Let’s Play Make-Believe Read online

  Brennan’s voice cracked as he said, “Christy, Jesus Christ, what have you done?” He choked up on whatever he was going to say next as he tried not to vomit.

  “How’s it feel, Brennan? Knowing you’re helpless. Is it a new sensation?” I let a brief silence fall over the room so I could enjoy seeing Brennan squirm. Now he was shaking as he tried to maintain his composure. The air was still filled with the odor of the gunshot. This old house had never seen anything like this, and Brennan had never experienced anything like it either. He deserved it. Not just for the way he’d treated me, but for the way he treated the rest of the world. It was time he learned he wasn’t better than anyone else.

  I said, “I doubt the sound of the shot even penetrated the walls. No one outside this room has any idea what just happened. No one is coming to help.” I let that sink in, then said, “Stand there perfectly still, looking straight ahead. Got it?”

  He nodded frantically. Sweat stains were now visible on the back of his shirt near his underarms. I don’t think I’d ever seen Brennan sweat.

  I said, “I’d like to savor your reaction to this, but I have a lot to do.”

  “What—what are you talking about? What do you have to do?” He started to whimper and added, “What’s going on? I don’t understand what you’re doing.”

  “I think experts call it ‘arranging the crime scene.’” I stayed behind him as I snapped on a pair of gloves. I’d figured out the right trajectories and what the residue tests would show. “You see, Brennan, it took a lot of research to learn that the cops might connect the gun to Teal’s murder. I had to take all that into account and come up with the right story.”

  “Story? What story? You’re going to try to make the police believe I shot your boyfriend?”

  I chuckled. “I have no doubt I could sell any story to the cops at this point. It’s all the other details that take concentration.” There was a long silence as Brennan thought things over.

  He finally said with a cry, “What are you doing? I don’t understand.”

  “Well, Brennan, dear. This was my backup plan. I admit I had another one in the works for quite some time, almost from the day I met Marty, who I recognized as being very nice and extremely easy to manipulate. I knew if my legal challenges to your ridiculous prenuptial agreement failed, I’d need an alternative. This is it.

  “I knew I wanted to go through with the plan the day you crushed me in court just because you could.” I let him think about that and how he had abused me. “Yesterday, Marty shot his ex-wife. You might’ve seen it on the news. He got away with it, too. At least he thought he’d gotten away with it. I told him I had backed up his alibi”—I leaned in close to Brennan and whispered in his ear—“but I didn’t.”

  Now I pulled the gun from my pocket and held it in my right hand. The other was loose in my left, hanging by my side. I slowly strolled around in front of Brennan until I was standing near Marty’s body. “Marty was crazy for Teal and everyone knew it. She even got a restraining order on him. I told the cops we left the racetrack early and I didn’t know where Marty was most of the afternoon until I met him at the Palm Beach Grill.” Now I could enjoy Brennan’s expression as I laid out my story.

  “That’s why I’ll say I broke up with him earlier tonight at the Palm Beach Grill and why I told my friend Allie, at the Brazilian Court, that I had already broken up with him and I was a little scared. I also told her Marty went crazy when he heard you were interested in reconciling with me. It’s also why I’m sure the police are at Marty’s apartment waiting for him right now.”

  I held the gun steady in front of me. “The best part, the one thing that just fell into place, was when Marty found your pistol. I may have moved it so he’d notice it, but he thought it was all his idea.” I saw that Brennan was confused. “That’s right, he found it in your closet one day when we came to visit. I didn’t say a word when he stole the pistol. Because I knew the cops could tie the gun that killed Teal to the gun used here tonight, I had to switch them on poor, simple Marty. Wild, huh? He used my gun to shoot Teal and I used your gun to shoot him. All I have to say is that Marty stole my gun from the nightstand in my hotel room. It will work out perfectly. Brilliant, right?”

  Brennan was trying to keep from sobbing. “What are you talking about? Why are you doing this?”

