Table Of ContentAnnotation
Detective Lindsay Boxer's long-awaited wedding celebration becomes a
distant memory when she is called to investigate a horrendous crime: a badly
injured teenage girl is left for dead, and her newborn baby is nowhere to be
found. Lindsay discovers that not only is there no trace of the criminals - but that
the victim may be keeping secrets.
At the same time, Assistant District Attorney Yuki Castellano is prosecuting
the biggest case of her life - a woman who has been accused of murdering her
husband in front of her two young children. Yuki's career rests on a guilty
verdict, so when Lindsay finds evidence that could save the defendant, she is
forced to choose. Should she trust her best friend or follow her instinct?
Lindsay's every move is watched by her new boss, Lieutenant Jackson
Brady, and when the pressure to find the baby starts interfering with her new
marriage to Joe, she wonders if she'll ever be able to start a family of her own.
James Patterson
Acknowledgments
Prologue. WITH BELLS ON
One
Two
Book One. LITTLE BOY LOST
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Book Two. LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Book Three. ROAD TRIP
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Book Four. THE HEARTBREAK KID
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Epilogue. WIN/WIN
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
James Patterson
10th Anniversary
Women's Murder Club — 10
For Isabelle Patterson
and Madeline Paetro
Acknowledgments
Our thanks and gratitude to New York attorney Philip R. Hoffman, Captain
Richard J. Conklin of the Stamford, Connecticut, Police Department, and Dr.
Humphrey Germaniuk, Medical Examiner of Trumbull County, Ohio, for
generously sharing their time and wealth of experience.
Our thanks, too, to our excellent researchers, Ingrid Taylar, Ellie Shurtleff,
Melissa Pevy, and Lynn Colomello. And to Mary Jordan, who, as always,
manned the control tower.
Prologue. WITH BELLS ON
One
THIS WAS THE DAY I was getting married.
Our suite at the Ritz in Half Moon Bay was in chaos. My best friends and I
had stripped down to our underwear, and our street clothes had been flung over
the furniture. Sorbet-colored dresses hung from the moldings and door frames.
The scene looked like a Degas painting of ballerinas before the curtain went
up, or maybe a romanticized bordello in the Wild West. Jokes were cracked.
Giddiness reigned — and then the door opened and my sister Catherine stepped
in, wearing her brave face: a tight smile, pain visible at the corners of her eyes.
“What’s wrong, Cat?” I asked.
“He’s not here.”
I blinked, tried to ignore the sharp pang of disappointment. I said
sarcastically, “Well, there’s a shock.”
Cat was talking about our father, Marty Boxer, who left home when we
were kids and failed to show when my mom was dying. I’d seen him only twice
in the past ten years and hadn’t missed him, but after he’d told Cat he’d come to
my wedding, I’d had an expectation.
“He said he would be here. He promised,” Cat said.
I’m six years older than my sister and a century more jaded. I should have
known better. I hugged her.
“Forget it,” I said. “He can’t hurt us. He’s nobody to us.”
Claire, my best bosom buddy, sat up in bed, swung her legs over, and put
her bare feet on the floor. She’s a large black woman and funny — acidly so. If
she weren’t a pathologist, she could do stand-up comedy.
“I’ll give you away, Lindsay,” she said. “But I want you back.”
Cindy and I cracked up, and Yuki piped up, “I know who can stand in for
Marty, that jerk.” She stepped into her pink satin dress, pulled it up over her tiny
little bones, and zipped it herself. She said, “Be right back.”
Getting things done was Yuki’s specialty. Don’t get in her way when she’s
in gear. Even if she’s in the wrong gear.
“Yuki, wait,” I called as she rushed out the door. I turned to Claire, saw that
she was holding up what used to be called a foundation garment. It was boned
and forbidding-looking.
“I don’t mind wearing a dress that makes me look like a cupcake, but how
in hell am I supposed to get into this?”
“I love my dress,” said Cindy, fingering the peach-colored silk organza. She
was probably the first bridesmaid in the world to express that sentiment, but
Cindy was terminally lovesick. She turned her pretty face toward me and said
dreamily, “You should get ready.”
Two yards of creamy satin slid out of the garment bag. I wriggled into the
strapless Vera Wang confection, then stood with my sister in front of the long
freestanding mirror: a pair of tall brown-eyed blondes, looking so much like our
dad.
“Grace Kelly never looked so good,” said Cat, her eyes welling up.
“Dip your head, gorgeous,” said Cindy.
She fastened her pearls around my neck.
I did a little pirouette, and Claire caught my hand and twirled me under her
arm. She said, “Do you believe it, Linds? I’m going to dance at your wedding.”
She didn’t say “finally,” but she was right to think it, having lived through
my roller-coaster, long-distance romance with Joe, punctuated by his moving to
San Francisco to be with me, my house burning down, a couple of near-death
experiences, and a huge diamond engagement ring that I’d kept in a drawer for
most of a year.
“Thanks for keeping the faith,” I said.
“I wouldn’t call it faith, darling,” Claire cracked. “I never expected to see a
miracle, let alone be part of one.”
I gave her a playful jab on the arm. She ducked and feinted. The door
opened and Yuki came in with my bouquet: a lavish bunch of peonies and roses
tied with baby blue streamers.
“This hankie belonged to my grandmother,” Cindy said, tucking a bit of
lace into my cleavage, checking off the details. “Old, new, borrowed, blue.
You’re good.”
“I cued up the music, Linds,” said Yuki. “We’re on.”
My God.
Joe and I were really getting married.
