Attorney's Run (A Nick Teffinger Thriller / Read in Any Order) Read Online Free PDF

shrugged.
    “She’s my partner,” he said. “I can’t have those kinds of thoughts.”
    Venta took a sip of tea and said, “Here’s some stuff you’ll find out about me as time goes on. First, my P.I. practice is totally confidential, which means I’m not even going to tell you what I’m doing, much less ask you for help. Second, I will never, ever, either directly or indirectly, ask you for help or a favor in any way, shape or form. That’s not the way I operate. But most importantly, I would never put you in a compromising position. That wouldn’t be right of me. Or fair to you. I’ve never had any intention of anything like that happening and it never is going to happen, plain and simple.” She looked into his eyes. “Any questions?”
    He nodded.
    “Just one.”
    “Go ahead.”
    “Are you still addicted, or did I blow it?”
    She squeezed his hand.
    “I could use a fix right now, to tell you the truth.”

    10
    Day Two—June 12
    Tuesday Night
     
    JEKKER HUGGED THE PITCH-BLACK SHAPE of a thirty-foot Ponderosa pine in the backyard of a house, waiting for his little black-haired target—Tessa Blake—to show up. A sliver of moon floated in the east but didn’t throw enough light to expose him.
    Still, to be extra cautious, he wore a ski mask.
    The woman should show up any time now.
    He fingered the black hood in the left pocket of his sweatshirt. Once he got his knife to her throat, and tied the hood over her head, she’d calm down considerably.
    The plan was a pretty good one.
    Jekker drove around until he found a house for sale that looked like no one was living there. From a payphone he called Tessa Blake and said she was recommended by the people on Birch Street, where Jekker had followed her this morning in her Molly Maid car. He said he was a real estate agent by the name of Jim Hansen who needed a house dusted and vacuumed in preparation of a big showing tomorrow morning.
    “If I pay you direct, can you go over tonight?”
    They talked money, so much money that she said, “Okay, but don’t tell anyone.”
    “There’s a lockbox on the front door but someone took the key,” Jekker said. “What you need to do is go around to the back. We leave the sliding glass door unlocked.”
    “Okay.”
    “We’ll have some wallpapering going on until about nine,” he said. “But you can show up any time after that.”
    “Like, 9:30?”
    “That’ll work,” Jekker said. “I’ll leave the money in an envelope on the top cabinet to the right of the kitchen sink.”
    “Okay.”
    “Thanks. I really appreciate it. And please do a good job. This is really important.”
    That was this afternoon.
    Now it was 9:28 p.m.
    Suddenly headlights flickered up the street.
    Game time.
     
    A VEHICLE PULLED INTO THE DRIVEWAY, the engine stopped and the headlights went off. A car door opened and shut. A trunk opened and shut. Thirty seconds later a dark shape came around the rear corner of the house. As best as Jekker could tell, the woman carried a vacuum cleaner in one hand and an oversized bag in the other, no doubt filled with paper towels and cleaning products.
    Jekker left his hiding spot at exactly the right time and approached with coffin-quiet steps.
    The woman didn’t have a clue, even as he closed the last five feet.
    He brought his left hand from behind and clamped her mouth shut while he brought the knife to her throat with his other hand. “Don’t make a sound!” he warned.
    She froze.
    He held her tight, immobile, until his gut told him that she had decided not to do anything stupid, then he put the hood over her head. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “This is so you don’t see my face. That way I’ll be able to release you again. Do you understand?”
    “Yes.”
    “Good,” he said. “You’re doing just fine. All this will be over in a minute. Put your hands behind your back.”
    She did.
    He pulled out the rope.
    “All you have to do is cooperate and nothing bad will