I, Alex Cross

get him ready than it would have for a girl. Two at the knees, two at the hips, two at the shoulders, one at the neck. Then one long swipe down the middle of his skinny little torso. It was messier with the knife than it might have been with a chainsaw or an axe, but Remy liked wet work, always had.
    Once that was done, it took only about ten minutes to get the Philly Flash through the machine and into a plastic bag. It was amazing how light the bags always felt — as if it was something more than just foam and residue that got left behind inside the chipper.
    He took a shovel and a flashlight from the cabin and threw the bag into a wheelbarrow. Then he started walking into the woods. It didn’t matter which way. Wherever this kid landed, he was going to disappear forever.
    "Never to be seen or heard from again," Remy muttered to himself. He bobbled his head up and down and side to side as he walked, and started to laugh. "No. No. No. No. Never. No. No. No. No."

Chapter 21

    A LOUD NOISE woke me in the middle of the night. Something had fallen and broken downstairs. I was almost sure of it.
    I looked at the clock. Saw it was just after four thirty. "Did you hear that?"
    Bree raised her head off the pillow. "Hear what? I just woke up. If I’m awake."
    I was already out of bed and pulling on a pair of sweats.
    "Alex, what is it?"
    "I don’t know yet. I’ll go see. I’ll be right back."
    Everything seemed quiet from where I stopped to listen in the middle of the stairs. I could just see the sky going to blue outside, but it was still dark in the house.
    "Nana?" I called in a voice barely louder than a whisper.
    There was no answer.
    Bree was up now too, and at the top of the stairs, only a few feet away. "I’m right here."
    When I came down into the front hallway, I could see straight back to the kitchen.
    The refrigerator door was open, and there was just enough light from it that I could see Nana lying on the floor. She wasn’t moving.
    "Bree! Call 911!"

Chapter 22

    NANA LAY THERE on her side, in her favorite old robe and slippers. The pieces of a mixing bowl were on the floor around her, and her face was contorted, as if she’d been in terrible pain when she fell.
    "Nana! Can you hear me?" I said as I hurried into the kitchen.
    I knelt down and felt for her pulse.
    It was weak, but it was there. My own was spiking like crazy.
    Please, no. Not now. Not like this.
    "Alex, here!" Bree ran in and handed me the phone.
    "Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?"
    "My grandmother has just collapsed. I found her unconscious on the floor." My eyes scanned her face, her arms, her legs. "There’s no sign of injury, but I don’t know what happened before her fall. Her pulse is very weak."
    Bree started timing Nana’s pulse off the kitchen clock while the operator took my name and address.
    "Sir, I’m dispatching an ambulance to your house right now. The first thing you want to do is make sure she’s still breathing, but try not to move her. It’s possible she injured her spine when she fell."
    "I understand. I won’t move her. Let me check."
    Nana’s face was angled toward the floor. I leaned down and held the back of my hand to her mouth. At first — it seemed like forever — there was nothing, but then I felt a faint movement of air.
    "She’s breathing, but barely," I said into the phone.
    A soft rattle came from Nana’s chest.
    "Please hurry. I think she’s dying!"

Chapter 23

    DISPATCH TALKED ME through something called a "modified jaw thrust" to help open Nana’s airway. It was all nightmarish and surreal, in the worst way I could imagine. I took hold of the curved part of her jaw and pushed it forward and up, using my thumb to keep her lips open.
    Her breathing picked up, but only slightly, and not a regular cadence.
    Then Ali’s voice came from behind me, soft and scared. "Why is Nana on the ground like that? Daddy, what happened to her?"
    He was standing in the kitchen door, holding on to the frame as if he didn’t want to be pushed any farther into the room than that.
    Bree put a hand over mine on Nana’s cheek. "I’ve got her," she said, and I went to talk to Ali.
    "Nana’s sick and she fell down. That’s all it is," I told him. "An ambulance is going to come and take her to the hospital."
    "Is she going to die?" Ali asked, and tears flooded his gentle eyes.
    I didn’t answer, but I kept my arms around him, and we stood in the doorway to the kitchen. The one thing I couldn’t do right