  I grinned. “Because I can. And there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.”

  Chapter 33

  I couldn’t believe how thrilling it was to have this much power over another person. It almost made me understand why Brennan had done some of the things he had. Now it was time to explain exactly what was about to happen as I stood in front of him, holding the gun in a remarkably steady hand.

  “It’s really a simple story. The key is to always keep things simple. Marty asked to go for one final drive together. Then he pulled the gun, the Walther PPK you gave me as a present. He must’ve gotten it out of my nightstand at the hotel. Then he forced me to drive here so he could prove he loved me, because he was, you know, crazy.

  “He came into the house and you shot each other. I was terrified and fled upstairs to call 911. Simple and believable.”

  Brennan just stared at me. “But why? This could ruin your whole life. What do you really have to gain?”

  I let out a quick laugh. I’d never realized Brennan could be so funny. Then I looked at him with a deadpan stare and said, “You have no will. I checked the wall safe the other day when we were here. And I know you’re far too cocky to leave it with an attorney.”

  Brennan had a real hitch in his voice now. “So what? We’re divorced. What good does all this do you?”

  “Actually, we’re in the process of divorcing. We might even reconcile. If you die intestate—that means with no will—I get my house back. It’s really all I wanted. I couldn’t care less if you live or die. And frankly, I would’ve preferred a nice fella like Marty to live with. But shit happens.”

  “I can make this right, I swear. You can have the house. You can have a great settlement. You name it.”

  “It’s a little late to negotiate, Brennan. You had your chance to do this the right way. Now I’ve just turned it into a big game. A game of make-believe. Let’s make believe we’re part of a fantastic murder mystery. Now you have to make believe you’re going to die.”

  I let that realization dawn on him so I could see it in his face. It was amazing. One moment he thought I was ranting and raving, and the next he realized I was following through on a carefully laid-out plan.

  I said, “Every game has a winner and a loser. I’m afraid in this one you’re the loser, babe.” I squeezed the trigger and the gun jumped in my hand. The bullet flew a little high, hitting Brennan in the upper chest. He toppled backward and fell with a thud on the hard floor, gurgling for a few seconds. This time the noise didn’t shock me so much and the gunpowder smell wasn’t as jolting. Everything is easier the second time around. Even shooting a man.

  It took only a minute to wipe down the guns and stick one in the right hand of each of the dead men in the room. I pulled the trigger with the gun in the hand of each man and didn’t really care where the bullet went. It was all part of the story I had planned.

  I stepped back to make sure everything looked just the way I wanted it to. The bodies were well separated, and the police measurements would show that the bullets had traveled about the right distance. I went to the nearest bathroom and, using the back of my hand to avoid leaving fingerprints, double-flushed the gloves. Perfect.

  I strolled through the house and started to climb the stairs, then dialed 911 on my cell phone, and as soon as the operator answered, I screamed, “They’re shooting each other, they’re shooting each other, what should I do?” Then I threw in a convincing cry.

  The operator, keeping calm like they’re trained to, said, “Ma’am, ma’am, where are you? What’s the address?”

  I continued to climb the stairs. Through a series of sobs I gave her the address
. And told her, “He’s crazy and he has a gun.”

  The operator said, “Where are you in the house? Are you safe?”

  I gave her a good moan and said, “I’m hiding upstairs in a closet. Think I’m safe for now.”

  The operator said, “Stay there. Help is on the way.”

  When the cops found me in the closet, they would see that I’d been crying. What they wouldn’t understand was that they were tears of joy. I had just gotten my house back by winning a game. This game was called let’s play make-believe that I can get away with the murder of my husband.

  “Alex Cross, I’m coming for you.…”

  Gary Soneji, the killer from Along Came a Spider, has been dead for more than ten years—but Cross swears he saw Soneji gun down his partner. Is Cross’s worst enemy back from the grave?

  Nothing will prepare you for the wicked truth.

