Please … please let me try,’ he called, quickly realising what she was about to do.

  ‘No one can help me,’ she cried, before taking a single step forward.

  CHAPTER 4

  A SEARING PAIN ripped through Roscoe’s shoulder as he lunged forwards and grabbed hold of the girl. Even at six foot four inches and over two hundred pounds, catching hold of the girl as she was about to fall tore into the shoulder he had jarred when his cab had been hit from behind.

  Ignoring the pain and holding on to the girl, he set her down on the ground. Car horns rapidly sounded and voices cheered as watching airport passengers celebrated the rescue.

  ‘Hi,’ Roscoe said to the girl, who didn’t reach up to his shoulder in height. ‘Let’s get you inside.’