NYPD Red 6 - James Patterson Page 0,56

down his back.

He was rock hard. She reached down between his legs, and he thrust himself into her soft, slippery palm and gyrated his hips as she licked his ear.

“Oh, Bobby,” she said, her hand expertly sliding up and down the length of his shaft. “I love you. I love you so much.”

The words exploded in his ears. He couldn’t hold back. He spasmed once, twice, again, and then she felt his body go limp.

“Feel the water on your skin,” she said, tipping his face up and massaging his scalp. “Let it relax you.”

He let out a long slow moan. Without warning, she clutched a fistful of his hair, snapped his head back, and, in one swift stroke, raked the blade she held across his neck. Just like Ari had taught her fifteen years before.

His fingers clutched at his throat, but all he could feel was the flap of severed skin and the warm blood. He threw himself backward, bringing them both down hard on the tile floor, her body beneath his.

Bobby Dodd was a combat-trained Marine. He knew what she had done. He knew he was about to die. What he didn’t understand was why.

Air bubbled through the blood that was spilling from his neck as he exhaled. He gasped and tried desperately to inhale, which only caused him to choke.

Forty-seven seconds after Erin Easton drew the makeshift blade across her captor’s neck, he died.

She crawled out from under his body and slowly stood, the water still beating down hard. Then she stumbled from the shower, threw on a pair of shorts and a sweatshirt, and ran out the front door to freedom.

Part Three

* * *

THE BOBBY DIARIES

CHAPTER 50

SNIPER SHOOTS FASHION Mogul” was more than just a local headline. It was breaking news from Paris to Milan to Tokyo. And with the eyes and ears of the world focused on its biggest case in years, Brooklyn Homicide pulled out all the stops.

By the time Kylie and I finished talking to Jamie, the terminal was packed with detectives, patrol, ESU, CSU, EMS, and whatever other letters of the alphabet Brooklyn could throw at the case. They certainly didn’t need us. But we couldn’t leave.

Our bosses in Manhattan would be asking who, what, when, where, and why. And despite the fact that they had all signed off on our strategy not to release Bobby Dodd’s identity across the department, every one of them would be demanding to know how the hell the most wanted man in the city could get past a detail of twelve tactically trained police officers who were assigned to secure an event that Erin Easton’s husband was attending.

They’d bombard us with questions, and we couldn’t exactly respond by saying, We’ll call Brooklyn and see if they know. So we stuck around for a few more hours and gathered our own data.

Jamie didn’t leave either. “My mother would never want me to abandon her at a time like this,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere until her body is removed from the area.”

He said it reverentially, as if he expected two attendants in black suits to carefully place Veronica on a gurney and silently wheel her into the back of a white-curtained hearse. But the reality was that this was a crime scene, and when the techs were finished, someone was likely to yell, Bag her and throw her in the meat wagon.

I gave the medical examiner’s team a heads-up that the next of kin was watching their every move and to keep it toned down. Just to be sure, Kylie and I decided to wait with Jamie.

So, as luck would have it, we were standing at his side when the phone call came.

He stiffened, looked at the caller ID, and shook his head. “I don’t recognize the number. Area code 713,” he said.

“Houston, Texas,” I said. “Put it on speaker when you pick up. TARU will be on the other end tracking it. Keep him on as long as you can, and whatever you do, don’t call him by name.”

He hit the green button, and his entire life changed.

“Jamie … it’s me.”

“Erin, baby, I love you. Are you okay?”

“I … I …” And then she wailed, “Oh God, Jamie.”

“Is he hurting you?”

“No, no. Not anymore. I … I made a razor blade. He followed me into the shower, and I … oh God … I cut his throat. He fell down bleeding, and … ”

“And what, baby, what?”

“I escaped.” With that, the dam broke. She began sobbing