Live Wire by Harlan Coben Read Free Book Online

have guessed, the camera is now off. So that’s the official record—you leaving of your own accord, relatively unharmed. We also have witnesses who will state that you assaulted them, that our response was proportional to the threat you posed, that you initiated the ruckus. We have longtime club patrons and employees who will pretty much sign any statement we put in front of them. No one will back up any claim you have. Any questions?”
    “Just one,” Myron said. “Did you really use the word ‘ruckus’?”
    Kyle stayed with the grin. “Defense mechanism,” he said again.
    The three men spread out, fists tightened, muscles at the ready. Myron moved a little farther into the corner.
    “So what’s your plan here, Kyle?” Myron asked.
    “It’s pretty simple, Myron. We are going to hurt you. How badly depends on how much you resist. At best, you’re going to end up hospitalized. You will be pissing blood for a while. We may break a bone or two. But you will live and probably recover. If you resist, I will use the stun gun to paralyze you. It will be very painful. And then your beating will be longer and more savage. Am I making myself clear?”
    They started to inch closer. Their hands flexed. One cracked his neck. Kleavage Kyle actually took off his jacket. “I don’t want to get it dirty,” he explained. “What with the blood stains and all.”
    Myron pointed lower. “What about your pants?”
    Kyle was topless now. He did that flex thing where you make your pecs dance. “Don’t worry about them.”
    “Oh, but I do,” Myron said.
    Then, as the men inched closer, Myron smiled and crossed his arms. The move made the men pause. Then Myron said, “Did I tell you about my new BlackBerry? The GPS feature? The two-way satellite radio? It all works when you press one button.”
    “Your BlackBerry,” Kyle said, “is off.”
    Myron shook his head and made a buzzing noise as though he had heard the wrong answer on a game show. Win’s voice came from the BlackBerry’s tinny speaker: “No, Kyle, I’m afraid it’s not.”
    The three men stopped.
    “So let me explain the situation,” Myron said, doing his best Kyle singsong, “so even you’ll understand. The button you have to press to activate all the newfangled features? You guessed it: It’s the off button. In short, everything that’s been said has been recorded. Plus the GPS is on. How far away are you, Win?”
    “Heading through the club entrance now. I also activated the three-way caller. Esperanza’s on the line on mute. Esperanza?”
    The mute button was clicked off. The club music came through the phone speaker. Esperanza said, “I’m by the side door where they dragged Myron out. Oh, and guess what? I found an old friend here, a police officer named Roland Dimonte. Say hi to my friend Kyle, Rolly.”
    The male voice said, “I better see Bolitar’s ugly, untouched mug out here in thirty seconds, asswipe.”
    It took more like twenty.
     
     
    “It might not have been her,” Myron said.
    It was two A.M. by the time Myron and Win got back to the Dakota. They sat in a room rich people called “a study,” with Louis the Something wood furniture and marble busts and a large antique globe and bookshelves with leather-bound first editions. Myron sat in a burgundy chair with gold buttons on the arm. By the time things had calmed down at the club, Kitty had vanished, if she’d ever been there in the first place. Lex and Buzz had cleared out too.
    Win opened a leather-bound first-edition false front bookcase to reveal a refrigerator. He grabbed a Yoo-hoo chocolate drink and tossed it to Myron. Myron caught it, and reading the directions—“Shake It!”—did just that. Win opened the decanter and poured himself an exclusive cognac called, interestingly enough, The Last Drop.
    “I could have been wrong,” Myron said.
    Win lifted his snifter and checked it against the light.
    “I mean, it’s been sixteen years, right? Her hair was a