Murder Games Read online

  “What’s this?” she says. “A gift?”

  “It’s the manuscript! It’s Twenty-Twenty!” I yell. Why am I yelling?

  Anne tosses her head back and laughs.

  “I can’t remember the last time I received a hard-copy manuscript,” she says.

  Then I look at her intently. I lower my voice.

  “Look, Anne. This book is incredible. This is corporate reporting like it’s never been written before.”

  “You know my concern, Jacob,” she says.

  “Yeah. I know. You don’t think the Store is worth writing about; you don’t truly think it’s morally bankrupt.”

  “That’s not it. I think it may very well be morally bankrupt, but I can make a list of forty companies that are just as bad. I don’t think the Store is inherently evil. It’s a creative monopoly.”

  “Read my book. Read Twenty-Twenty. Then decide.”

  “I will.”

  “Tonight?” I ask.

  “Yes. Tonight. Immediately.”

  “Immediately? Wow. That’s fast.”

  Anne smiles at my minuscule joke. I try to remain calm. I’m sure if she reads the book she’s going to be blown away. Then again, maybe she won’t be. Maybe she’ll toss it after a few chapters. What do I know? After all, I’ve been wrong about this sort of thing before.

  Suddenly there’s noise. A scuffling of feet. Indistinguishable but loud. It comes from outside Anne’s office. Then a very quick knock on the door. Before Anne can say anything, her assistant opens the door and speaks.

  “Ms. Gutman, there are three policemen and two NYPD detectives outside here with me.”

  “What do they want?” Anne asks.

  “They’re here to arrest Mr. Brandeis.”

  Anne and I look at each other as her assistant closes the door. I’m about to fall apart. As always, she’s in take-charge mode.

  “You go out through the conference room. Then take the back stairs down and outside. Find a place to stay.”

  Anne hands me some money from the top drawer of her desk. I turn toward the conference room.

  “I’ll handle the cops,” Anne says.

  “Read the book, okay?” I say.

  “Damn it, Jacob. Of course I’ll read the book.”

  She walks out her office door. I also start walking. The last thing I hear her say is: “Good afternoon, officers. How can I help you?”

  Eight Months Earlier

  “MAN! THIS is soooo sweet!”

  That was Alex’s reaction when he first saw our new house at 400 Midshipman Lane, New Burg, Nebraska.

  Frankly, we all had pretty much the same reaction.

  It wasn’t a mansion, but it was…well, man, soooo sweet. The kind of house that a midlevel tech executive might live in, not some guy who was packing toothpaste tubes and algebra textbooks into cardboard boxes. The house was white brick; it was long (very long) and low, with a three-car garage for our leased Acura.

  The inside of the house was equally cool. Everything—from the ten-seat U-shaped charcoal-gray sofa in the living room to the crystal-and-bronze chandelier in the dining room—was LA trendy and top of the line. It was, as Megan pointed out, exactly how we would have decorated if we’d been able to afford it. Then we all took off in different directions to explore.

  “Jacob, come in here. You gotta see this,” Megan called from the kitchen.

  By the time I joined her, she had already opened a large pantry cabinet.

  “Yeah, okay,” I said. “They told us in an e-mail they’d stock the place with some basics.”

  “Basics? Look. It’s every brand we use. Not just Jif peanut butter and Frosted Flakes and Bumble Bee tuna but also Wilkin and Sons gooseberry conserve and Arrowhead Mills pancake mix.”

  A cabinet in the dining room contained Grey Goose vodka and J&B Scotch.

  As we were studying the bar, Lindsay appeared at the dining-room door. She looked a bit confused.

  “Look at this,” she said. Then she held out the stuffed animal—Peabody the penguin—that she had owned since her first birthday.

  “Hey, it’s Peabody!” I said. “I thought you said you left him on the airplane.”

  “I did,” Lindsay said. “But this is him. See? He has the tear on his collar and the chocolate stain on his chest. This is Peabody! He was waiting for me on the bed in my new room.”

  Lindsay looked nervous.

  NOT ONLY had I made Friday night’s dinner, I was also such a cool husband that I was even doing the cleanup. Megan and the kids were outside exploring the backyard.

