Azrael by William L. Deandrea Read Free Book Online

wanted someone better than competent, with enough imagination to understand what I’m talking about. I asked around, and every reporter and source I spoke to told me that was you.”
    The Rines on tape grunted noncommittally.
    “Of course, I’ve heard of you on my own, too. I used to know Liz Fane slightly. We were at the same school for a while, and I know that when she was kidnapped, you were the one who got her back.”
    This time the Rines in the room grunted. Rines had gotten the credit for that one, and as far as Trotter was concerned, he was welcome to it. It might not have been modesty, acknowledging that Trotter and some other of his father’s agents had done most of the work in that case, that had caused Rines to make the noise. It might have been the knowledge that if he hadn’t been assigned to the Liz Fane case and learned everything there had been to learn, he might not now be in the Congressman’s clutches.
    The tape rolled on. Regina Hudson told of the series of deaths in her town and how the phone call had come at the end of the third one. The telegram read over the line, signed Cronus.

Chapter Seven
    T ROTTER SAID, “AH.”
    “Ah is right,” Rines said. “You can’t see it on the tape, and she didn’t notice, but I have just turned purple.”
    “I can imagine. But tell me later, she’s still talking.”
    “Of course,” the young woman went on, “when I saw how Mother took it, I checked with Western Union, trying to see who this Cronus was. They had no record of any such telegram.”
    “Anybody can pick up a phone and say they’re from Western Union,” the recorded Rines said. He did sound a bit distracted.
    Regina Hudson was nodding. “That’s why I checked.”
    “Well,” Rines told her. “It seems as if someone has pulled a hoax on you, or on your mother through you. What makes you think it’s a matter for the FBI?”
    “The way my mother has taken this. I mean, she started acting strange about seven months or so ago, hiring a bodyguard, trying to get me to move back home. Now she’s positively paranoid. One night I thought I was followed home from work and later saw someone watching the house. I called the police, and the man turned out to be a private detective hired by my mother to ‘watch out’ for me.”
    “Your mother is afraid.”
    She leaned forward in her chair, dropping for a second the pose of sophistication. “She’s petrified, Mr. Rines. No pun intended. I think that fake telegram was a threat—and not the first one, either—something only my mother would understand.”
    “It would be stretching things to look into this even if your mother came to us herself ...”
    Trotter said, “What are you, nuts?”
    Rines said, “I was playing her, Trotter. Did you think I’d chase a lead to Cronus off?”
    Damn well better not, Trotter thought, but said nothing.
    Regina Hudson was frankly pleading now. “There must be some way you could look into this. Judging from my mother’s actions, the threat has to be directed, at least part of it, at my brother and me. For an official report, I could make it a blatant kidnapping threat.”
    “I wouldn’t have you lie, even if there were to be an official report.”
    Regina Hudson sat up straight in her chair, and for the first time Trotter got a good look at her face. Cold, angry, and lovely. And, if what he was thinking was right, she was, in a way more fundamental than biology, his sister. He’d made a promise to himself to help them, the other children of Cronus, whenever he had a chance. His father’s testing him had been a waste of time. There was no way to keep Trotter out of this one.
    There was more to the tape. Miss Hudson said, “I see,” and started to get to her feet. “Sorry to have wasted your time.”
    Rines’s voice was very quiet. “I didn’t say we couldn’t help you.”
    She sat back down and looked at him.
    “I just said there would be no official report.”
    “I don’t understand,” she