Black & Blue: BookShots (Detective Harriet Blue Series) by James Patterson Page B

against it was a heavy man in a white business shirt. Tox checked his pulse, but he was long gone, his whole body a sickening purple.
    ‘Water safety guy,’ Tox said. He pushed the limp body back into the pantry and shut the door. ‘Probably caught on to her.’
    We crept around the back of the galley and up the stairs, stopping when we were high enough to look across the floor to the bridge wing. Jenny was on her belly now, unconscious. She seemed to be breathing. There were no open wounds on her that I could see, adding hope to my theory that the gunshot earlier had been a bluff. The compressor she was tied to was hanging halfway out over the side of the boat, its small wheels spinning. I could see Hope’s leg by the entrance to the bridge. She paced, wandering over to Jenny and then back to the helm, never leaving her alone for more than a few seconds.
    ‘We’ll come up the other side,’ Tox breathed. ‘Get her from behind.’
    ‘We should split up in case she lunges for the compressor. I’ll go up this side.’
    My partner’s eyes glittered in the dark. He nodded and checked the magazine in his gun. We were set to go until Hope’s voice rose in pitch and volume, stopping us in our tracks.
    ‘Where are the occupants of that boat?’ she screamed.

CHAPTER 52
    I LOOKED, AND saw her pointing off the port side. It was our boat that had caught her attention. The water police on the vessel beside ours had seen us go into the water and lashed our boat to theirs, but hadn’t sent another officer over to cover our absence. Hope had been watching our boat and noticed no one was on board.
    ‘Shit,’ I whispered.
    ‘The officers who were on that boat moved over to the next one.’ Chris tried to cover us. He didn’t sound confident enough. ‘They’re there, Hope. No one’s—’
    ‘Someone’s boarded me,’ Hope snapped. ‘One of your officers has boarded me, haven’t they? You people have no regard for life, do you? I’m going to kill this innocent woman if you don’t get your officers off my fucking yacht.’
    She went to Jenny and actioned the rifle, pointed it at the woman’s head. The wind whipped the young woman’s hair as she stared out defiantly at the boats around her. I got up on my haunches and got ready to run.
    ‘Hold your fire!’ someone yelled on the wind. ‘Hold your—’
    A couple of shots clanged off the edge of the vessel, just above Hope’s head. She slid down to her backside and growled with rage.
    ‘Fuckers!’ she yelled.
    I watched the fury tremble through her, down her chest and through her stomach like electricity in her muscles. It was anger that moved her, taking over and crushing her logic. She kicked out and toppled the compressor over the edge of the boat.
    ‘No, Hope!’ I yelled. ‘No!’
    It was too late. I saw the heavy machine go over the side.

CHAPTER 53
    THE COMPRESSOR HIT the water with a massive splash. The rope around Jenny’s legs whizzed over the side. I sprinted along the deck and reached it, just as the rope ran out and yanked the wounded woman off the side of the boat.
    I dived in after her, the fifteen feet of free air between the deck and the water feeling like ten minutes of sheer terror before the blackness of the ocean swirled around me.
    The water was so cold that for a moment I didn’t know if I’d been successful in grabbing at Jenny’s hands. I held tight, and as we sailed downward I realised that I had a death grip on one of her wrists. We were sinking fast. There was no sound. The woman in my hands had come to and twisted and bucked as we plunged towards the depths.
    We sailed downward. The pressure on my chest and head was too heavy to bear after only seconds. A voice in my head began screaming.
    It’s over. Let go. Let go. Get to the surface!
    But I refused to let go.

CHAPTER 54
    HOPE WATCHED THE bubbles rise from where her hostage and the cop had disappeared into the black depths. A couple of officers from boats nearby leaped into