Worst Case - James Patterson [34]
“Gee, aren’t you nice?” the man wearing the ski mask said as he grabbed Dan by his jacket and ripped him full out of the chair. The service door beside the man boomed as he kicked it open.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Dan cried as he was carried into the dark building.
The man hoisted him over his knee and violently wrapped his arms, legs, and mouth with masking tape.
“Shhh,” the man said, slinging him over his shoulder. “Quiet down now. No talking in class.”
Part Three
SIGN OF THE CROSS
Chapter 36
“DAD, DON’T TRIP, and whatever you do, please don’t drop it!” Jane called after me as I zombie-shuffled over the curb toward Holy Name’s auditorium, bearing the awkward display boards.
Though the science projects were officially completed, this next stage was like on the Food Network show where the contestants have to move their cakes to the judging table.
Only I had to do it six times, and there would be no chance for a $10,000 check.
Once everything had been safely transported, I started to relax, though when I passed a blood pressure cuff on one of the gymnasium’s many displays, I was tempted to test mine.
I walked Chrissy to her kindergarten class’s door. She pulled away from me as I went to give her a hug.
“Not here, Daddy. They’ll say I’m a baby,” she told me.
But you are a baby, I thought.
“Can’t we at least shake hands, Miss Bennett?” I said. She gave me a quick, businesslike pump and bolted off without looking back. I smiled from the door as she linked arms and began whispering in earnest with one of her classmates. The kids were all growing up so quickly.
Thank God I, miraculously, wasn’t aging with them.
I was coming down the school’s front steps when I noticed that I hadn’t turned on my phone after charging it. No wonder my morning had been filled with peace and quiet.
Uh-oh, I thought. In the past twenty minutes, there had been two messages from my boss and four from Emily Parker. I called Emily back first. She was cuter.
“What now?” I said.
“The Fox Channel. Turn it on.”
I ducked into Holy Name’s rectory, adjoining the school. Mrs. Maynard, the parish secretary, looked up from stuffing envelopes at her desk.
“Father Bennett is still saying the eight o’clock, Mike,” she said to me.
“Is he? Could I borrow your TV?” I said, going into the lounge beside her without waiting for an answer.
“Live Breaking News,” said the text in the corner of the local Fox Channel’s screen. Across the bottom I read, MEDIA BARON’S SON MISSING. There was a shaky aerial shot of a college campus, probably taken from a helicopter. I recognized the granite dome of Columbia’s Low Memorial Library. Police were laying tape by another campus building while a growing crowd watched.
“No,” I said into my phone as I finally made out what the police were cordoning off. The camera had zoomed in on an empty wheelchair.
I felt like borrowing the rosary beads around the crucifix on the wall beside the TV. He’d taken another kid? This horror was nonstop. Was that the point? Damn it, this was all we needed!
“Where are you now, Emily?” I said as I hit the street.
“Running to the subway. Columbia’s uptown, right?” she said. “Don’t bother picking me up. I’ll meet you there.”
Chapter 37
“WHERE TO, MIKE?” Mary Catherine said as I hopped back into our van. “Starbucks? That diner on Eleventh? No, how about we score a couple of warm H and H bagels and eat them in the park? I’m famished after that all-nighter.”
“Change of plans, Mary Catherine,” I said. “Another kid just got kidnapped. I have to head over to Columbia yesterday.”
Mary Catherine’s eyes lit up as she revved the engine. She was a notorious lead foot.
“Hit the lights, Starsky. I’ll get you there in no time.”
On our way to Columbia, I called Chief Fleming.
“There you are,” she said. “The press found out about it before we did. Are you there yet?”
“Just about.”
“The TV is saying that it’s the media mogul Gordon Hastings’s son, but that hasn’t been