  The meal itself had been a huge success: boeuf bourguignonne (Julia Child’s secret recipe), Tuscan potato torta (Mario Batali’s recipe), Key lime pie (Jacob Brandeis’s recipe). Why Key lime pie? Whoever had stocked our kitchen included a graham cracker crust, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, and six perfect Key limes.

  I was on my second Brillo pad when Megan returned to the kitchen.

  “Jacob, c’mon outside,” she said.

  “Soon as I finish.”

  “No. Now. Right now.” Her voice was surprisingly serious.

  “Sure, sweetie,” I said. But I wasn’t moving fast enough for Megan.

  “Now! Please. You’ve got to see this.”

  This time her voice was urgent. I didn’t bother rinsing my hands. I simply wiped off the pink Brillo suds with a dish towel.

  “Look up there,” Megan said, and she pointed (or so I thought) to the bright starry sky above the garage-door basketball hoop.

  “It’s a beautiful night,” I said.

  Impatience filled Megan’s voice. “Show him, Alex.”

  Alex skipped a few feet to the hoop. He squatted, then he jumped and hung from the rim with his left hand. As Alex dangled he pointed to a small instrument made of glass and gray metal—almost undetectable against the gray paint of the garage. Then Alex snapped it from its holder. He dropped to the ground and tossed it to me.

  “It’s a camera,” I said. “A tiny camera, like a…spy camera.”

  Megan, Lindsay, Alex, and I stared at it. We looked like a group who had just discovered a rare diamond. And I guess, in a way, we had.

  I broke the silence.

  “Son of a bitch!” I shouted. “In New York, they have street surveillance, but this shit is going too far. Cameras right in our own house.”

  “Jacob, calm down,” Megan said.

  “Megan! C’mon. People can expect reasonable goddamn privacy in their own houses, can’t they?”

  “Maybe in Nebraska the laws are different,” Megan said.

  “No,” I said. I was beginning to shake with anger. “You can’t ever do something like this in someone’s house.”

  Then I exploded: “That’s illegal!”

  I looked at the tiny camera in my hand, then flung it with all my strength toward the garage door. I heard the crack, the immediate shattering of the pieces.

  I rushed into the house. When a man goes beyond mad, he becomes a madman.

  Megan and the kids were right behind me.

  I looked around the kitchen. I began studying the ceiling and the tops of cabinets. In the tiny space between the Sub-Zero fridge and the appliance garage, where the industrial-size mixer was stored, was another camera. I wedged my fingers into the tiny space and pulled it out.

  “That’s illegal!” I yelled.

  I found another camera in the window over the very sink where I’d been doing the dishes.

  “That’s illegal!” I yelled.

  In the front hallway was a camera over the coat closet, perfect for recording guests.

  “That’s illegal!” I shouted.

  Room to room. Lindsay was sobbing. Megan was as angry as I was.

  Over the living-room fireplace.

  “That’s illegal!”

  Behind the corner cabinet in the dining room.

  “That’s illegal!”

  As I bounded up the stairs, Lindsay said, “They’re probably watching you bust up their ca
mera stuff.”

  “Let them. What the hell do I care? And you know why?” I yelled as I yanked a camera from the medicine cabinet in the kids’ bathroom.

  “Because that’s illegal!”

  From our bedroom to the attic. From the guest room to the basement playroom.

  “Illegal! Illegal!”

  We stood—a sweaty, crazed group of four—in the center of the playroom. The ghost of a video game made an occasional gargle on the TV screen. The silent furnace in the utility room cast a long shadow on the playroom floor. We surveyed the room. We were like the four-man crew of a ship that had survived a terrible storm.

  “You think we got them all?” Megan asked.

  The truthful answer would have been “No, I don’t,” but my wife and kids seemed scared enough.

  I said, “Yeah, probably.”

  We sat at the bottom of the basement staircase. We were covered with perspiration. I was gasping for breath. There were a good sixty seconds of silence.

  “What now?” Lindsay asked.

  “Now we wait,” I said. “It’s their move.”

  About the Authors

  JAMES PATTERSON received the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community at the 2015 National Book Awards. He holds the Guinness World Record for the most #1 New York Times bestsellers, and his books have sold more than 350 million copies worldwide. A tireless champion of the power of books and reading, Patterson created a children’s book imprint, JIMMY Patterson, whose mission is simple: “We want every kid who finishes a JIMMY Book to say, ‘PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER BOOK.’” He has donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and funds over four hundred Teacher Education Scholarships at twenty-four colleges and universities. He has also donated millions to independent bookstores and school libraries. Patterson invests proceeds from the sales of JIMMY Patterson Books in pro-reading initiatives.

