Natty pushed the sleek car a little harder and took it up over eighty as we left Balmville. Then he said, “I really did love her.”

It was the first time he’d talked about Katie since he’d gotten out of jail the day after she was killed.

I said, “I know. She was a great girl. She just got caught up in something she didn’t understand.”

“It makes me think about my profession and lifestyle. I never knew what it was like to lose something as precious as Katie.”

I did know, but I kept quiet. I liked seeing my brother grow up right in front of me, even if it was a dozen years later than everyone else usually did.

Natty said, “Who would’ve thought that after all these years, you’d be the one to understand what I’m going through? You’re the person I can count on the most.”

I shrugged and said, “I figured I’d have to bail you out of trouble sooner or later.”

Now Natty smiled and said, “You’re an asshole, but I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Then the car hit ninety and I added, “Asshole.”

Malevolent

James Patterson
& James O. Born

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I paused for almost a full minute on the porch of the house on Kerry Street near the town of West Nyack, New York. I was here as part of my private investigation business, but it wasn’t like my usual chasing down drunken husbands or figuring out why elderly women were charged three times too much for air-conditioning units. This had the potential to be a real case. With a real payday.

Ellen Guidry had paid me $500 up front to find her daughter, Elizabeth. She also promised me another thousand if I got her out of the crack house where she’d supposedly been living and back home to Marlboro, about twenty minutes north of Newburgh.

My brother, Natty, offered to come. Although we’d had our differences as adults, he’d really matured in the last year. He’d given up his shady employment—selling dope from a bar in Newburgh—and was currently enrolled in paramedic school. I didn’t want him missing any class time to come on some crazy adventure like this.

So here I stood. A pistol tucked in my waistband. Another first for this job. I was hoping I took this assignment for the right reasons. Save a girl stuck in a drug den. Reunite her with her mother. But in reality, I was starting to hurt for money. My job delivering newspapers had spiraled downward in the last few months. Everyone wanted their coupons and information in electronic form. Even my eighty-two-year-old neighbor started getting her local news on her iPad. I needed a reliable, secondary source of income.