Dead Heat by James Patterson Read Free Book Online Page A

pool of blood is gradually blooming around him.
    ‘Chinese,’ Paz reads. ‘Zou Jaihui. Twenty-four years old.’
    Paz takes her time examining the athlete’s head. Her face is intact, but from behind it’s a different story. She’s missing a chunk from the back of her neck and the base of her skull. ‘She shot him with the rifle and killed herself with the pistol,’ Paz says. ‘That much is obvious.’
    I nod.
    ‘So what do you think?’
    Paz pauses.
    ‘Maybe she was competing somewhere else in the arena, heard the commotion and decided to be a hero?’
    ‘I don’t think so. That wouldn’t explain why she then killed herself.’
    Behind the stricken body of the Chinese athlete, the sound of heavy boots begins to reverberate along the deserted corridor. The SWAT team is arriving.
    ‘Come on, then,’ Paz says. ‘What’s your theory?’
    I look down at the girl, and the madness of it all makes me angry. Two more athletes wasted in the prime of their lives.
    ‘She’s either a rifle star or a pistol star. She’s not both. My guess is rifle, judging by the job she did on Witt. So why is she carrying both guns?’
    Paz looks blankly at me.
    ‘You tell me.’
    ‘Because she came here to do a job. She’s come equipped. A rifle for him and a pistol for herself.’
    ‘A paid assassin?’
    ‘No, but I think she knew him. I think she knew Witt was going to kill himself. He put the gun to his head, after all. And when he couldn’t finish the job, she did it for him.’
    ‘And for herself,’ Paz says.
    I nod. The SWAT team bursts through an entrance adjacent to ours and fans out into the arena. I’ve already pulled my badge out from my pocket, and I hold it above my head. Paz does the same.
    ‘Too late,’ I call to the team of black-clad officers. ‘The woman up here shot the guy down there. We saw it happen. You fill in the form and I’ll sign it.’
    The corners of Paz’s mouth lift for a split second, and then she returns to her steely evaluation of the scene.
    ‘What makes you think she knew Witt?’
    I crouch down so that my eyes are at the same level as Zou Jaihui. Paz hears both of my knees crack on the way down, but she’s kind enough to ignore it.
    ‘This girl was careful how she killed herself,’ I tell Paz. ‘She shot herself through the mouth. She didn’t touch her features. She looks like she’s asleep.’
    Paz looks at the slack features of the slumped shooter.
    ‘Meaning what?’ Paz asks urgently as the SWAT team approaches.
    ‘Meaning she didn’t want to put her relatives through the pain of identifying a disfigured face.’
    ‘Same as most suicides, probably.’
    I smile for a moment.
    ‘Sure,’ I tell her. ‘But Zou did the same for Witt. Perfect aim. Perfect shot. Straight through the back of his throat, without a speck of blood on his face. She didn’t want to damage him any more than she wanted to damage herself. Makes me think she cared about him.’
    ‘ She cared about him? Carvalho, the back of his skull is missing.’
    ‘Yeah, but she never saw that, did she? The simplest job would have been three rifle shots, dead centre. She’d have taken out everything from the neck up. But she didn’t do that. She went to the trouble of aiming through his mouth with a single shot. Maybe she didn’t want to see him broken. My guess is: whatever was driving Oliver Witt crazy, I’ll bet you that Zou Jaihui knew all about it.’

CHAPTER 13
    THREE PARAMEDICS RUSH towards us as we head wearily out of the arena. They’re moving fast, pumped with adrenalin.
    ‘No rush,’ I tell them.
    As we walk back through the exit, I flash back to the blonde woman who had been pushing past us as we arrived.
    ‘Yeah, I saw her,’ Paz says. ‘A coincidence?’
    I scowl.
    ‘We ruled out coincidence, remember?’
    Before Paz can apologise, her phone rings.
    ‘Meyer’s bloods,’ she says when the call ends. ‘Nothing unusual, apart from the sleeping pills.’
    ‘Well, if he was hooked on