Read Online Roses Are Red by James Patterson - Free Book Online Page A

Christine went to the school on Saturday. I decided to head over to the Sojourner Truth School, anyway. It wasn’t far.

Chapter 32
    AS I DROVE THERE, I was thinking,
Don’t let this be happening. Not again! Please, God, don’t do this to her. You can’t do this. You wouldn’t.
    I parked near the school and dashed out of the car. Then I found myself running down the hall to Christine’s corner office. My heart pounded dully in my chest. My legs were unsure. I could hear the clicking of the word processor before I reached the door.
    I peered inside.
    I was relieved to see Christine there in her warm and fuzzy, thoroughly cluttered office. She was always intensely focused when she worked. Not wanting to startle her, I stood and watched for a moment. Then I knocked gently on the doorjamb.
    “It’s me,” I said in a soft voice.
    Christine stopped typing and turned. For just an instant, she looked at me like she used to. It melted me. She had on a pair of navy blue trousers and a tailored yellow silk blouse. She didn’t look as if she were going through a bad time, but I knew that she was.
    “What are you doing here?” she finally asked. “I already heard it on CNN this morning,” she continued. “I saw the glorious murder scene at the market in London.” She shook her head, closed her eyes.
    “Are you all right?” I asked.
    Christine snapped out an answer. “I’m not all right! I’m a million miles from all right. This news doesn’t help. I
can’t sleep
nights. I have nightmares all the time. I can’t concentrate during the day. I imagine terrible things happening to little Alex. To Damon and Jannie and Nana, and to you. I can’t make it stop!”
    Her words cut right through me. It was a terrible feeling not to be able to help. “I don’t think he’ll come back here,” I said.
    Anger flashed in Christine’s eyes. “You don’t know that for sure.”
    “Shafer considers himself beyond us. We aren’t that important in his fantasy world. His wife was. I’m surprised that he didn’t murder the kids, too.”
    “You see, you’re
surprised.
Nobody knows for sure what these insane, pathetic maniacs will do! And now you’re involved with more of them: depraved men who murder innocent hostages for no reason.
Because they can.
”
    I started to walk into the office — but she raised her hand. “Don’t. Please stay away from me.”
    Christine then rose from her chair and walked past me toward the teacher’s washroom. She disappeared inside without looking back.
    I knew she wouldn’t come out — not until she was sure I was gone. As I finally walked away, I was thinking that she hadn’t asked about Jannie.

Chapter 33
    I STOPPED AT ST. ANTHONY’S HOSPITAL again before I went to work. Jannie was up and we had breakfast together. She told me that I was the best dad in the world, and I said she was the best daughter. Then I told her about the tumor and that she needed to have surgery. My little girl cried in my arms.
    Nana arrived, and Jannie was taken away for more tests. There was nothing I could do at the hospital for several hours. I went off to meet with the FBI again. The job
was
always there. Christine had told me,
Your work is chasing insane, pathetic maniacs.
There didn’t seem to be any end in sight.
    Special Agent in Charge Cavalierre arrived precisely at eleven for her briefing of the team at the Bureau’s field office on Fourth Street in Northwest. It looked to me as if half the Bureau were there, and it was an impressive sight, somewhat reassuring.
    I was reminded that the bank-robbing crew demanded exactness. Maybe that was the reason Kyle Craig felt Agent Cavalierre was right for this case. He’d told me that she was exacting and precise, one of the most professional agents he’d seen in his years at the Bureau. My thoughts kept going back to the high-profile bank jobs and the murders. Why did they want publicity, even infamy? Were the robbers preconditioning other bank employees