singing “Come Dance with Me.”
Clueless civilians. No help in that direction. No time to even ask.
He went to the roof’s edge and looked down on Broadway. Sixteen stories down. Two lanes of moving traffic. Lights of Lincoln Center. Some people on the sidewalk. No way to tell the good guys from the bad guys.
He rushed along the roof deck, skirting the building’s perimeter to 67th Street, looking for a fire escape. At the northeastern edge of the building down 67th, he was hoping for another building he could escape onto, but there was nothing except a huge empty dirt lot with a bunch of construction equipment.
He’d come along the southeastern back corner of the hotel when he finally saw his out.
Behind the hotel was an old building under renovation. They were doing brickwork and had an outside scaffold set up, a cruciform track running from roof to ground with a movable scaffold forming the horizontal part of the cross. The right-hand end of the scaffold was about fifteen feet away from where he was standing, and about a floor and a half below the level of the hotel roof.
He looked behind him at the path he’d just come down. If he went back to the other edge of the hotel by 67th, ran full-out andgot a little height as he leapt off the top of the waist-high wall, he could do it. He could long jump it.
Don’t think. Don’t look down. Just do it.
He made it to the other end of the roof deck and had turned back for his running start when Therkelson came out of the shadow on his right and grabbed him.
Forgetting his knife, the dark-haired man scrambled with animal panic to break the bigger, stronger man’s iron grip. He bashed the big son of a bitch in his mouth with the heel of his right hand, trying to get a thumb in his eye with his left.
But Therkelson didn’t let go.
Gripping the struggling dark-haired man by his lapels, Therkelson lifted him up off his feet and, without preamble, easily and silently threw him hard off the side of the building.
In that first terrible instant out in the black space and open cold air, the dark-haired man saw the city around him, like an upside-down I♥NY postcard snapshot. Window lights and water towers and the setbacks on the apartment buildings.
Then he was spinning and falling, the cold air rushing and ripping in his eyes and face.
No, no, no! Can’t, can’t! Not now! he thought over the blasting of the air and his heart, as he free-fell faster and faster through the cold and black—down, down, down.
STORIES AT THE SPEED OF LIFE
www.bookshots.com
ALSO BY JAMES PATTERSON
ALEX CROSS NOVELS
Along Came a Spider
Kiss the Girls
Jack and Jill
Cat and Mouse
Pop Goes the Weasel
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Four Blind Mice
The Big Bad Wolf
London Bridges
Mary, Mary
Cross
Double Cross
Cross Country
Alex Cross’s Trial ( with Richard DiLallo )
I, Alex Cross
Cross Fire
Kill Alex Cross
Merry Christmas, Alex Cross
Alex Cross, Run
Cross My Heart
Hope to Die
Cross Justice
THE WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB SERIES
1 st to Die
2 nd Chance ( with Andrew Gross )
3 rd Degree ( with Andrew Gross )
4 th of July ( with Maxine Paetro )
The 5 th Horseman ( with Maxine Paetro )
The 6 th Target ( with Maxine Paetro )
7 th Heaven ( with Maxine Paetro )
8 th Confession ( with Maxine Paetro )
9 th Judgement ( with Maxine Paetro )
10 th Anniversary ( with Maxine Paetro )
11 th Hour ( with Maxine Paetro )
12 th of Never ( with Maxine Paetro )
Unlucky 13 ( with Maxine Paetro )
14 th Deadly Sin ( with Maxine Paetro )
15th Affair ( with Maxine Paetro )
DETECTIVE MICHAEL BENNETT SERIES
Step on a Crack ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Run for Your Life ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Worst Case ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Tick Tock ( with Michael Ledwidge )
I, Michael Bennett ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Gone ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Burn ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Alert ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Bullseye ( with Michael Ledwidge )
PRIVATE NOVELS
Private ( with
Clueless civilians. No help in that direction. No time to even ask.
He went to the roof’s edge and looked down on Broadway. Sixteen stories down. Two lanes of moving traffic. Lights of Lincoln Center. Some people on the sidewalk. No way to tell the good guys from the bad guys.
He rushed along the roof deck, skirting the building’s perimeter to 67th Street, looking for a fire escape. At the northeastern edge of the building down 67th, he was hoping for another building he could escape onto, but there was nothing except a huge empty dirt lot with a bunch of construction equipment.
He’d come along the southeastern back corner of the hotel when he finally saw his out.
Behind the hotel was an old building under renovation. They were doing brickwork and had an outside scaffold set up, a cruciform track running from roof to ground with a movable scaffold forming the horizontal part of the cross. The right-hand end of the scaffold was about fifteen feet away from where he was standing, and about a floor and a half below the level of the hotel roof.
He looked behind him at the path he’d just come down. If he went back to the other edge of the hotel by 67th, ran full-out andgot a little height as he leapt off the top of the waist-high wall, he could do it. He could long jump it.
Don’t think. Don’t look down. Just do it.
He made it to the other end of the roof deck and had turned back for his running start when Therkelson came out of the shadow on his right and grabbed him.
Forgetting his knife, the dark-haired man scrambled with animal panic to break the bigger, stronger man’s iron grip. He bashed the big son of a bitch in his mouth with the heel of his right hand, trying to get a thumb in his eye with his left.
But Therkelson didn’t let go.
Gripping the struggling dark-haired man by his lapels, Therkelson lifted him up off his feet and, without preamble, easily and silently threw him hard off the side of the building.
In that first terrible instant out in the black space and open cold air, the dark-haired man saw the city around him, like an upside-down I♥NY postcard snapshot. Window lights and water towers and the setbacks on the apartment buildings.
Then he was spinning and falling, the cold air rushing and ripping in his eyes and face.
No, no, no! Can’t, can’t! Not now! he thought over the blasting of the air and his heart, as he free-fell faster and faster through the cold and black—down, down, down.
STORIES AT THE SPEED OF LIFE
www.bookshots.com
ALSO BY JAMES PATTERSON
ALEX CROSS NOVELS
Along Came a Spider
Kiss the Girls
Jack and Jill
Cat and Mouse
Pop Goes the Weasel
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Four Blind Mice
The Big Bad Wolf
London Bridges
Mary, Mary
Cross
Double Cross
Cross Country
Alex Cross’s Trial ( with Richard DiLallo )
I, Alex Cross
Cross Fire
Kill Alex Cross
Merry Christmas, Alex Cross
Alex Cross, Run
Cross My Heart
Hope to Die
Cross Justice
THE WOMEN’S MURDER CLUB SERIES
1 st to Die
2 nd Chance ( with Andrew Gross )
3 rd Degree ( with Andrew Gross )
4 th of July ( with Maxine Paetro )
The 5 th Horseman ( with Maxine Paetro )
The 6 th Target ( with Maxine Paetro )
7 th Heaven ( with Maxine Paetro )
8 th Confession ( with Maxine Paetro )
9 th Judgement ( with Maxine Paetro )
10 th Anniversary ( with Maxine Paetro )
11 th Hour ( with Maxine Paetro )
12 th of Never ( with Maxine Paetro )
Unlucky 13 ( with Maxine Paetro )
14 th Deadly Sin ( with Maxine Paetro )
15th Affair ( with Maxine Paetro )
DETECTIVE MICHAEL BENNETT SERIES
Step on a Crack ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Run for Your Life ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Worst Case ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Tick Tock ( with Michael Ledwidge )
I, Michael Bennett ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Gone ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Burn ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Alert ( with Michael Ledwidge )
Bullseye ( with Michael Ledwidge )
PRIVATE NOVELS
Private ( with
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