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immediate right and three framed jackets of books by mega-bestselling nonfiction writer Thomas Tull. Liu took a
Family Man knew, Roger and Sue Carpenter were deep asleep, aided by the hissing of a white-noise app.
but blood splashed off the headboard and spattered the upper chest and arms of the killer’s hazmat suit. A few drops hit the night-vision goggles.
Pearl Naylor, Mrs. Carpenter’s mother, was a light sleeper and spry for seventy-eight. She rolled in bed
Family Man shot her through the upper left side of her skull. She sagged off the bed, her legs caught in the sheets and blankets. A few
My name is Alex Cross. I am an investigative consultant for the Washington, DC, Metro Police, where I was a homicide detective for many years, and for the FBI, where I was once a member of the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit, the team that hunts serial killers and other bringers of doom and mayhem.
John Sampson pulled in behind me in an unmarked squad car. A first-rate detective in Metro PD homicide,
“Waiting for you,” said Ned Mahoney, FBI special agent in charge. “You’re the only ones who’ve been to
See if Family Man has finally made a mistake.”
DNA. The assassin the media had dubbed “the Family Man” had attacked twice before in the DC area, and twice before, we and a great team of forensic investigators had scoured the crime scenes
But it was almost unheard of to find three and sometimes four generations of a single family murdered, one after another, in the same house over the course of the same night. So far, the killer had given no reason,
seven newest victims—
Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter, Granny Pearl, twelve-year-old twins Alice and Mary, nine-year-old Nick, and five-year-old Alan—
others had: shot at close range through the upper p...
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Hodges family and the Landau family, and I doubt the Carpenter family
we were a year ago when these killings started.”
Bree used to be the chief of detectives for Metro PD and now worked for a private security company.
following morning, heading off to her meeting at the Bluestone Group’s headquarters across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia.
greeted the receptionist, and was told that Elena Martin was awaiting her in the conference room.
associated with a mysterious organization known as Maestro and its even more mysterious leader, a man who called himself M.
from M. At times, M’s texts were taunting, criticizing her husband and his partner. But occasionally, M gave Alex information that resulted in big
Elena Martin waved at Bree from the other side of a glass wall. The founder and
CEO of the Bluestone Group was
shocked her. “Frances Duchaine,” she whispered. “The Frances Duchaine? Really?”
But again, why would a woman as successful as Frances Duchaine take the risks alleged in the suit?
Nora Jessup—and her address. She also noted the superior court judge’s name—Eloise Carmichael. Only then did she open the second file.
Duchaine had suddenly appeared twenty-five years earlier, plucked from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology by no less an icon than Tess Jackson.
hedge fund, it made her a legit billionaire. Why would she do the things the women allege in the lawsuit? Why jeopardize the empire?
From that perspective, it is plausible that she might have done the things alleged in the lawsuit. The victims would not be humans to Duchaine. Just pretty dolls to be used and set aside when they’re broken.
agreed. A few hours before, Tull and Moore had finished hanging custom-built pegboards and whiteboards that covered the entire wall, from the floor to the nine-foot-high
said, sitting down at a new laptop computer. “The mom, dad, and grandmother were on Facebook. Password?”
Up to this point, the killer had focused primarily on white suburban families. Now that had to change. The Elliott family of Alexandria, Virginia, would do nicely, thank you. A family
“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Dr. Cross. I’m Suzanne Liu.”
of but close to Cambridge: in Boston’s Back Bay, Watertown, Somerville, Newton. With the electrocution scenes all identified on the map, I could immediately
Harvard professor Herman Foster had gone mad and plotted the electrocution deaths of seven innocent women.
operation that lured young women and men entranced by the dream of being supermodels and working for the great Frances
Quantico for DNA analysis ASAP.”
nothing solid to back them up yet.” “Yet. That’s the word we have to hold on to. Yet.” I got us heading toward DC. “Did you talk to the attorney and the rich woman who hired you and Bluestone?”
book of his I had not looked at in depth, Noon in Berlin.
noontime tryst at an apartment near the Tiergarten in Berlin only to be murdered
her, Firsching was in her early thirties, tough, dedicated,
chapters and came across another name: Hauptkommissar Horst Martel. Tull portrayed Martel as Firsching’s foil inside
strictly by-the-book cop, too rigid to try creative ways to deal with the string of lovers being murdered...
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“I am Horst Martel. Who are you?”
U.S. Marine MP and NCIS investigator Thomas
attorney’s office assigned to what the press were calling “the Paula Watkins murders.”
about the triangular relationship of Thomas Tull, Suzanne Liu, and Lisa Moore. “Let’s make
“Analisa Bree Salazar!” “What?” Bree said, looking at
said. “Bree,” a woman said. “This is Addie Wells. We met last night before…” Her voice trailed off.
said. “Listen, Rosella wanted me to call you. You asked about a company named Paladin doing work for the hedge fund that invested in Duchaine.”
