1st Case - James Patterson Page 0,60

the familiar three-color interface, I saw my five waiting messages, all of them sent within the last minute.

Hello, Angela.

Don’t say a word.

Don’t even look around.

One wrong move and Eve dies.

Hit me back when you’re ready for more instructions.

CHAPTER 65

IN MY HAND, I now had a phone with the capability to listen, watch, and track my every move down to the square meter. I knew as well as anyone what that app could do.

So I kept my eyes down, heart thundering, and texted back right away.

What have you done with Eve? I asked.

The reply was almost immediate.

If you want to find out, start walking up West Broadway.

I eyed the cop in the front seat, but he’d gone back to leaving me alone. My thumbs flew over the keyboard, sending another question.

Why would I do that?

At first, nothing happened. Then I got back a photo instead of a text. It was nearly identical to the one they’d sent just after Reese Sapporo’s abduction. It showed Eve in a blurry close-up, eyes wide, with silver tape over her mouth. And there, at the edge of the frame, was the unmistakable black barrel of a gun, pointed at her head.

I slapped a hand across my own mouth to keep from blurting anything out. It was almost as if I was looking at someone other than Eve. She barely looked like herself, and I had no context for seeing my friend and mentor, this woman who had been more of a rock to me than anyone I’d ever known, trapped in this horrifying state.

Outside the cruiser, police and agents were buckling down the scene. Yellow tape had already gone up in front of Eve’s house and around George’s car. The crowd had swelled, and a few officers were starting to corral everyone up the block.

How am I supposed to walk away from this? I texted.

You’re the genius, Angela. You figure it out, he wrote back. And then, You have one minute.

With that, a digital timer popped up on the Android’s screen, counting down from sixty seconds.

Maybe it was a bluff, but I couldn’t assume that. These people had shown themselves more than willing to kill for no reason. There was no time to come up with a work-around, either. I was already down to forty-five seconds.

And whatever they wanted from me, I was the one who had set it all in motion. There was no way I could let Eve pay for my mistakes. That realization cut through everything else, including my panic.

“Hey,” I said to the cop in front. “I forgot to tell Agent Keats something.”

“I don’t have him on my radio,” he told me.

“No, I didn’t think so,” I answered, and looked down at the phone again. There were thirty seconds left. Half a minute to get out of that car. My hand was already on the door handle and I took out my credentials for show.

“I’m just going to run in and find him. I’ll be right back,” I said.

“I can get one of my guys to—”

“Don’t bother, I’ve got it,” I told him.

Before the officer could say anything else, I slid out of the car and shut the door behind me with about fifteen seconds to spare. I knew I might have been making the worst mistake of my life, but given the alternative, I can only say that I’d do it again if I had to.

No question.

CHAPTER 66

I FORCED MYSELF to walk away from the cruiser at a casual pace. I couldn’t afford to draw any attention to myself, and I was terrified someone might pull me back.

I saw Obaje standing outside Eve’s front door, but he was talking to someone. Billy was nowhere in sight. Everyone was too busy to notice as I slipped up the block and away from the scene.

As soon as I turned off of Eve’s street and onto West Broadway, I started running. I didn’t know where I was going, but my body needed to move. My mind was a seething mess of confusion and I was terrified about whatever came next. But at least my feet knew what to do.

Once I’d gotten around that first corner, the phone pinged three times in my hand. I looked down to read the incoming messages without slowing my pace.

Carlito’s Coffee. Five blocks on your left.

Order something and wait at the counter.

You have two minutes.

The on-screen timer had already reset and started counting down again. It felt like this was some kind of game for them. Like they