Read Book 05 - Dread Brass Shadows for Free Online Page B

this wasn't a match made in heaven. She was smoldering, but that wasn't my fault. That, was just her being her. Whoever she was. "Well?"
    "I need someone to find something for me."
    "That's what I do. Find things. But sometimes people are sorry when I do."
    She just sat there heating the place up while I started to sweat. I turned sideways and studied Eleanor out of the corner of my eye. A tall, cool, slim, ethereal blonde, Eleanor has what it takes to bring me back to earth. I talk to Eleanor when no one else will listen. She's my rock in turbulent seas. I wondered what the real Eleanor would think if she knew how I used her portrait. I didn't think she'd mind.
    The redhead asked, "Is that someone special?"
    "Yes. Her name was Eleanor Stantnor. She was the wife of a client. I never really met her. He murdered her twenty years before he hired me. All he got for his trouble was found out for his old crime. I took the painting for my fee. Yeah. She's special. And if she was around, she'd be as old as my mother. But I'd probably fall in love with her anyway." I faced the redhead. "Let's get down to it."
    "Have I come at a bad time?"
    "You've come at the perfect rime. You're almost a ringer for a friend of mine somebody tried to kill out front yesterday. I have a feeling you could maybe shed some light on why."
    She started to say something. What I'd said sank in. Her mouth made an 0. Her eyes got even bigger. She started to get up, sank back, shook fetchingly.
    "My friend's name is Tinnie Tate. She never hurt anybody. She's got hair like yours and she's about your height. A little less rounded, here and there, near as I can tell from here, but not enough so anyone could make a case of it. She was coming to see me when some scumbag stuck a knife in her. For no damned reason I could figure till I got a look at you."
    "Oh, my," she breathed. "I've got to get out of here. He knows. I've got to go."
    "You aren't going anywhere, sweetheart. Not till I know what the hell is going on."
    She just sat there oh-mying and heating up the room. I thought about having Dean throw cold water on her, but that would just steam the place up and cause the wallpaper to peel. I said, "Tinnie getting hurt makes me mad. Some other guys, too. Some bad people. Rich people. Her people. They want blood. You look like a gal who knows how to take care of herself. Maybe you wouldn't want to get caught in the middle of all those angry people."
    Her pretty little face turned puzzled.
    Was I trying to scare her? You bet I was.
    She just said, "Oh," like it wasn't very important.
    "I figure the guy who stuck Tinnie thought he was getting you." Sure, I was fishing. You don't throw out a hook, you never get a nibble. "That's the only way it makes any sense. He mistook her for somebody else. So let's you and me get to the point." I got up and walked around the desk.
    "I made a mistake coming here." She started to get up.
    I sat her down. "You made your mistake when you told somebody somewhere that you were thinking about coming here. That worried somebody. He tried to off my lady. Spill. I'm not in a good mood anymore."
    Actually, I was being gentle. I had the Dead Man across the hall. All I needed to do was keep her mind frothing so he could get at anything interesting in there.
    She tried to get up again. I sat her down with more force. She looked more irritated than scared. That didn't fit.
    "The story, lady. Maybe starting with your name."
    She looked down at her hands. Man, those were fine hands.
    "My name is Carla Lindo Ramada. I'm a chambermaid in the home hold of Lord Baron Cleon Stonecipher."
    "Never heard of him." But if all his help looked like this, I'd consider relocating. "Out of town, I take it. What about this baron?"
    "He's kind of at the edge of the story. He's about two hundred years old and just lies in bed waiting to die. Only he has a curse on him. He can't. He just keeps getting older. But that's not important. The witch is. The one that put the