Texas Ranger by James Patterson

Author:James Patterson [Patterson, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781780898322
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2018-04-04T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 49

I WAKE UP with sunlight coming through the hospital window. I’ve pretzeled myself into one of the chairs, and I sit up with a sore neck and back.

Dad’s eyes are open, and he’s looking at me.

“Dad,” I say. “Are you okay?”

The room is empty except for the two of us. I’m not sure if Mom and my brothers stuck around or if they went home for the night.

“I’m okay,” Dad says. “Are you?”

It takes me a moment to figure out what he means, but then it comes to me: Patty’s death.

“I guess so,” I say. “I just can’t believe it.”

Dad nods, knowing there are no words to offer for comfort.

He doesn’t look well. His eyes are underlined with dark crescent moons, and his skin is the color of cigarette ash.

“Any leads?” Dad says.

His voice sounds rough and raw, as if someone has taken a belt sander to his vocal cords.

“I don’t know,” I say. “I’ve been cut out of the investigation. No one’s telling me anything.”

He gives me a skeptical look. Without him speaking a word, I know what he’s trying to tell me: There’s a police investigation and then there’s your investigation.

I tell him that I want to find out who killed Patty and Anne but my hands are tied. Freddy has been able to tell me some inside information, but otherwise I don’t know anything. There is so much information that Purvis has access to that I don’t: forensic evidence collected at the scenes, interviews with people the victims knew, phone records, email accounts. The list goes on.

“In a case like this,” I say, “where it looks like the same suspect killed both victims, Purvis should be looking at all the ways the two are tied together, narrowing down the suspect list.”

Dad gives me the same look as before, as if he’s saying, Don’t bullshit me, Rory. “You know what connects them,” he says. “You.”

“Yeah,” I say, and I hang my head.

We’re both silent for a moment.

“Before I got the call that you had collapsed,” I say, “I was about to kick Anne’s door down and look around in her house—Cal’s house—for some kind of evidence. I probably would have gotten myself thrown in jail.”

Dad asks if I’m sure Cal did it.

“Ninety percent sure,” I say. “It doesn’t make sense that he was the one to kill Patty, though. Anne’s death would have been a crime of passion for Cal. Guys kill their girlfriends all the time. Extreme domestic violence. But why Patty? In the same way? Her death makes it seem like these murders have been the work of a serial killer.” I add, “Still, Cal was the last person seen with Patty.”

Dad clears his throat. “Sometimes doing the right thing ain’t the same as doing what the rules say you’re supposed to,” he says. “You’re the best person to figure this out, son, and just because you got one hand tied behind your back don’t mean you can’t do it.”

I look him in the eye.

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