The Stein & Candle Detective Agency, Vol. 2: Cold Wars (The Stein & Candle Detective Agency #2) Read Online Free Page A

ma’am,” Weatherby replied, licking his dry lips.
    Selena gave Tanya an angry glare and the secretary smiled back. I guess Selena didn’t like that blonde fox stalking her baby brother. “Come along, Weatherby,” she said. “You need your rest.” She steered him down the hall, leaving me alone with Tanya.
    The secretary stepped closer slowly, stopping inches away from me. “What about you, big guy?” she asked. “You got some big sister to keep me away from you?”
    “Not that I know of,” I replied.
    “Then how about hopping down to my room. Mr. Pepperdine let me keep a suite on the top floor. It’s got all the right furnishings. Very tasteful.” She spoke slowly and softly. I was very interested. She turned and started walking away, giving me quite a show. I followed. We headed down the stairs, and then reached her room.
    Like she said, it was an ultra-modern room, everything sleek and white. A few Tiki sculptures rested on the nightstand and bookshelves. A pair of sat rested in the corner. I paused to look at them. There were some suitcases lying open on the ground too.
    “You planning a trip, sweetheart?” I wondered.
    Tanya shrugged. “I don’t think Mrs. Pepperdine likes having me around. So I guess I’ll go out again, just a lonely little girl.” She approached me slowly, her hands on her hips. “All alone in the world.” She reached out a palm and rested it on my chest. “Isn’t that just awful?”
    “Yeah,” I said. She was playing me like a piano, and I was glad to be the keys under her fingers.
    “Mr. Candle – I don’t want to be alone tonight.” She wrapped her arms my neck and pulled close to me. Her kiss was a promise. She pulled away slowly, and then smiled. “Why don’t you step into the bathroom, while I slip into something more comfortable?”
    “I take the bathroom?” I asked.
    She shrugged. “I’m a little claustrophobic, Morton. I guess I just don’t like small things.”
    “All right.” I went to the small bathroom, in the corner of her room, and closed the door. I leaned against the tiled wall, opposite the toilet and folded my arms. I heard Tanya humming past the door — hopefully as she changed.
    Something cut through all my usual thoughts like a knife. It was the gleam of pearls around her neck, which I had seen somewhere before. The answer appeared to me suddenly, just as I noticed the tiki idol resting on top of the crapper. It was an octopus, the tentacles reaching up around a bulbous body. Too late, I realized it was an Aumkua of the same variety that had killed Horace Pepperdine.
    Before I could get everything straight in my head, the toilet seat flipped open. A long tentacle lashed out, quick as a striking whip, and fastened itself firmly around my throat. It was a big tentacle, glistening and mottled green. The suckers dug into my flesh, each one a tiny mouth trying to swallow me whole. I grabbed the slick surface of the tentacle as the wind left me. It dragged me down, slamming my skull against the porcelain of the toilet seat.
    I saw red, my vision blurring as my breath left my body. I fumbled out, grappling with the tentacle as it choked the life out of me. I closed my eyes, seeing only darkness as I tried to grab hold of my automatics or the Ka-Bar in my boot. I doubted I could reach either one in time.
    Someone was pounding on the door and shouting. It sounded very far away, and I didn’t realize who it was. Then the door was slammed open, and I opened my eyes to see Weatherby staring at me, Tanya trying to drag him back. Selena was there too, and she grabbed Tanya’s arm and pulled her away. Weatherby reached into his coat.
    I saw a spray of some kind of ash leave his hand and reach the tentacle in a gray shower. The tentacle finally released my throat, leaving me to sink to the ground. I gasped as I sucked in air. The tentacle shriveled like a slug hit with salt. It tucked back into the toilet, its prey gone. It vanished in a matter of