Free Toys by James Patterson Page A

which let me cut right through the city’s elaborate air-traffic-control
     patterns by steering me to the shortest routes available to nonemergency or police vehicles. A total Elite VIP perk.
    I stopped at a high-end Toyz store along the way and came out wearing new clothes: black jeans, a fitted T-shirt, a leather
     jacket, wraparound shades to hide my face. I had alsodownloaded some tattoo art at the Toyz Corp iTattoo booth. Like many Elites, I went in for tattoo-zone implants as a teen—one
     on the back of my neck, another on my right forearm. I can activate either to become visible—or fade back to skin tone—at
     a moment’s notice.
    I also purchased an ultrasonic shaver and a tube of Elite-Man follicle-activation cream—one quick application and you could
     instantly grow yourself a fashionable hint of stubble.
    Back in the car, I shaved my head—right to the scalp—and quickly gave myself a five o’clock shadow on the chin and cheeks.
     Then I activated the new tattoo art—a fist-sized tarantula on my forearm, a Harley-Davidson logo on the back of my neck.
    Now I looked nothing like the old Hays Baker; I was just another of the wealthy, weekend-warrior civilians you’d expect to
     see in the Baronville Toyz store, where eleven executives had recently been murdered. That was where I was headed now. I’d
     made up my mind; I needed one more look at the crime scene where my life had begun to be shattered.
    I needed to know
why
my life had been blown to pieces.
    There had to be clues I’d overlooked. Also, why had Jax Moore insisted on calling me there, even though it was well outside
     my area of operations? What had happened to make the in-store witnesses forget everything they’d seen?
    Hopefully, I’d learn something soon—because there was the Toyz store, less than a hundred yards straight ahead.
    The place where everything had gone all wrong for me, and for my family.

Chapter 34
    THAT LAST THOUGHT reminded me of the girls—and suddenly I had another idea, probably my most constructive one so far.
    Chloe and April both carried phones to school—and maybe, just maybe, I could talk to them now.
    I dialed Chloe’s number first, then I couldn’t believe it when I actually heard her voice come on the line.
Thank God, it was her!
    “This is Chloe Baker,” she said. An odd first line, but it was definitely my baby.
    “This is your daddy. Hello, Chloe Baker,” I said.
    “Daddy, what happened to you? Mommy said you’re in trouble—bad trouble. Is that true? It couldn’t be, right?”
    “Chloe, sweetie, it’s just a misunderstanding. I’ll be home soon.”
    There was a silence, which I didn’t understand. Chloe tends to talk and talk.
    “Chloe?
Chloe?
What’s the matter? Something is—I can tell—”
    Chloe blurted out,
“Daddy, the police are listening! The police are at my school!”
    Then she clicked off the phone.
    Talk about a heartbreaking call.
    But why did I feel things so deeply?
    Like a human would?

Chapter 35
    I KNEW I’D better hurry—the police could be here soon. It was almost surreal being back at the murder scene, especially since
     the Agency and city police were now searching for me. I strained to keep my vitals in check so that I wouldn’t set off any
     biometric-profile monitors in the Toyz store, but my nerves weren’t helped any by having to go past the window display of
     Jessica and Jacob dolls. They were strutting around like they owned that little world.
    The customers inside Toyz were the same mix of Elites and the occasional upper-level humans I’d seen here the other night.
    Almost immediately, I recognized a face—the pretty Elite woman I’d first interviewed, the one who said she’d been standing
     right next to two of the victims but hadn’t actually witnessed the murders.
    How could she bear to come back here so soon after that hideous crime, and then wander around clothes and baubles, shopping
     as if nothing had happened? Was she that callous? Or