Cross Fire - James Patterson [38]
“You could have called first,” I said. “You should have called, Christine.”
Ali practically screamed from the top of the stairs, he was so excited. “Come on, you guys!”
“Here we come, little man!” I called to him. As we started up, I spoke low to Christine. “This is going to be a onetime thing. Nothing more than that. Okay?”
“Absolutely,” she said, and reached back to give my arm a squeeze. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
Chapter 48
THE NEXT DAY was jam-packed for me, and I honestly didn’t give Christine much thought as my morning and most of my afternoon slipped away.
I saw both Bronson and Rebecca at their respective hospitals, performed some follow-up interviews in Woodley Park, did a consultation with the DA’s office on a separate case, and, finally, took some much-needed desk time to try and chip away at my stack of overdue reports.
Then, around three, I was picking up a late sandwich at the Firehook near the Daly Building — and I got a call from Ali’s school.
“Dr. Cross? It’s Mindy Templeton at Sojourner Truth.” Mindy was a school secretary and had been there for years, including during Christine’s tenure as principal.
“I feel a little awkward about this, but Christine Johnson’s here to pick up Alexander, and she’s not on his caregiver list. I just wanted to get your permission before we let him go.”
“What?”
I didn’t mean to raise my voice so loud, but suddenly everyone in the coffee shop was turning to look at me. A second later, I was out on the sidewalk, still talking on my cell. “Mindy, the answer is no. Christine may not take Ali, do you understand?”
“Yes, of course.”
“I don’t mean to alarm you,” I said more evenly. “If you could just please ask Christine to wait, I’ll be there as soon as I can. Maybe fifteen minutes. I’m on my way right now.”
When I hung up, I was already running for the parking garage, my mind completely unsettled. What the hell was Christine thinking?
Had she been planning this all along?
And, for that matter, what was she planning?
As far as I was concerned, I couldn’t get to the school fast enough.
Chapter 49
“I’M HIS MOTHER, for God’s sake! I wasn’t doing anything wrong! I’m not one of your stalkers.”
Christine was defensive from the minute I got there. We had it out in the hall while Ali waited in the school office.
“Christine, there are rules about this kind of thing — rules you used to abide by. You can’t just show up and expect to —”
“What are you saying?” she snapped. “Brianna Stone, this woman I hardly even know, can pick my son up from school and I can’t? Half the teachers here still know who I am!”
“You’re not listening,” I said. I couldn’t tell if she was trying to squirm out of this or if she truly believed she was in the right. “What exactly were you planning to do with him anyway?”
“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” she said dismissively. “I was going to call.”
“But you didn’t. Again.”
“When I got him out of school, I mean. We were going to go for ice cream, and he would have been home for dinner. Now he’s all confused and upset. It didn’t have to be this way, Alex.”
It was like listening to an out-of-tune piano. Everything just seemed a little off. Even her clothes. She was dressed to the nines today, in a fitted white linen suit, sling-back heels, and full makeup. In fact, she looked absolutely gorgeous. But who was she trying to impress?
I took a deep breath and tried again to get through to her.
“What happened to your conference?” I said.
For the first time, Christine looked away from me. She stared over at one of the bulletin boards in the hall. It was covered in crayon drawings of cars, planes, trains, and boats, with the word TRANSPORTATION in construction paper letters across the top.
“Did you see Ali’s?” she said, pointing at his sailboat. Of course I had seen it.
“Christine, look at me. Did you even have a conference?”
She crossed her arms and blinked several times as she met my eyes again.
“Well, what if I didn