Ali Cross

At the Christmas Eve church service, Ali is chosen to pray for children everywhere. He’s so distracted by concern over his missing friend that the priest must ask him twice to step forward.

Ali goes to the lectern and pulls out his hand-written prayer. His father and older brother, Damon, encourage him from the front row. Ali thinks about how he met Gabe in middle school and bonded with him over the Outpost video game. He tells the congregation that he wants to offer a prayer to a single kid, Gabriel Qualls, who’s missing. Remembering how Jesus was born in a stable and that, at first, almost no one cared about him, he hopes the worshipers can make room in their hearts for Gabe.

His prayer asks God to keep Gabe safe and help him return home. The congregation says a hearty “Amen!” He turns to leave, and then turns back and wishes Jesus a happy birthday. 

They leave the church, and reporters crowd around Alex Cross, peppering him with questions about his upcoming assault trial. Alex visited the father of murder suspect Tyler Yang, and Mr. Yang became irate and tried to push Alex off the porch. The father hit his head in the scuffle and remains in a coma. Ali hates the reporters’ questions, which impugn his father: “Are you ashamed of yourself, Detective Cross?” and “What’s it feel like to put someone in the hospital?” (12).

Ali’s stepmother, Bree, takes his hand, and with his other hand, he holds onto his grandmother, Nana Mama, but the reporters’ questions cause his big sister, Jannie, to let out a sob. Ali yells that his father is innocent, that they’re being unfair to him, and that they’re doing it on Christmas Eve. Bree and Alex try to calm him, but a reporter asks if he’s proud of his dad, and Ali says yes, and that the press should be reporting about the missing Gabriel Qualls “and do some good for a change” (13).

Alex can’t help feeling proud of his son, who’s just as spirited as the great boxer for whom he’s nicknamed. He steps in, tells the reporters he can’t comment on the case, and invites them to attend the trial “and take careful notes” (16). He adds that his family has nothing to do with the case and will have nothing further to add. He ushers his family away.

On the drive home, Nana Mama scolds Ali for acting out. He argues that they caused Jannie to cry, but Jannie says, “I can take care of myself” (17). Nana asks him why reporters ask such questions; Ali says they want the family to talk. Nana says it’s much worse: They’re goading his father because “they want him to behave exactly like the angry and violent man he’s accused of being” (18). She adds that Alex would risk his life for Ali and that Ali’s selfish outburst didn’t help.

Ali feels foolish, and he apologizes. Bree asks them what they do when others go low, and the three kids chorus, “We go high” (18). Bree and Nana compliment Ali on his prayer for Gabe.

The boy asks his father for any news on Gabe. Dr. Cross says he hasn’t heard anything since that afternoon and won’t be able to talk to the detective in charge, Wendy Sutter, until later. Bree assures him their police department closes 99% of missing person cases. Ali worries that Gabe might be one of the remaining one percent.

The Cross family arrives home. They park in the rear garage and approach the house but find the rear door open and one of its window panes broken. Bree—who’s the DC police chief of detectives—phones in for two squad cars.

Ali reasons that the trespasser got to the house by climbing over the garage roof, breaking the door’s pane, reaching inside, and unlocking the door. Slowly and carefully, Alex enters the house. The others wait outside.

He enters the house, and then calls out, “Police!” He hears nothing. In the living room, he finds that all the gifts under the Christmas tree have been torn open, the gifts stolen. He hears a noise and runs upstairs. The window of his bedroom is open; the perpetrator is gone. The bedroom is a shambles. Worse, the lockboxes that contain his and Bree’s guns are gone.

With Alex and Bree, police scour the house while Ali and his siblings wait in the kitchen. The kids speculate about the burglar’s identity but don’t get very far.

Ali slips away, goes to the living room, and asks one of the Evidence Response Team members what they’re searching for. They’re tight-lipped, so Ali asks what he’d do about a missing person. One tech says he’d put the story on the police missing persons page, on Facebook, and elsewhere: “Social media can be your best friend in a case like that” (34). He also suggests canvassing the neighborhood where the person last was seen.

Ali’s dad comes downstairs, asking his son what he’s doing. The tech says the kid’s no bother, but Alex replies, “Oh, yes he is,” and says Ali soaks up mystery stories “like a sponge” (35). He tells Ali he can go upstairs and get some sleep. It’s Christmas morning.

Lying in bed, Ali feels shaken by the burglary. Even his police parents can’t protect the family from such crimes. He figures either someone wants to prove his father is a “dirty cop,” it’s a random street crime, or it’s connected to Gabe since the burglary happened right after Gabe’s disappearance.

Alex and Bree are still talking to a detective downstairs at 2:00am, so Ali sneaks halfway down and listens. He overhears that his parents’ guns have been stolen and that it’ll make the news. Alex says he has more reporters on his rear than a dog “has fleas,” which makes Ali giggle. Alex hears him, so Ali acts like he’s just coming down them.

He tells his father he can’t sleep and begs for information on the case. Alex sits with him on the stairs and says the burglary was one of a series of thefts around the neighborhood. Ali asks for more, but his dad gets stern, so Ali goes back to bed. Lying awake, he realizes his folks will have too much on their minds to put enough attention on the Gabe case. He’s no cop, but he feels he must do something to help his friend.

After the others go to bed, Alex stays up and reads the latest news on his assault case. One group, COP, or “Call Out the Police” (45), focuses on officers accused of crimes, and it releases a story that describes Alex’s Christmas Eve interaction outside his church with the press as a “meltdown.” Alex can take the abuse, but it’s hard on his family. The other suffering family is the Yangs, whose member, Stanley, lies in a coma on Christmas.

Alex has a plan to improve the situation. At dawn, his best friend, detective John Sampson, texts him saying he’s ready. Alex tiptoes outside, pulls a large red bag filled with gifts, and transfers it to Sampson’s car. They drive across DC to the Yang home, where Sampson sets the gift bag on the front porch, rings the bell, and darts back to the car. From there, they watch as the door opens, a girl in pajamas steps out, opens the bag, and cries, “Santa came!”