James Patterson - Hide and Seek

The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Copyright 1996 by James Patterson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Warner Books

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First eBook Edition: December 1996

ISBN: 978-0-446-40929-2

MORE RAVES FOR JAMES PATTERSON AND HIS COMPELLING NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

HIDE AND SEEK

A twisty narrative that barrels along swiftly a hair-raising ride.

People

A novel built for speed.

Boston Globe

James Patterson does everything but stick our fingers in a light socket to give us a buzz.

New York Times

Masterful. A riveting psychological thriller. Patterson gives his admirers a roller-coaster ride through a vivid, emotional tale that leads inexorably to a truly shattering climax.

Naples Daily News

Alex Cross is to the 90s what Mike Hammer was to the 50s.

Denver Post

Gripping.

Publishers Weekly

Alex Cross is the fictional detective of the 90s.

Ann Rule

James Patterson is to suspense what Danielle Steel is to romance.

New York Daily News

Patterson develops characters with broad strokes and fine lines. Even the villains are multilayered and believable.

Nashville Banner

Patterson's skill at building suspense is enviable, and it's impossible to read the book slowly.

Kansas City Star

Patterson is an excellent writer.

Lexington Herald-Leader

Patterson hit the ball out of the park with his last go-round, the bestselling Along Came a Spider. Kiss the Girls is even better.

Dallas Morning News

As good as a thriller can get. With Kiss the Girls, Patterson joins the elite company of Thomas Harris and John Sanford.

San Francisco Examiner

Warning: Do not read Kiss the Girls on a dark winter night if you are home alone. This is another Patterson scare.

Oakland Press

Kiss the Girls is impossible to put down.

Detroit News and Free Press

Along Came a Spider is a first-rate thrillerfasten your seatbelts and keep the lights on.

Sidney Sheldon

Along Came a Spider is written simply, powerfully, with shifting points of view. The book will satisfy mystery and thriller fans, as well as students of the human condition.

Washington Post Book World

Along Came a Spider deserves to be this season's #1 bestseller and should instantly make James Patterson a household name.

Nelson DeMille

THE NOVELS OF JAMES PATTERSON

Featuring Alex Cross

Mary, Mary

London Bridges

The Big Bad Wolf

Four Blind Mice

Violets Are Blue

Roses Are Red

Pop Goes the Weasel

Cat & Mouse

Jack & Jill

Kiss the Girls

Along Came a Spider

The Women's Murder Club

4TH of July (and Maxine Paetro)

3RD Degree (and Andrew Gross)

2ND Chance (and Andrew Gross)

1ST to Die

Other Books

The Lifeguard (and Andrew Gross)

Maximum Ride

Honeymoon (and Howard Roughan)

santaKid

Sam's Letters to Jennifer

The Lake House

The Jester (and Andrew Gross)

The Beach House (and Peter de Jonge)

Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

Cradle and All

Black Friday

When the Wind Blows

See How They Run

Miracle on the 17th Green (and Peter de Jonge)

Hide & Seek

The Midnight Club

Season of the Machete

The Thomas Berryman Number

For more information about James Patterson's novels, visit www.jamespatterson.com

For Carole Anne, Isabelle Anne, and Mary Ellen: the mothers of invention

Hide & Seek

I LAY WITHOUT moving in the low, narrow crawl space under the front porch of our home near West Point. My face was pressed tightly against the brutally cold, frozen ground littered with dry leaves and scratchy brambles. I knew I was going to die soon, and so was my baby girl. The words from a song, Crosby, Stills, and NashOur house is a very, very, very fine house played in my mind.

Don't cry oh please don't cry, I whispered into my baby's ear.

There was no way outno escape from here, at least not carrying the baby. I was smart, and I'd thought of every possible escape route. None of them would work.

Phillip was going to kill us when he found our hiding place. I couldn't let him. I just didn't know how I could stop it. I kept my hand lightly over Jennie's mouth. You mustn't make a sound, sweetheart. I love you. You mustn't make a sound.

I could hear Phillip raging above us inside the house. Our house. He was rampaging from floor to floor, ransacking rooms, overturning furniture. Angry. Relentless. Absolutely crazy. Worse than he'd ever been. It was cocaine this time, but really it was life that Phillip couldn't handle very well.

Come out, come out, wherever you are, Maggie come out, Maggie and Jennie it's only Daddy. Daddy's going to find you anyway, Phillip screamed over and over until he was hoarse. Come out, come out, Maggie game's over.

Maggie, I command you to come out wherever the hell you're hiding, you disobedient little bitch.

I lay shivering under the old sagging porch. My teeth were chattering again. This couldn't be happening. It was unthinkable. I gently held my little girl, who had wet her pants. You mustn't cry, Jennie. Please don't cry. Don't cry. You're such a good little girl. I love you so much.

Jennie nodded, and stared into my eyes. I wished that this were a nightmare. That it would go away. But it wasn't a bad dream. This was as real as my mother's fatal heart attack when I was thirteen years old and the only one home. This was even worse.

I could hear my husband, my husband, stomping up and down the stairs of the house. He was still screaming hadn't stopped screaming for over an hour. Pounding his fist against the walls. Captain Phillip Bradford. Math instructor at the Academy. Officer and gentleman. That was what everyone believed, what they wanted to believe, what I had believed myself.

The hour stretched to two hours.

Then to three hours in the pitch-black, freezing-cold crawl spacein this living hell.

Mercifully, Jennie had finally fallen asleep. I held her to my chest, tried to keep her warm. I wanted to sleep myself, give up the fight, but I knew I mustn't do that. It was very early in the morning. One of Phillip's witching hoursmaybe three A.M.? Maybe four?