I can still hear the voices in the crowd outside the hotel.
The paramedics roll me between two police cars and toward a waiting EMS truck, the meat wagon. The gurney bumps something, and I realize how absurd it is to be careful when you’re carrying a dead body.
“Can’t somebody help me?” I say, though I know the voice is only in my mind, whatever and wherever that is. But I can’t stop pleading anyway. I won’t give up, won’t quit. Not ever. I won’t go quietly.
“Somebody help me…
“Somebody, please…
“I’m sorry for all my sins, for everything I did.”
Then a black woman leans in close, really close to my face, closer than I would ever get to a dead person. She shines a tiny flashlight into my eyes, and God do I want to blink – I’d do anything in the world to blink.
But I don’t blink.
“Somebody, please help,” I don’t say again.
And then the woman steps away from me, and I see that she’s an EMS doctor.
Suddenly, she yells in a clear voice, “This one is still alive!”
And I hope, I pray to God, that she’s right.
“She’s alive! This woman is alive! She just winked at me.”
About the Authors
JAMES PATTERSON is one of the best-known and bestselling writers of all time. He is the author of the two top-selling new detective series of the past decade: the Alex Cross novels, including Cross; Mary, Mary; London Bridges; Kiss the Girls; and Along Came a Spider, and the Women’s Murder club series, including1st to Die, 2nd Chance, 3rd Degree, 4th of July, The 5th Horseman, and The 6th Target. He has written many other bestsellers, including his latest novel, The Quickie, and the #1 bestsellers Step on a Crack, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas, Lifeguard, Honeymoon, Beach Road, and Judge amp; Jury. He lives in Florida.
HOWARD ROUGHAN is the author of The Up and Comer and The Promise of a Lie, and most recently the coauthor, with James Patterson, of the #1 bestseller Honeymoon. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and son.
