Caribbean Hustle (A Nick Teffinger Thriller / Read in Any Order) Read Online Free Page A

you.”

    9
    Day Two
    June 5
    Thursday Afternoon
     
    Deep down Teffinger had to admit that the words— He was looking right at you —were unsettling, but not because there was someone behind Kovi-Ke’s eyes looking at him. That wasn’t possible. What was possible, however, is that Kovi-Ke was turning her plan tighter on Teffinger, getting closer to killing him. The so-called vision was nothing more than a ruse to try to shift the blame to someone else now that the act was approaching.
    In a way that was good.
    Station wasn’t the target.
    Teffinger was.
    Station was safe.
    On second thought, that might not be totally true. Kovi-Ke might kill Station as a way to pretend that there really was a killer in town.
    Damn it.
    Every time Teffinger thought he had it figured out, it twisted away. He’d wrestled greased strippers that weren’t half as slippery.
     
    His phone rang and a man’s voice came through, “Long time, huh?” Teffinger vaguely recognized the intonation but couldn’t place it. “You don’t know who this is?”
    “No.”
    “Wow, I’m crushed. I thought I owned a bigger part of your brain than that.”
    “So who am I talking to?”
    “Time, that’s the thing to be most afraid of. Time makes everything fade. It turns everything to shadows. The secret is to always be replacing the old things with new ones. Keep the colors bright. Keep the sounds crisp. That’s what I’m doing, replacing the old things with new ones.”
    “Tarzan?”
    “There you go,” the man said. “Now it’s starting to come back. Congratulations on the GQ cover. You’re looking good. It reminded me that we hadn’t talked for a long time. Let’s get a beer sometime. My treat.”
    The connection died.
     
    The number was blocked. Teffinger dialed Sydney, explained what just happened and talked to her about seeing if forensics could figure out where the call came from; the number, the geographical location, whatever their magic could get.
    “They might need your phone.”
    “Let me know.”
    He hung up.
     
    “What’s going on?”
    The words came from Kovi-Ke.
    “That was Tarzan.”
    “They same one as this morning?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s weird. Is he in Denver?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “He must be,” she said.
    “Why?”
    “It’s too much of a coincidence that you go into his place in the morning and then get a call from him in the afternoon. He must have seen you.”
    Teffinger chewed on it.
    It had no taste.
    “There’s no reason for him to be anywhere near his old place,” he said. “We’ve already scoured it. So has the FBI.”
    “You missed something,” she said.
    “That’s not possible.”
    “You missed something important enough for him to come back for it.”
    “Like what?”
    “I don’t know.”
     
    Suddenly she gasped.
    Her face tensed.
    Her body froze.
    “I’m in his head!” she said. “I’m seeing out his eyes.”
    “Right now?”
    “He’s walking. He’s following a blond woman. She’s about thirty steps in front of him,” she said. “I think it’s Station, but how could it be? She never left the building. I’ve been right here all afternoon.”
    “What’s she wearing?”
    “A black T-shirt and white shorts,” she said.
    “That’s not what she was wearing this morning.”
    “Wait! Yes, it’s her. It’s definitely her. She just stopped. She’s looking in a window. She’s taking off her sunglasses to see something better. The man has stopped. He’s looking around. The buildings are high. They must be right around here somewhere.”
    “Are there shuttle-buses?”
    “Yes.”
    “That’s the 16 th Street Mall.”
    “She’s walking again,” she said. “So is he. She’s crossing a street. The sign says California.”
    “That’s definitely the mall.”
    “Whoa!”
    “What happened?”
    “She almost got hit! A red car just slammed to a stop and almost took her out! I’m looking at the driver. It’s a white girl, a teenager with punk hair—pink.