In a blink, he’s out of sight.
“Damon!”
Alex wakes to the sound of his phone vibrating on the nightstand. He picks it up, still groggy. “Hello? Alex Cross.”
“Did I wake you?”
Alex rolls onto his side and holds the phone to his ear. “Bree! How are you, sugar?”
“Tired. Very tired. Did you hear about John?”
Alex sits up against the headboard, his heart racing. He flashes back to when his best friend got shot a while ago. “No. What happened?”
“Don’t worry, John’s okay. But there was a car bomb. I mean an IED. One of his colleagues was killed. A young woman.”
“Who?”
“Her name was Anna Rizzo. She was an ATF investigator.”
“Where did it happen?”
“At John’s home. In his driveway. Willow was upstairs.”
“Willow! Is she—”
“She’s okay, Alex. She’s with us again. I don’t know how much she knows, or what she saw. She asked if she could sleep withJannie in her bed tonight. We’re going to let her decompress for a few days.”
“And Sampson?”
“You know John. He just plows on. He’s stubborn that way. Like somebody else I know.”
“Bree, listen, I found out some more information about what happened to Damon.”
“What is it? What happened?”
“A couple of local rednecks in a truck knocked him off his bike near the nature reserve, then threw his bike down the trail where we found it. Stole his phone and laptop too.”
“Did they hurt him?”
“I don’t think so. I think he might have just run away. He might still be hiding.”
“These men, these rednecks—you don’t think they did anything to him?”
“No. I’m pretty sure I scared the truth out of one of them. They’re thugs and racists, but I don’t think they’re killers or kidnappers. I’m a fairly good judge of character—especially rotten ones.”
“Speaking of rotten characters, I did some checking into Damon’s search history and I found some scary stuff. He’s been monitoring some alt-right forums, and I’m worried that they might have traced him,” says Bree.
“You think they’re that smart?” asks Alex.
“I think they’re that hateful. You need to call Melissa and organize another search.”
“I will. But it’s hard to motivate people when there’s nothing new. I followed up on another lead near the preserve today. Didn’t get anywhere.”
“Alex, tell me you’re not running around in the woods all by yourself!”
“Okay. I won’t tell you.”
“Alex Cross, listen to me. You can’t do it alone. I wish I could be there with you, but I can’t. Make sure you ask others to help!”