  Read on for a special excerpt from the riveting Alex Cross story, available only from

  A late winter storm bore down on Washington, DC, that March morning, and more folks than usual were waiting in the cafeteria of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School on Monroe Avenue in the northeast quadrant.

  “If you need a jolt before you eat, coffee’s in those urns over there,” I called to the cafeteria line.

  From behind a serving counter, my partner, John Sampson, said, “You want pancakes or eggs and sausage, you come see me first. Dry cereal, oatmeal, and toast at the end. Fruit, too.”

  It was early, a quarter to seven, and we’d already seen twenty-five people come through the kitchen, mostly moms and kids from the surrounding neighborhood. By my count, another forty were waiting in the hallway, with more coming in from outside where the first flakes were falling.

  It was all my ninety-something grandmother’s idea. She’d hit the DC Lottery Powerball the year before and wanted to make sure the unfortunate received some of her good fortune. She’d partnered with the church to see the hot-breakfast program started.

  “Are there any doughnuts?” asked a little boy, who put me in mind of my younger son, Ali.

  He was holding on to his mother, a devastatingly thin woman with rheumy eyes and a habit of scratching at her neck.

  “No doughnuts today,” I said.

  “What am I gonna eat?” he complained.

  “Something that’s good for you for once,” his mom said. “Eggs, bacon, and toast. Not all that Cocoa Puffs sugar crap.”

  I nodded. Mom looked like she was high on something, but she did know her nutrition.

  “This sucks,” her son said. “I want a doughnut. I want two doughnuts!”

  “Go on, there,” his mom said, and pushed him toward Sampson.

  “Kind of overkill for a church cafeteria,” said the man who followed her. He was in his late twenties and dressed in baggy jeans, Timberland boots, and a big gray snorkel jacket.

  I realized he was talking to me and looked at him, puzzled.

  “Bulletproof vest?” he said.

  “Oh,” I said, and shrugged at the body armor beneath my shirt.

  Sampson and I are major-case detectives with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department. Immediately after our shift in the soup kitchen, we were joining a team taking down a drug gang operating in the streets around St. Anthony’s. Members of the gang had been known to take free breakfasts at the school from time to time, so we’d decided to armor up. Just in case.

  I wasn’t telling him that, though. I couldn’t identify him as a known gangster, but he looked the part.

  “I’m up for a PT test end of next week,” I said. “Got to get used to the weight since I’ll be running three miles with it on.”

  “That vest make you hotter or colder today?”

  “Warmer. Always.”

  “I need one of them,” he said, and shivered. “I’m from Miami, you know? I must have been crazy to want to come on up here.”

  “Why did you come up here?” I asked.

  “School. I’m a freshman at Howard.”

  “You’re not on the meal program?”

  “Barely making my tuition.”

  I saw him in a whole new light then, and was about to say so when gunshots rang out and people began to scream.

  Drawing my service pistol, I pushed against the fleeing crowd, hearing two more shots, and realizing they were coming from inside the kitchen behind Sampson. My partner had figured it out as well.

  Sampson spun away from the eggs and bacon, drew his gun as I vaulted over the counter. We split and went to either side of the pair of swinging industrial kitchen doors. There were small portholes in both.

  Ignoring the people still bolting from the cafeteria, I leaned forward and took a quick peek. Mixing bowls had spilled off the stainless-steel counters, throwing flour and eggs across the cement floor. Nothing moved, and I could detect no one inside.

  Sampson took a longer look from the opposite angle. His face almost immediately screwed up.

  “Two wounded,” he hissed. “The cook, Theresa, and a nun I’ve never seen before.”

  “How bad?”

  “There’s blood all over Theresa’s white apron. Looks like the nun’s hit in the leg. She’s sitting up against the stove with a big pool below her.”

  “Femoral?”

  Sampson took another look and said, “It’s a lot of blood.”

  “Cover me,” I said. “I’m going in low to get them.”

