Kiss the Girls

doll since she was two years old. The doll was “her baby,” absolutely sacred to Jannie. Sacred to all of us. Once we had left Baby Clare at Williamsburg during a day trip, and we had to drive all the way back. Magically, Clare was waiting for us at the front-gate office, having a nice chat with the security guard.
    “I couldn’t pull Damon’s hair, anyway. He’s almost
bald,
Daddy. Nana got him his summer haircut. Wait’ll you see my bald brother. He’s a
pool
ball!”
    I could hear her laughing. I could
see
Jannie laughing. In the background, Damon wanted the phone back. He wanted his rebuttal about the state of his haircut.
    After I finished with the kids, I talked to Nana.
    “How are
you
holding up, Alex?” She went right to the point, as she always does. She would have made an outstanding detective, or anything else she wanted to be. “Alex, I asked how you’re doing?”
    “I’m doing just fine and dandy. Love my work,” I told her. “How are you, old woman?”
    “Never mind that. I would watch these children in my sleep. You don’t sound good to me. You’re not sleeping, and you haven’t made a lot of progress, have you?”
    Man, she was tough when she wanted to be. “It’s not going as well as I would have hoped,” I told her. “Something good might have just happened tonight.”
    “I know,” Nana said, “that’s why you’re calling up so late. But you can’t share the good news with your grandmother. You’re afraid I might call the
Washington Post.
”
    We’d had this discussion before on cases I was working on. She always wants inside information, and I can’t give it up.
    “I love you,” I finally said to her. “That’s the best I can do right now.”
    “And I love you, Alex Cross. That’s the best I can do.”
    She
had
to have the final word.
    After I finished with Nana and the kids, I lay in the dark on the unmade, unwelcoming hotel bed. I didn’t want maids or anyone else in the room, but the
Do Not Disturb
tag hadn’t deterred the FBI.
    A bottle of beer sat upright on my chest. I slowed my breathing, let the bottle balance there. I’ve never liked hotel rooms, not even on a vacation.
    I started thinking about Naomi again. When she was a little girl like Jannie, she used to ride up on my shoulders, so she could see “far, far away in the Big People’s World.” I remembered that Naomi thought Christmas was “Kissmass,” so she would kiss everybody during the holidays.
    Finally, I let my mind settle on the monster who had taken Scootchie away from us. The monster was winning so far. He seemed invincible, uncatchable; he didn’t make any mistakes, and didn’t leave any clues. He was very sure of himself…. he even left me a cute little postcard for sport. What should that tell me?
    He might have read my book about Gary Soneji,
I thought. He just might have read my book. Had he taken Naomi to challenge me? Maybe to prove how good he was.
    I didn’t like that thought very much.

Chapter 33

    I ’M ALIVE,
but I’m in hell!
    Kate McTiernan tucked her legs close against her chest and shivered. She was certain that she’d been drugged. Severe tremors, accompanied by gnawing nausea, swept over her in powerful waves
that would not stop
no matter what she tried.
    She didn’t know how long she had been asleep on the cold floor, or what time it was now. Was he watching her? Was there a peephole hidden in the walls? Kate could almost
feel
his eyes crawling all over her.
    She remembered every gruesome and hideous detail of the rape. The
feel
of it was so vivid. The thought of being touched by him was repulsive, and the most horrifying images snapped at her.
    Anger, guilt, violation all fused in her mind. Adrenaline surged powerfully through her body. “Hail Mary, full of grace… the Lord is with thee.” She thought she had forgotten how to pray. She hoped that God hadn’t forgotten her.
    Kate’s head was spinning. He was definitely trying to break her will, break her resistance. That was his plan, wasn’t it?
    She had to think, make herself
think.
Everything in the room was out of focus.
The drugs!
Kate tried to figure what he might be using.
What
drug? Which one?…
    Perhaps it was Forane, a strong muscle relaxant that was used prior to anesthesia. It came in a one-hundred-milliliter bottle. It could be sprayed directly into a victim’s face, or poured over a cloth and held to someone’s face. She tried to remember the drug’s aftereffects. Shivering and