Break Point: BookShots by James Patterson Read Free Book Online Page A

a good police officer. I worked with her for a few years. She never got a case wrong that I knew. So if there’s anything to find, she’ll find it.’
    ‘Shall we see what’s on the memory stick?’ Keller asked suddenly.
    ‘You need to sleep,’ Foster replied.
    ‘I need to practise. I’ve got a match tomorrow.’
    ‘All the more reason to sleep. I’ll drive you to the courts this afternoon. Do you have to reschedule your court booking?’
    Keller felt the words
Maria will do that
forming on her lips, but of course Maria wouldn’t.
    ‘Don’t worry,’ Foster said. ‘I’ll sort it.’
    Once Keller was asleep, and after he had rescheduled her practice time, he called Ruth Cullen.
    ‘It was a pretty grim scene,’ Cullen said. ‘We found Maria strung up in front of highlights of Kirsten Keller on a loop. I didn’t want to tell you in front of Kirsten.’
    ‘Thank you.’
    Foster told her about the memory stick and the fact that Keller’s stalker must have been at the scene of Rosario’s death.
    ‘So what’s on it?’ Cullen asked him.
    ‘I don’t know yet,’ Foster said. ‘I’m about to watch it.’
    Cullen told Foster she’d send an officer to collect the memory stick, and then hung up. Foster pulled open his laptop and inserted the stick. The video was of Keller losing the final in Paris; the soundtrack was of a guy laughing bitterly as she ran off the court in tears. Foster listened carefully. The guy was indoors, somewhere quiet. He didn’t sound especially old, but he didn’t sound young, either. It wasn’t much to go on. The content told Foster what he already knew: the guy was fixated on Keller.
    Foster let Kirsten sleep until lunch, before driving her to the courts, where she smashed the ball harder than ever. She spent two hours lost in her game, perfecting every stroke in the glare of the sun and the gaze of the press.
    An hour into her workout, Foster headed over to the watching paparazzi. One of them turned as he approached. He was too tall and too thin. He had eager eyes with heavy bags and the smile of a man who had nothing to smile about.
    ‘I saw you at Maria Rosario’s house,’ the man said as Foster approached, his voice thin and tinny. ‘Should I know you?’
    ‘I saw you, too,’ Foster said. ‘It’s my job to keep you away from Kirsten.’
    ‘Not doing it very well,’ the guy observed with a wry smile.
    ‘I need every photo you took this morning.’
    The eager eyes narrowed.
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘Here’s the deal,’ Foster told him. ‘I need the pictures. There are three ways I can get them. You can give me a copy, and we both walk off smiling. Or I could talk to my friends at the Met, who will get a warrant and make your life difficult. Or I can ram that camera down your throat and then kick you around the court, until the memory card comes out of your arse. What do you reckon?’
    Once Keller had finished her practice session, Foster drove her back to the Shard and ordered room service. Keller called her family to reassure them that everything was alright, even though she was fairly certain it wasn’t.
    ‘Don’t fly over,’ she told them. ‘Every time I see you in the crowd, I’ll remember that something’s wrong.’
    Foster went through the reporter’s photographs, scanning the crowd for familiar faces, but none of them proved interesting. The sun sank gradually and Keller asked him if he wanted to stay the night.
    ‘I can’t,’ Foster told her.
    She stood in the bedroom doorway and waited for a reason, but he didn’t elaborate.
    ‘You’ll be safe enough,’ he said.
    ‘It’s not about being safe.’
    Foster looked at her.
    ‘What is it about?’
    ‘Last night,’ Kirsten said. ‘I had a good time. Didn’t you?’
    ‘Of course I did.’
    She padded towards him, just as she had done the night before.
    ‘Do I have to spell it out, Chris? Seriously?’
    She came close to him and put a hand on his chest.
    ‘We had a great time last