Jack & Jill (Alex Cross 3)

“YOU CAN’T SHOOT both of us,” I told Danny Boudreaux.

I spoke in a clear, firm voice. At the same time, I angled my body sideways. Gave him less of a target.

I took another step toward my side of the large living room. I widened the distance between Christine Johnson and me.

“What the hell do you mean? What are you talking about, Cross? TALK TO ME, CROSS! I DEMAND IT!”

I didn’t answer him. Let him figure it out. I knew that he would. He was a smart bad boy.

Daniel Boudreaux stared at me, then quickly back at Christine. He got the message. He finally saw the trap, subtle as it was.

His eyes bore deeply into my skull. He knew what I’d done. One of us would get to him if he shot the other. He couldn’t have his final blaze of glory.

“You dumb piece of shit,” he growled at me. His voice was low and threatening. “You’re the one who gets it first, then!”

He raised the Smith & Wesson. I was staring down the barrel at him. “TALK TO ME, YOU BASTARD!”

“That’s enough!” Christine shouted from the other side of the room. She was unbelievable under the pressure, the circumstances. “You’ve killed enough,” she said to Boudreaux.

Danny Boudreaux was starting to panic. Wild eyes stared out from a head that seemed to be on a swivel. “No, I haven’t killed enough fucking useless robots. I’m just getting started!” His skin was stretched tight against the bones of his face.

He swung the Smith & Wesson toward Christine. His arms were stretched ramrod straight. His whole body was shaking and canted to the left.

“Danny!” I yelled his name and started to move on him.

He hesitated for an instant. Then he jerked the gun and fired. A deafening muzzle blast in close quarters.

He fired at Christine!

She tried to spin out of the way. I couldn’t tell if she had.

I kept coming, then I was in the air.

Danny Boudreaux swung the semiautomatic back at me. His eyes were filled with terror and intense hatred. His body shook with rage, fear, desperation. Maybe he could get us both.

I moved a lot faster than he thought I could. I was inside the radius of his arm and the outstretched gun.

I crashed into Danny Boudreaux as if he were a full-grown man, an armed and dangerous one. I crushed him with a full body-blow. I relished the contact.

Danny Boudreaux and I were down in a sprawling heap. We were tangled up, a mass of flying arms and twitching, kicking legs. The gun went off again. I didn’t feel any blinding pain yet, but I tasted blood.

The boy screamed in his high-pitched wail. He wailed! I wrenched the gun out of his hand. He tried to bite me, to rip into my flesh. Then the boy growled.

He began to have a seizure, possibly from the drug withdrawal. A major surge of brain activity was being discharged in his body. He was thrashing his arms and legs. His pelvis thrust forward as if he were dry-humping my leg.

His eyes rolled back, and his body suddenly went limp. Foam spewed from his mouth. His arms and legs continued to flail and twitch. He might have lost consciousness for a second or two. He continued to drool, to make choking and gurgling sounds.

I flipped him on his side. His lips were dusky blue. His eyes finally rolled back into place. They started to blink rapidly. The seizure had ended as quickly as it had come. He lay limp on the floor, a pool of wild bad boy.

The police had heard the shots. They were all over the living room. Riot shotguns, drawn pistols. Lots of shouting and squawking radio-receivers. Christine Johnson went to her husband. So did two of the EMS medics.

The next time I looked, Christine was kneeling beside me. She didn’t seem to be hurt. “Are you all right, Alex?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.

I was still holding down Danny Boudreaux. He seemed unaware of his surroundings. He was streaming with cold, oily sweat. The Sojourner Truth School killer now looked sad, lost, and unbearably confused. Thirteen years old. Five homicides. Maybe more.

“Grand mal?” Christine asked.

I nodded. “I think so. Maybe just too much excitement.”