Tek Money Read Online Free

young lady.”
    â€œNeed me?”
    â€œNot yet.”
    Nodding slowly, giving Janine a sideways look, Dan slipped back inside the apartment.
    â€œI didn’t know,” mentioned Jake as he straddled a neowood chair, “that Pete had a sister.”
    â€œStepsister.”
    â€œHow old are you?”
    â€œWhat the hell does that have to do with your finding out who murdered him?”
    â€œNot a damn thing actually. Just curious.”
    She sighed, sniffling once. “I’m twenty one, okay,” she said, touching at the pocket that held the gun. “I’m a vid actress—sometimes anyway, whenever my dimwitted agents can dig me up some work. That’s part of what we have to talk over, Cardigan.”
    Jake said nothing, watching her.
    â€œWhat I mean is,” continued the dead man’s sister, “I can’t pay the kind of fee that Bascom and the Cosmos Detective Agency asks for.”
    â€œYou know, huh, who I work for?”
    â€œObviously, for Christ’s sake. I didn’t come to you just because my brother happened to die in your vicinity,” she told him. “Peter told me about you. That you were fairly honest and that he trusted you.”
    â€œYou sound as though you, maybe, don’t share in that appraisal of me.”
    She tilted her head to the left, studying him. Dan had left the floor lights on and the shadows beneath her eyes and cheekbones showed deep and sooty. “Not completely yet,” she admitted finally. “You look trustworthy on the outside, but inside—who can tell?”
    He grinned. “Gather yourself up and go home, then.”
    â€œNo, I’ll go on what my brother felt about you for now,” Janine told him. “What I want you to do—Well, I’m pretty sure you can persuade that vindictive bitch who used to be his wife to finance an investigation into Peter’s death.”
    â€œYou didn’t study diplomacy in school. Not a good idea to label people you’re trying to get money out of as vindictive bitches.”
    â€œC’mon, Cardigan, you know damned well Amy St. Mars is a nasty shrew.” She crossed her legs, uncrossed them, crossed them again. The knees were sharp, with too little flesh to them. “When you go to her, you obviously won’t mention my true feelings or yours.”
    â€œYou’re suggesting that I lie and dissemble? That would tarnish my trustworthy image, wouldn’t it?”
    â€œLook, Cardigan, there’s being twenty one and then there’s being twenty one,” she said slowly, angry. “The life I’ve led—Let’s just say I’m not especially naive. I know you have to con people to get what you want. Now, please, let’s get back to business.”
    â€œI don’t think, Miss Traynor, we’re going to be doing any business.”
    â€œHey, I’m offering you a case. A goddamned job.”
    â€œNope, you’re telling me to go try and beg a fee off Pete’s widow,” he corrected. “Now, if you know as much about their relationship as you ought to, you know that Amy wouldn’t pay ten bucks to keep wild dogs from pissing on his grave. She sure as hell isn’t going to hire Cosmos and pay our kind of fees.”
    â€œShe’s got millions.”
    â€œPeople who have millions have millions, most of them, because they’re extremely careful about how they spend any of those millions.” He got up from his chair, wandered over to the deck rail to look out toward the dark ocean. “That’s been my experience.”
    She left the slingchair and came to stand at his side. It was still warm, but she shuddered now and hugged herself. “I figured out where he died,” she said, pointing. “Right about there.”
    â€œMore or less.”
    â€œAren’t you at all interested in what happened to him?” she asked quietly. “He was your