Chapter 1

"I'M PREGNANT, ALEX."

Everything about the night is so very clear to me. Still is, after
all this time, all these years that have passed, everything that's
happened, the horrible murderers, the homicides solved and
sometimes not.

I stood in the darkened bedroom with my arms lightly circling my
wife Maria's waist, my chin resting on her shoulder. I was
thirty-one then, and had never been happier at any time of my
life.

Nothing even came close to what we had together, Maria, Damon,
Jannie, and me.

It was the fall of 1993, a million years ago it seems to me
now.

It was also past two in the morning, and our baby Jannie had the
croup something terrible. Poor sweet girl had been up for most of
the night, most of the last few nights, most of her young life.
Maria was gently rocking Jannie in her arms, humming "You Are So
Beautiful," and I had my arms around Maria, rocking her.

I was the one who'd gotten up first, but I couldn't seem to get
Jannie back to sleep no matter what tricks I tried. Maria had come
in and taken the baby after an hour or so. We both had work early
in the morning. I was on a murder case.

"You're pregnant?" I said against Maria's shoulder.

"Bad timing, huh, Alex? You see a lot more croup in your future?
Binkies? More dirty diapers? Nights like this one?"

"I don't like this part so much. Being up late, or early, whatever
this is. But I love our life, Maria. And I love that we're going to
have another baby."

I held on to Maria and turned on the music from the mobile dangling
over Janelle's crib. We danced in place to "Someone to Watch Over
Me."

Then she gave me that beautiful partly bashful, partly goofy smile
of hers, the one I'd fallen for, maybe on the very first night I
ever saw her. We had met in the emergency room at St. Anthony's,
during an emergency. Maria had brought in a gangbanger, a gunshot
victim, a client of hers. She was a dedicated social worker, and
she was being protective --- especially since I was a dreaded metro
homicide detective, and she didn't exactly trust the police. Then
again, neither did I.

I held Maria a little tighter. "I'm happy. You know that. I'm glad
you're pregnant. Let's celebrate. I'll get some champagne."

"You like being the big daddy, huh?"

"I do. Don't know why exactly. I just do."

"You like screaming babies in the middle of the night?"

"This too shall pass. Isn't that right, Janelle? Young lady, I'm
talking to you."

Maria turned her head away from the wailing baby and gave me a
sweet kiss on the lips. Her mouth was soft, always inviting, always
sexy. I loved her kisses --- anytime, anywhere.

She finally wriggled out of my arms. "Go back to bed, Alex. No
sense both of us being up. Get some sleep for me too."

Just then, I noticed something else in the bedroom, and I started
to laugh, couldn't help myself.

"What's so funny?" Maria smiled.

I pointed, and she saw it too. Three apples --- each one
with a single childlike bite out of it. The apples were propped on
the legs of three stuffed toys, different-colored Barney dinosaurs.
Toddler Damon's fantasy play was revealed to us. Our little boy had
been spending some time in his sister Jannie's room.

As I got to the doorway, Maria gave me that goofy smile of hers
again. And a wink. She whispered --- and I will never forget what
she said --- "I love you, Alex. No one will ever love you the way I
do."

Excerpted from CROSS © Copyright 2011 by James Patterson.
Reprinted with permission by Little, Brown and Company, a division
of Hachette Book Group USA. All rights reserved.