## JAMES PATTERSON

]

"We're here to see Jeff," says Wendy.

The guard nods-of course you are-and leads them to the side door.

Then she sees the pictu
All the girls in the pho
just a baby.

They're in the kitchen now. Mary, Wendy, some middle-aged man. The man has a long face, bushy eyebrows, and thick silver hair and he's fit. As fit as the jocks that Mary goes to school = with. Not attractive, exactly. He's way too old for that. But confi- dent, in a way that makes an impression.

Much younger than Ma
The girl's smiling, bu
else some sort of anxiet
face. And what she's doin
off to the side. Flashing or
toward the camera.

Standing behind the man there's a woman. She's blond, very pretty, much taller than Wendy.

Mary gasps. She turns in front of her, wearing not

What a strange scene, Mary thinks. She can't shake the feeling that the man is studying her. Then he nods, and he and Wendy walk out of the kitchen. A little while later, they're back.

"Sarah," the man says to the tall woman. "You can take Mary upstairs."

Sarah takes Mary up a wide winding staircase carpeted in pink. Together they walk down a hall that's got photographs on the wall naked women. Long curtains cover windows and don't let in much light. In the air, there's a strong lavender fragrance.

Then they come to a room containing a green-and-pink sofa. There's a large bathroom off to one side and doors on either side of the sofa. There's a wooden armoire with sex toys on it. There's a massage table, too, and a mural of a naked woman.

"Wait here," says Sarah. "Jeff will be up in a moment."

Mary's too freaked out to do anything else. Fidgeting with her belt loops, she sits on the sofa, jumps up again.

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{"people":["james patterson","jeffrey epstein"]}