Deliverance Read Online Free PDF Page B

paycheck.”
    “They do know he’s dead, right?”
    Hound sighed. “The police aren’t certain of that. Now they say it looks like Arnie needed to get out of the country fast and wanted people to think he was dead.”
    “Meaning somebody was after him and he sent the hat and note to me himself. I can’t believe he wouldn’t have asked me for help if that was the case.”
    “You might have it wrong. Maybe the bad guys made it look like you were the one after him. Arnie was too scared to approach you. He didn’t know who to trust.”
    Maliha shook her head. “We’ve got to find him, if he’s still alive. Whatever his problem is, we can . . .”
    “Make it go away?”
    Maliha nodded. “Or find out who killed him and why.”
    “One more thing. Arnie’s financial holdings were liquidated and sent to a private Swiss bank account.”
    “Interesting. Maybe he really is out there, living off the grid,” Maliha said. “I’d sure like to think so. That note creeped me out, though. ‘The first one rests in peace.’ The only way I can interpret it is that there would be more deaths. Why would Arnie write that if he was behind this?”
    Hound shrugged. “Who knows? To make a convincing disappearance. Say he was trying to make it look like a sociopath had written the note.” Hound latched onto a thought, his brows furrowing. “Maybe he is a sociopath.”
    “Oh, I can’t believe that.”
    “I’d be happy to hop down to Antigua to look around for him.” His face took on a hopeful look.
    “I’m sure you would.” Hound’s smile disappeared. “Did Arnie actually board that plane or just buy a ticket as a ruse? Amaro’s coming in later. Let’s see what his electronic approach turns up.”
    When Amaro arrived later that day, he brought news on the key Lucius had given her—the one that supposedly led to the hiding place of the third shard. The three friends pounced on the search for Arnie and the latest about the key, and that left Maliha with time on her hands until there was something actionable.
    She decided to make herself useful.
    She dressed wanting to be prepared for anything and opted for her leathers. She tied her hair in a thick braid, with a black silk scarf wound around her head. Flexing the skintight black gloves on her hands, she moved toward her weapons collection.
    The cache was in a small room that served as an armory for the team. In her private haven, nine floors up, there was an entire wall devoted to displaying weapons openly. With the possibility of visitors down here, the goodies were locked out of sight.
    She ran her hands over knives, swords, guns, and axes. The gleam of the two sai caught her eye. They were three-pronged edged weapons with the middle prong longer than the other two. She’d made leather sheaths for when she didn’t want to wear them tucked through her belt. Strapping them on her back, she was pleased that the handles didn’t show over her shoulders. From the front, she looked like an unarmed, though oddly dressed, woman.
    Maliha was all curves and sharp edges, like a sexy porcupine. She went out through the main lobby faster than any human could run. Chick, if he was still on duty, would have to be broken in slowly to the idea of her leaving at night in this type of garb. Maliha slowed her pace as she ran along the lakefront. It was Friday night, a good time to visit nightclubs near Division Street. Her scene wasn’t the clubs, but the dark alleyways where muggers could lurk.
    The temperature was mild for a December night, probably in the upper forties. It was 1:30 A.M. , and the district was pulsing with life. Cabs turned the street into a traffic jam, accompanied by the shouts and gestures of cabbies with their windows open. The target of their animosity was generally the suburbanites who’d driven their cars downtown, but sometimes they railed at each other as one cab slipped in front of another with an inch to spare. Music poured from the crowded bars and