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Prologue

WITHOUT ANY WARNING

Chapter 1

NOTHING EVER starts where we think it does So of course this doesn’t begin with the vicious and cowardly ood friend naht that it did Myand painful one

I arrived at Betsey’s house in Woodbridge, Virginia, in the ht I’d never been there before, but I didn’t have any trouble finding it The FBI and EMS were already there There were flashing red and yellow lights everywhere, seeerous streaks

I took a deep breath and walked inside My sense of balance was off I was reeling I acknowledged a tall blond FBI agent I knew na She was a friend of Betsey’s

On a hallway table I saw Betsey’s service revolver Beside it was a printed ree The irony stung

I forcedroom to the back of the house The house looked to be close to a hundred years old and was filled with the kind of country clutter that she’d loved The master bedroom was situated at the end of the hall

I knew instantly that the murder had happened in there The FBI techs and the local police were swarry wasps near a threatened hive The house was strangely, eerily quiet This was as bad as it gets, worse than anything else Ever

Another one of my partners was dead

The second one brutally murdered in two years

And Betsey had been much more than just a partner

How could this have happened? What did it mean?

I saw Betsey’s small body sprawled on the hardwood floor and I went cold My hand flew to my face, a reflex I had no control over

The killer had stripped off her nightclothes I didn’t see them anywhere in the bedroom The lower body was coated with blood He’d used a knife He’d punished Betsey with it I desperately wanted to cover her, but I knew I couldn’t

Betsey’s brown eyes were staring up atthose eyes and that sweet face I reh-pitched andBetsey,her terribly I wanted to turn away, but I didn’t I just couldn’t leave her like this

As I stood there in the bedroo coherent about Betsey’s murder, the cell phone in rabbed it, but then I hesitated I didn’t want to answer

“Alex Cross,” I finally spoke into the receiver

I heard a h ainst my will

“I knoho this is and I even knohere you are At poor, dear, butchered Betsey’s Do you feel a little bit like a puppet on a string, Detective? You should,” said the Mastermind “Because that’s what you are You’re my favorite puppet, in fact”

“Why did you kill her?” I asked the monster “You didn’t have to do this”

He laughed a h and the hairs on the back of ure that out, no? You’re the fa, iht Gary Soneji, Casanova You solved Jack and Jill Christ, you’re impressive”