  Sampson nodded. I squatted down and threw my shoulder into the door, which swung away. Half expecting some unseen gunman to open fire, I rolled inside. I slid through the slurry of two dozen eggs and came to a stop on the floor between two prep counters.

  Sampson came in with his weapon high, searching for a target.

  But no one shot. No one moved. And there was no sound except the labored breathing of the cook and the nun who were to our left, on the other side of a counter, by a big industrial stove.

  The nun’s eyes were open and bewildered. The cook’s head slumped but she was breathing.

  I scrambled under the prep counter to the women and started tugging off my belt. The nun shrank from me when I reached for her.

  “I’m a cop, Sister,” I said. “My name is Alex Cross. I need to put a tourniquet on your leg or you could die.”

  She blinked, but then nodded.

  “John?” I said, observing a serious gunshot wound to her lower thigh. A needle-thin jet of blood erupted with every heartbeat.

  “Right here,” Sampson said behind me. “Just seeing what’s what.”

  “Call it in,” I said, as I wrapped the belt around her upper thigh, cinching it tight. “We need two ambulances. Fast.”

  The blood stopped squirting. I could hear my partner making the radio call.

  The nun’s eyes fluttered and drifted toward shut.

  “Sister,” I said. “What happened? Who shot you?”

  Her eyes blinked open. She gaped at me, disoriented for a moment, before her attention strayed past me. Her eyes widened, and the skin of her cheek went taut with terror.

  I snatched up my gun and spun around, raising the pistol. I saw Sampson with his back to me, radio to his ear, gun lowered, and then a door at the back of the kitchen. It had swung open, revealing a large pantry.

  A man crouched in a fighting stance in the pantry doorway.

  In his crossed arms he held two nickel-plated pistols, one aimed at Sampson and the other at me.

  With all the training I’ve been lucky enough to receive over the years, you’d think I would have done the instinctual thing for a veteran cop facing an armed assailant, that I would have registered Man with gun! in my brain, and I would have shot him immediately.

  But for a split second I didn’t listen to Man with a gun! because I was too stunned by the fact that I knew him, and that he was long, long dead.

  In that same instant, he fired both pistols. Traveling less than thirty feet, the bullet hit me so hard it slammed me backward. My head cracked off the concrete and everything we
nt just this side of midnight, like I was swirling and draining down a black pipe, before I heard a third shot and then a fourth.

  Something crashed close to me, and I fought my way toward the sound, toward consciousness, seeing the blackness give way, disjointed and incomplete, like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces.

  Five, maybe six seconds passed before I found more pieces and I knew who I was and what had happened. Two more seconds passed before I realized I’d taken the bullet square in the Kevlar that covered my chest. It felt like I’d taken a sledgehammer to my ribs and a swift kick to my head.

  In the next instant, I grabbed my gun and looked for…

  John Sampson sprawled on the floor by the sinks, his massive frame looking crumpled until he started twitching electrically, and I saw the head wound.

  “No!” I shouted, becoming fully alert and stumbling over to his side.

  Sampson’s eyes were rolled up in his head and quivering. I grabbed the radio on the floor beyond him, hit the transmitter, and said, “This is Detective Alex Cross. Ten-Zero-Zero. Repeat. Officer down. Monroe Avenue and 12th, Northeast. St. Anthony’s Catholic School kitchen. Multiple shots fired. Ten-Fifty-Twos needed immediately. Repeat. Multiple ambulances needed, and a Life Flight for officer with head wound!”

  “We have ambulances and patrols on their way, Detective,” the dispatcher came back. “ETA twenty seconds. I’ll call Life Flight. Do you have the shooter?”

  “No, damn it. Make the Life Flight call.”

  The line went dead. I lowered the radio. Only then did I look back at the best friend I’ve ever had, the first kid I met after Nana Mama brought me up from South Carolina, the man I’d grown up with, the partner I’d relied on more times than I could count. The spasms subsided and Sampson’s eyes glazed over and he gasped.