Violets Are Blue

gym bag behind her. I wanted to run up and hug her, but I stayed in my car. Her hair was up in a ponytail. She was wearing a dark blue T and loose gray workout pants. She was all right; she hadn’t been hurt.
Jamilla hadn’t been murdered by the Mastermind
.
    I stared through the windshield, waiting to see if anyone was watching her, stalking her. Part of me wanted to leave well enough alone now, to go home to Washington. But I kept remembering what had happened to Betsey Cavalierre after we finished our case together.
    Why then? Why my partner?
I almost didn’t want to go there.
    I gave Jamilla time to get inside, then I called her on my cell.
    “This is Jamilla Hughes. Your message is important to me. Please leave it at the beep.”
    Damn it!
I hated those machines. We still didn’t have one back home.
    “Jamilla, this is Alex Cross. Call me. It’s important. Please—”
    “Hi, Alex. Where are you?
How
are you?” I could hear the smile in her voice, and it sounded inappropriate because of the emotional state I was in.
    “Please be careful.” I continued with what I was going to leave her as a message. I told her why I was concerned. Finally, I had to admit the worst: that I was on the street outside her apartment.
    “Well, come inside, for God’s sake,” she said. There were no recriminations, not even any surprise in her voice. “I think you’re overreacting. Maybe. Let’s talk about it, though. Let’s talk this thing through.”
    “No, let me stay out here for a while. I hope you don’t think I’m being too crazy. Whoever killed Betsey has contacted me ever since her death. The Mastermind could be here in San Francisco. He killed her right after we finished our case. Detective Cooke was murdered after the magicians were killed in New Orleans.”
    That gave her pause. “Maybe I think you’re a little crazy, Alex. But I understand why you would be. I see where you’re going with this. I’m also touched that you came here to watch over me. And what happened to your last partner
does
scare me.”
    It helped that I knew where Jam was and that I had actually talked to her. After we spoke, I sat in my car and watched her street. I had learned to follow my instincts over the years, even when my own logic system rejected them, even when everybody else did too. I don’t know how many times I had thought about Betsey Cavalierre’s murder and wondered who the killer was, but I did it again as I sat in the car.
    I stayed there for several hours. Jamilla and I talked a couple of times. She urged me to come up to her apartment. I said no. “Let me do it my way, Jam.”
    It was getting late, though, and I was beginning to fade. I saw the lights in her apartment go off. Good for her. At least one of us was acting sane.
    I continued to wait. Something powerful, dramatic, haunting was nagging at me. Something I almost didn’t want to face. The clues had been there, but I hadn’t wanted to see them for what they were. I’d wanted to follow my “famous instincts.” Look where it had gotten me. I had blown it for so long.
    Then I saw him,
and everything made sense. Suddenly the puzzle was clear; all the pieces fit. Not just Betsey’s murder, but the Casanova murder, the stalking of Kate McTiernan — the fact that he’d always been able to keep a step ahead of me.
    The killer was here on Jamilla’s street.
    The Mastermind was here in San Francisco.
    I was sure, and it made me dizzy with fear. But it also filled me with incredible disappointment, sadness, confusion. I felt like I might throw up.
    It was Kyle Craig. He was watching Jamilla’s place, stalking her like the madman that he was. The goddamn
Mastermind
had come here to kill her.
    Now, how could I stop him?

Chapter 97

    “JAMILLA, ARE you awake?” I said in a low, tense voice. I felt a shudder run through me. It couldn’t get any worse than this. I still had my eye on Kyle. He was definitely watching Jamilla’s building.
God damn him to hell
.
    “I am now. No, I was awake. Where are you, Alex? Don’t tell me you’re still outside? Please don’t tell me that. Alex, what the hell is going on?”
    “Listen to me. The Mastermind is outside your place. I can see him. I think he’ll try to get inside soon. I want to come up there and I don’t want him to see me. Is there a back way?”
    Then I told her who the killer was.
    She exploded with anger, most of it directed at Kyle. “I knew there was something seriously wrong with him —