Alex Cross 25: Cross Kill by James Patterson

Author:James Patterson [Patterson, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B01C37XFY0
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

By the time I reached the cemetery, the superintendent had already loaded the casket into the FBI van that would take it to Quantico for examination. I explained the urgency of my situation, and left.

I called ahead to New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland state police dispatchers, asking for help. When I reached I-95, there were two Jersey state trooper cruisers waiting. One in front, the other behind, they escorted me to the border, where two Delaware cruisers met me. Two more waited when I reached the Maryland line. At times we were going more than a hundred.

Less than two hours after I’d read the text, I got off the elevator to the ICU at GW Medical Center, still in damp clothes and chilled as I ran down the all-too-familiar halls to the waiting area. Billie sat at the back, her feet drawn up under her. Her elbows rested across her knees and she had a skeptical, faraway look in her eye, as if she couldn’t believe that God was doing this to her.

Bree sat at her left, Nana Mama on her right.

“What happened?” I asked.

“They decided to bring him up out of the chemical coma,” Billie said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“He flatlined. They had to paddle him,” Bree said. “He came back, but his vitals are turning against him.”

“Billie’s called in the priest,” Nana Mama said. “He’s giving John the last rites.”

Whatever control I’d maintained until that point evaporated and I began to grieve in gasps of disbelief and an explosion of sorrow and tears. It was real. My best friend, the indestructible one, Big John Sampson, was going to die.

I sank into a chair and sobbed. Bree came over and hugged me. I leaned into her and cried some more.

The priest came in. “He’s in God’s hands now,” he said, consoling us. “The doctor says there’s nothing more they can do for him.”

“Can we go in?” Billie asked.

“Of course,” he said.

Nana Mama, Billie, and Bree got up. I looked at them, feeling numb.

“I can’t do it,” I said, feeling helpless. “I just can’t watch this. Can you forgive me?”

“I don’t want to either, Alex,” Billie said. “But I want him to hear my voice one last time before he goes.”

Nana Mama patted me on the shoulders as she followed Billie into the ICU. Bree asked if I wanted her to stay, and I shook my head.

“Going in there scares me more than anything has in my entire life,” I said. “I need to take a walk, get my courage up.”

“And pray,” she said, kissed me on the head, and went inside.

I got up and felt like a coward walking toward the men’s room. I went inside and washed my face, trying to think of anything but John and all the good times we’d had over the years, playing football and basketball, attending the police academy, and finding our way through the ranks to detective and partners against crime.

That would never happen again. John and me would never happen again.

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