JAAAES PATTERSON
stream of curses and threats at all of us. They were afraid of being bitten. 'Now you're one of us!'he screeched at me.'You're one of us! Now you can meet the Tiger,' he howled, and laughed, grinned like a madman.
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Alex Cross 7 - Violets Are Blue
Chapter Fifty-One
My head was aching, but I spent the next four hours questioning Irwin Snyder in a bare, white-washed claustrophobic room at a jail in Charlotte. For the first hour or so, Kyle and I interrogated him together, but it didn't work out. I asked Kyle to leave the room. Snyder was shackled, so I felt safe being alone with him. I wondered how he felt? My arm and hand were beginning to throb, but this was more important than my flesh wounds. Irwin Snyder had known I was coming to Charlotte. How had he known? What else did he know? How was a vicious young killer in Charlotte connected to the rest of this mess? Snyder was pale and unhealthy-looking, with a scruffy goatee and sideburns. He stared at me with eyes that were dark, very active, intelligent enough. Then he laid his head down on the Formica table, and I lifted him right out of his chair by his hair. He cursed at me for a full minute. Then he demanded to see his lawyer. 'Hurts, doesn't it,' I said. 'Don't make me do it again. Keep your head off the table. This isn't naptime. It isn't a game either.' He gave me the finger, then put his head back down on the table. I knew he'd been getting away with this type of shit at school and in his home for years. But not here, and not with me. I yanked him by his greasy, black hair again, even harder this time. 'You don't seem to understand the King's English. You murdered your parents in cold blood. You're a killer.'
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JAMES PATTERSON
'Lawyer!'he screamed/Lawyer! Lawyer! I'm bein'tortured in here! I'm being' beaten by a cop! Lawyer! Lawyer! I want my fuckin' lawyer!' With my free hand I grabbed his chin. He spat on my hand. I ignored it. 'Listen to me now. Listen! Everybody else from the house is at the station in the city. You're the only one out here with me. No one can hear you. And you're not being beaten. But you are going to talk to me.' I yanked his hair again - as hard as I could without actually pulling out a clump. Snyder shrieked, but I knew I hadn't hurt him much. 'You killed your mother and your father with a claw hammer. You bit me twice. And you stink to high heaven. I don't like you, but we're going to have this talk anyway.' 'Better see somebody about those bites, pig,' he snarled. 'You been warned.' He was still talking tough, but he cringed and pulled back when I reached out for his hair again. 'How did you know I was coming to Charlotte? How did you know my name? Talk to me.' 'Ask the Tiger, when you two meet. It'll happen sooner than you think.'
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Alex Cross 7 - Violets Are Blue
Chapter Fifty-Two
It became clear that Irwin Snyder couldn't have committed the earlier murders. He had been out of North Carolina only once or twice in his life. Most of his contact with the outside world was over the Internet. And of course he was too young to have been involved in murder going back eleven years. The seventeen-year-old had killed his mother and father, though. He seemed to have no remorse. The Tiger had told him to do it. That was all I had been able to get out of him. He refused to say how he had come into contact with the person or group who had such control over him. While I was questioning Snyder, and then the others from the house, my shoulder and hand began to itch, and then ache. The bites were puncture wounds, but there had been little bleeding. The bite to my shoulder was the deepest, even through my jacket, and had left prominent teeth marks, which I'd had photographed at the station. I didn't bother going to the local emergency room in Charlotte. I was too busy. But the wounds soon became extremely painful. By late morning, I had trouble making a fist. I doubted I could pull the trigger of my gun. Now you're one of us, Cross, Irwin Snyder had told me. I wondered what group, or cell, or cult, Snyder was part of? Where was the Tiger? Was it only one person? I attended a meeting with the FBI and the Charlotte police that lasted until eight that evening. The net result was that we were still nowhere near a solution. The FBI was scouring the Internet, searching for messages relating to the Tiger, or any kind of tiger.
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JA/VIES PATTERSON
I flew back to Washington later that night, and managed to sleep a little on the plane. Not nearly enough. The phone rang minutes after I stepped inside the front door of my house. What the hell? 'You're back, Dr Cross. That's good. Welcome, welcome. I missed you. Did you enjoy Charlotte?' I put down the receiver and hurried outside into the night. I didn't see anyone, no movement up or down Fifth Street, but that didn't mean he wasn't lingering near the house. How else could he have known I was here? I ran out into the street. I stared hard into the darkness. I couldn't see anyone, but maybe he could see me. Someone had definitely been watching. Someone was out there. 'I am back,'I shouted,'come and get me. Let's settle this right here and now. Let's settle it! Here I am, you bastard!'He didn't call back to me, didn't answer. Then I heard a footstep behind me. I whirled around to face the Mastermind. 'Alex, what is going on out here? When did you get home? Who are you talking to?' It was Nana, and she looked very small and frightened. She came up and hugged me tight.
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Alex Cross 7 - Violets Are Blue
Chapter Fifty-Three
I woke up in bad shape around six the next morning. There was blotchy redness and blistering heat around the bites. The wounds throbbed. I noticed a nasty pus-like drainage from the bite on my hand. It was swollen to nearly twice its normal size. This was not good. I was sick as a dog, and it was the last thing I needed right now. I drove myself to the St Anthony's Hospital ER, where I found out that I was spiking a fever. My temperature was a hundred and three. The emergency-room doctor who examined me was a tall, dark-haired Pakistani named Dr Prahbu. He could have been one of the sons in the movie East Is East. He said that the most likely cause of the cellulitis was staphylococcus, a common bacteria found in the mouth. 'How is it that you were bitten?' he wanted to know. I suspected that he wasn't going to like my answer, but I gave it anyway. 'I was subduing a vampire,' I said. 'No, seriously. Detective Cross. How did you come to be bitten?' he asked a second time. 'I am a serious person and this is a serious question. I need to know this.' 'I am completely serious. I'm part of the team investigating vampire killers. I was bitten by a man with fangs.' 'Okay, fine. Detective. Whatever you say.' I was given tests in the ER: a CBC and differential count, sedimentation rate, and a culture and sensitivity test on the drainage from the wound. Blood cultures would be studied. I told Dr Prahbu that I -------------- 149 --------------
JAAAES PATTERSON Sir needed copies of his findings. The hospital didn't want to give them over to me, but they finally relented and faxed the results to Quantico. I was sent home with a prescription for a drug called Keflex. I was to keep my infected arm elevated, and administer Domeboro soaks every four hours. I was too sick to do much of anything by the time I got home. I lay in bed and listened to'Elliot in the Morning'on the radio. Nana and the kids hovered around me constantly. Nausea swept over me really bad; I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep, couldn't concentrate on anything except the painful throbbing in my shoulder and hand. I became delirious for several hours. Now you're one of us. I finally fell asleep, but woke up around one in the morning. The witching hours. I felt even worse. I was afraid the phone would ring and it would be the Mastermind. Someone was in the room with me. I sighed when I saw who it was. Jannie was sitting in the chair by my bed, keeping watch over me. 'Just like you did when I was sick,'she said.'Now sleep. Daddy. Just sleep. Rest up. And don't you dare rum into a vampire on me.' I didn't answer Jannie. I couldn't even manage a few words. I drifted off to sleep again.