The Devil's Assassin Read Online Free Page A

this trap in any case. I do wonder what he was doing in your
house though.”
    Jay, who doesn’t want his friend
to appear foolish to his colleagues, intercepts the statement. “He was pretty
hungry when I got here, June. He may just have been looking for food. I looked
at his teeth while he was eating. He appears to be an herbivore.”
    The teeth of this creature
intrigue Van Houten all of a sudden and he moves in to see if he can get a
glimpse of them. Jay joins him near the cage. June moves a little closer to
Linus.
    “Where’s this pet you say that he
threatened?”
    “In the dining
room.”
    “Can I see him?”
    Linus doesn’t answer, but leads
the way up the stairs to the dining room. From the dining room, June looks at
the tree against a wall of the living room and realizes that it is fake . It reminds her of a banyan tree she had seen in
Florida. She notices the Nautilus and the Jersey Devil picture on the
wall.
    “Ah,” she says. “The
Jersey Devil. I’ve always liked that story. How does it go? Ah yes, Mrs.
Shrouds was pregnant with her thirteenth child and with a fed-up slip of the
tongue said that ‘It may as well be the devil.’ The child was born some months
later with the head of a horse, bat-like wings, a tail, and horns. She screamed
and supposedly it flew away up her chimney. It’s haunted the Pine Barrens since
then, eating mostly small animals, dogs, cats, pigs, but on occasion, people.”
    Linus is impressed but does his
best to show he is not. “Nice. It’s the head of a goat, though, not a horse.
That’d be too big for its body.”
    June smiles and chuckles softly
and turns to the dining room to see the big cage and the lemur. She is almost
as surprised as she was after seeing the creature. “Oh, a
ring-tailed lemur! You don’t see that every day. He’s so cute. What’s
his name?”
    “Sava,” says Linus.
    “Unusual. I like it. How did you
come to have a lemur?”
    “Actually, it’s a long story. I
can tell you some other time.”
    “Oh. Yes. That’s fine.” There is
silence for a moment as they look at the lemur. “What makes you think that Sava
was threatened by that animal?”
    “Because I saw
it on video. My surveillance cameras
recorded it.”
    From what she has seen, June
thinks it isn’t very surprising that this man has surveillance cameras. He is
odd in many ways. “Of course. Well, may we see them?”
    “Not at the moment. It seems that
I’ve accidentally recorded over it. I’m hoping it’s recoverable.”
    “I see. Then how
about this weapon that you saw the animal brandishing? Where is that?”
    “Like I told Van Holder a minute
ago, I haven’t seen it.”
    The silence this time is
uncomfortable, but June moves to fill it quickly. “Of course we’ll keep in mind
what you say about the animal, Mr. Hather. But without any evidence to the
contrary I’d have to say he looks pretty harmless, and according to Jay, he has
an herbivore’s teeth.”
    Linus is exasperated because he
knows that every person in his house has the exact opposite opinion of the
creature than he does. “All I want, Ms. Dituro is that caution be taken. He is
dangerous. I’m sorry I don’t have any evidence to show you right now, but he
was on his way into my bedroom, in the dark of night. You can see that. What do
you think he was up to?”
    June reply is tinged with anger.
“Give us some credit, Mr. Hather. We’re objective scientists. We don’t need
laypeople telling us to be careful. We know our job. If he’s dangerous, we’ll
determine that and I’ll be the first to let you know.”
    Linus goes into the kitchen, a
little angry himself. June follows him.
    “You want some coffee?” he asks
her gruffly.
    “Sure. Thanks.”
    Linus reaches into a cupboard to
get a couple of mugs and pulls out six, figuring he might as well pour everyone
some coffee while he is there. He goes to the pot and brings it to the mugs on
the table and begins pouring.
    “So what’s going to