  HOWARD ROUGHAN has cowritten several books with James Patterson and is the author of The Promise of a Lie and The Up and Comer. He lives in Florida with his wife and son.

  jamespatterson.com

  Follow James Patterson on Facebook.

  Books by James Patterson

  Featuring Alex Cross

  Cross the Line • Cross Justice • Hope to Die • Cross My Heart • Alex Cross, Run • Merry Christmas, Alex Cross • Kill Alex Cross • Cross Fire • I, Alex Cross • Alex Cross’s Trial (with Richard DiLallo) • Cross Country • Double Cross • Cross (also published as Alex Cross) • Mary, Mary • London Bridges • The Big Bad Wolf • Four Blind Mice • Violets Are Blue • Roses Are Red • Pop Goes the Weasel • Cat & Mouse • Jack & Jill • Kiss the Girls • Along Came a Spider

  The Women’s Murder Club

  16th Seduction (with Maxine Paetro) • 15th Affair (with Maxine Paetro) • 14th Deadly Sin (with Maxine Paetro) • Unlucky 13 (with Maxine Paetro) • 12th of Never (with Maxine Paetro) • 11th Hour (with Maxine Paetro) • 10th Anniversary (with Maxine Paetro) • The 9th Judgment (with Maxine Paetro) • The 8th Confession (with Maxine Paetro) • 7th Heaven (with Maxine Paetro) • The 6th Target (with Maxine Paetro) • The 5th Horseman (with Maxine Paetro) • 4th of July (with Maxine Paetro) • 3rd Degree (with Andrew Gross) • 2nd Chance (with Andrew Gross) • First to Die

  Featuring Michael Bennett

  Bullseye (with Michael Ledwidge) • Alert (with Michael Ledwidge) • Burn (with Michael Ledwidge) • Gone (with Michael Ledwidge) • I, Michael Bennett (with Michael Ledwidge) • Tick Tock (with Michael Ledwidge) • Worst Case (with Michael Ledwidge) • Run for Your Life (with Michael Ledwidge) • Step on a Crack (with Michael Ledwidge)

  The Private Novels

  Missing: A Private Novel (with Kathryn Fox) • The Games (with Mark Sullivan) • Private Paris (with Mark Sullivan) • Private Vegas (with Maxine Paetro) • Private India: City on Fire (with Ashwin Sanghi) • Private Down Under (with Michael White) • Private L.A. (with Mark Sullivan) • Private Berlin (with Mark Sullivan) • Private London (with Mark Pearson) • Private Games (with Mark Sullivan) • Private: #1 Suspect (with Maxine Paetro) • Private (with Maxine Paetro)

  NYPD Red Novels

  NYPD Red 4 (with Marshall Karp) • NYPD Red 3 (with Marshall Karp) • NYPD Red 2 (with Marshall Karp) • NYPD Red (with Marshall Karp)

  Summer Novels

  Second Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan) • Now You See Her (with Michael Ledwidge) • Swimsuit (with Maxine Paetro) • Sail (with Howard Roughan) • Beach Road (with Peter de Jonge) • Lifeguard (with Andrew Gross) • Honeymoon (with Howard Roughan) • The Beach House (with Peter de Jonge)

  Stand-Alone Books

  Murder Games (with Howard Roughan) • Penguins of America (with Jack Patterson and Florence Yue) • Two from the Heart (with Frank Costantini, Emily Raymond, and Brian Sitts) • The Black Book (with David Ellis) • Humans, Bow Down (with Emily Raymond) • Never Never (with Candice Fox) • Woman of God (with Maxine Paetro) • Filthy Rich (with John Connolly and Timothy Malloy) • The Murder House (with David Ellis) • Truth or Die (with Howard Roughan) • Miracle at Augusta (with Peter de Jonge) • Invisible (with David Ellis) • First Love (with Emily Raymond) • Mistress (with David Ellis) • Zoo (with Michael Ledwidge) • Guilty Wives (with David Ellis) • The Christmas Wedding (with Richard DiLallo) • Kill Me If You Can (with Marshall Karp) • Toys (with Neil McMahon) • Don’t Blink (with Howard Roughan) • The Postcard Killers (with Liza Marklund) • The Murder of King Tut (with Martin Dugard) • Against Medical Advice (with Hal Friedman) • Sundays at Tiffany’s (with Gabrielle Charbonnet) • You’ve Been Warned (with Howard Roughan) • The Quickie (with Michael Ledwidge) • Judge & Jury (with Andrew Gross) • Sam’s Letters to Jennifer • The Lake House • The Jester (with Andrew Gross) • Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas • Cradle and All • When the Wind Blows • Miracle on the 17th Green (with Peter de Jonge) • Hide & Seek • The Midnight Club • Black Friday (originally published as Black Market) • See How They Run (originally published as The Jericho Commandment) • Season of the Machete • The Thomas Berryman Number

