Violets Are Blue - James Patterson [51]
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. 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, 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.
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 phone 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 know 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 at 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.
Chapter 53
I WOKE up in bad shape around six the next morning. There was blotchy redness and intense heat around the bites. The wounds throbbed. I noticed a nasty puslike 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 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, which was 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 wounds. Blood cultures would be studied. I told Dr. Prahbu that I needed copies of his findings. The hospital