Kristin Burns has lived her life by the philosophy "Don't think, just shoot" – pictures, that is. Struggling to make ends meet, she works full-time as the nanny for the fabulously wealthy Turnbull family, looking after their two wonderful children and waiting for her glamorous life as a New York photographer to begin. When her photographs are considered by an elite Manhattan art gallery, it seems she might finally get the chance that will start her career.

But Kristin has a major distraction: forbidden love. The man of her dreams is almost hers for keeps. Breathless with an inexhaustible passion and the excitement of being within reach of her goals, Kristen ignores all signs of catastrophe brewing.

Fear exists for a reason. And Kristin can only dismiss the warnings for so long. Searching desperately for the truth through the lens of her camera, she can only hope that it's not too late. This novel of psychological suspense is a stunning new achievement for thriller master James Patterson, "one of the bestselling writers in history" (New York Sun).

Chapter 6

I SEE HIS EYES FIRST, very dark, intense, and unblinking, staring right into mine.

He’s dressed in a gray suit, nothing fancy, jacket open with a loose tie, yellow-and-red stripe. Clipped to his belt is a scuffed-up badge. NYPD?

With a deliberate gait bordering on slow, he weaves his way through the crowd and walks up to me. All this time, his eyes never leave mine. I guess he heard me screaming. I smell his aftershave . . . and tobacco.

“Oh, thank God,” I say, a relieved hand slapping my chest. “Are you with the police?”

“I’m a detective, yes.”

I point back at the hotel. “Hurry, you have to do something.”

He gives me a strange look before glancing over his shoulder. “Excuse me? I have to do what?”

I jab my finger at the gurneys again, the words tripping over my tongue. “The zipper . . . over there . . . the one on the . . .” I take a deep breath and spit it out. “The person in that last body bag is still alive!”

The detective looks at the hotel again. It’s not quite a smirk on his hardened face when he turns back to me, but it’s close. There is something unsettling about this man, deeply so.

“Lady, I can assure you the person in that bag is dead. They’re all dead.”

“Please, just go check.”

He shakes his head. “No, I won’t go check. Did you hear what I just told you?”

“You don’t understand, Detective. The zipper on that last body bag, it’s going to — ”

I stop myself cold. Hold it right there, Kris. Not another word!

I complete the sentence in my head and suddenly, embarrassingly, I realize how crazy it all sounds. I sneak a quick peek at that last body bag, which still hasn’t moved. I want to tell this guy about the dream; I want to make him believe me.

So of course I can’t tell him about the dream.

“I’m sorry,” I say meekly, starting to put away my camera. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I guess I just got scared.”

“Four murders,” he says. “That’s scary, all right.”

I can feel the detective’s eyes on me as I fumble with the lens cap for my camera, but I don’t look at him. And as I turn to slink away as quickly as possible, I don’t say another word. No good-bye, no apology, no nothing. Way to go, Kristin. You’ve just made a complete fool of yourself.

It’s been a morning to remember.

Four dead bodies.

Déjà dead?

Whatever.

Copyright © 2007 by James Patterson

Ilyana Kadushin's numerous credits include narration for The Discover Channel, Nickelodeon, and BBC America. She is a singer and songwriter for the duo Lythion, who currently scores music for film and television. Ilyana has also recently appeared in productions for Amnesty International and The Culture Project.