Chapters (36)
- Cover
- About the Book
- About the Author
- STORIES AT THE SPEED OF LIFE
- Title Page
- PROLOGUE
- CHAPTER 1
- CHAPTER 2
- CHAPTER 3
- CHAPTER 4
- CHAPTER 5
- CHAPTER 6
- CHAPTER 7
- CHAPTER 8
- CHAPTER 9
- CHAPTER 10
- CHAPTER 11
- CHAPTER 12
- CHAPTER 13
- CHAPTER 14
- CHAPTER 15
- CHAPTER 16
- CHAPTER 17
- CHAPTER 18
- CHAPTER 19
- CHAPTER 20
- CHAPTER 21
- CHAPTER 22
- CHAPTER 23
- CHAPTER 24
- CHAPTER 25
- CHAPTER 26
- CHAPTER 27
- CHAPTER 28
- STORIES AT THE SPEED OF LIFE
- ALSO BY JAMES PATTERSON
‘Oh God,’ Keller said. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Not your fault. But I’m not ready to, you know, move on.’
Keller pulled his hand from her hair and brought it to her mouth. She kissed the top of his fingers delicately.
‘I understand,’ she said. ‘I’ve lost people, too. I don’t want to sound cold, Chris. But at some point you have to let go and make the best of what you’ve still got. You have to enjoy the life that’s left.’
Foster looked at her. She was so young.
‘You sound like a therapist,’ he said eventually.
She put the hand she had been kissing gently back by his side and stepped into him, wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her head on his chest, so that she could hear his heart thumping away inside him.
‘I’ve met a few of those,’ she smiled, as a summer shower began to beat on the glass outside.
CHAPTER 13
KIRSTEN KELLER PLAYED first on No. 1 Court the next day and won easily, somehow parking her grief and powering through in straight sets. Foster sat in the players’ box, watching the people who had access to the locker room and wondering if any of them had drawn the message on the mirror. None of them looked out of place, so he spent the second set in the cheap seats, high up in the stand.
He was a perfect grey man, blending in until he was almost invisible. He waited and he watched, letting his eyes settle and trusting that his instinct would kick in if anything unusual happened. But it didn’t. Keller won, and the crowd began to shuffle towards the strawberry kiosks, and Foster headed down to the side of the court where Keller was making for the locker rooms.
He reminded himself what a bad idea it had been to sleep with a client, but in all honesty, as he watched her, he couldn’t say he regretted it. She was glowing from the exertion of the match, pumped up and beautiful. She kept her game-face on until she was out of sight of the crowds and the cameras, but not much further.
‘Was he there?’ she asked Foster as they met in the corridors in the belly of No. 1 Court.
‘Who?’
Keller stopped and looked Foster in the eye.
‘You know who. It’s your job to protect me from the freaks, not from the truth.’
‘Fair enough. But no, I didn’t see anyone in the crowd.’
‘He’s out there, though, isn’t he?’ she said. ‘He killed Maria and he’s somewhere out there.’
‘We don’t know that anyone killed Maria.’
Keller paused and stared at him. ‘There’s no way she killed herself. No way.’