  Detective Cross • Private: Gold (with Jassy Mackenzie) • French Twist (with Richard DiLallo) • Malicious (with James O. Born) • Hidden (with James O. Born) • The House Husband (with Duane Swierczynski) • Black & Blue (with Candice Fox) • Come and Get Us (with Shan Serafin) • Private: The Royals (with Rees Jones) • The Christmas Mystery (with Richard DiLallo) • Killer Chef (with Jeffrey J. Keyes) • Taking the Titanic (with Scott Slaven) • Kill or Be Killed (thriller omnibus) • $10,000,000 Marriage Proposal (with Hilary Liftin) • French Kiss (with Richard DiLallo) • 113 Minutes (with Max DiLallo) • Hunted (with Andrew Holmes) • Chase (with Michael Ledwidge) • Let’s Play Make-Believe (with James O. Born) • Little Black Dress (with Emily Raymond) • The Trial (with Maxine Paetro) • Cross Kill • Zoo 2 (with Max DiLallo)

  Books for Readers of All Ages

  Maximum Ride

  Maximum Ride Forever • Nevermore: The Final Maximum Ride Adventure • Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel • Fang: A Maximum Ride Novel • Max: A Maximum Ride Novel • The Final Warning: A Maximum Ride Novel • Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports: A Maximum Ride Novel • School’s Out—Forever: A Maximum Ride Novel • The Angel Experiment: A Maximum Ride Novel

  Daniel X

  Daniel X: Lights Out (with Chris Grabenstein) • Daniel X: Armageddon (with Chris Grabenstein) • Daniel X: Game Over (with Ned Rust) • Daniel X: Demons & Druids (with Adam Sadler) • Daniel X: Watch the Skies (with Ned Rust) • The Dangerous Days of Daniel X (with Michael Ledwidge)

  Witch & Wizard

  Witch & Wizard: The Lost (with Emily Raymond) • Witch & Wizard: The Kiss (with Jill Dembowski) • Witch & Wizard: The Fire (with Jill Dembowski) • Witch & Wizard: The Gift (with Ned Rust) • Witch & Wizard (with Gabrielle Charbonnet)

  Middle School

  Middle School: Escape to Australia (with Martin Chatterton, illustrated by Daniel Griffo) • Middl
e School: Dog’s Best Friend (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Jomike Tejido) • Middle School: Just My Rotten Luck (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park) • Middle School: Save Rafe (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park) • Middle School: Ultimate Showdown (with Julia Bergen, illustrated by Alec Longstreth) • Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park) • Middle School: Big Fat Liar (with Lisa Papademetriou, illustrated by Neil Swaab) • Middle School: Get Me Out of Here! (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park) • Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life (with Chris Tebbetts, illustrated by Laura Park)

  Confessions

  Confessions: The Murder of an Angel (with Maxine Paetro) • Confessions: The Paris Mysteries (with Maxine Paetro) • Confessions: The Private School Murders (with Maxine Paetro) • Confessions of a Murder Suspect (with Maxine Paetro)

  I Funny

  I Funny: School of Laughs (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Jomike Tejido) • I Funny TV (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Laura Park) • I Totally Funniest (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Laura Park) • I Even Funnier (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Laura Park) • I Funny: A Middle School Story (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Laura Park)

  Treasure Hunters

  Treasure Hunters: Peril at the Top of the World (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld) • Treasure Hunters: Secret of the Forbidden City (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld) • Treasure Hunters: Danger Down the Nile (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld) • Treasure Hunters (with Chris Grabenstein, illustrated by Juliana Neufeld)