Urban Prey by S. J. Lewis Read Free Book Online Page B

Kreuger. It looked like a professional had done it. He wanted to study her face a bit, especially those big, dark eyes, but it would have felt awkward with Carla sitting there. He turned to the next page. It read like a resume, giving the bare facts and some of the statistics. Sometimes they helped, and sometimes they didn’t. There had been nothing in Elf-Girl’s file to warn him how hard she would be to catch, how difficult she would be to break, or how thoroughly and sweetly submissive she would become.
    “You’ve seen her?” Carla asked.
    “Yes. Hines knew where she was going to be, and he took me there for a look. I wasn’t the only one there looking. Do you have any idea why it’s so important that we bring her in?”
    “No,” Carla shrugged. “Not really. She’s not a society type. She has friends, but not so many as to serve as a network to spread the word of the services we offer. She’s not that well-known either.”
    “I’m told she’s been in the city for a while.”
    “Yes, that’s true. She’s staying in a first-class hotel that prides itself on keeping its guests safe and secure. We can’t get in there. We’ve tried.”
    “Have you made any attempts to grab her?”
    “Two,” Carla admitted. The first one had to be called off because there were too many people around. The second one,” she shrugged, “she went a different way than they were expecting and they missed her completely.”
    “It sounds to me like she’s making it difficult.”
    “She is,” Carla sighed. “At first, we thought it was just bad luck, all those people being there. Since then, we’ve concluded that she’s playing games with us. She doesn’t keep to any set routine. If she leaves her hotel, and she does that a lot, it’s always at different times and always to go to a different place than she went last time. The only common denominator is that there’s always lots of people around. She doesn’t use taxis, so there’s no chance of getting her into a cab driven by one of our people.”
    “How does she get around, then?”
    “Buses, usually. She doesn’t use the subways at all. If her destination isn’t too far away, she’ll walk.”
    “No private limo service?”
    “No,” Carla shook her head. “We’ve already looked into that.”
    “Any idea why she’s making it so difficult?”
    “Some people think she’s decided she doesn’t really want to do it after all. Women do change their minds, you know.” Carla laughed. “But her contract has a forfeiture clause. If she leaves before our window closes, she forfeits what she paid. If our time runs out, and we haven’t gotten her, she gets a full refund. So maybe she’s just hanging around trying to run out the clock.”
    Ron turned another page. There was a short bio of their subject, but it was as sterile as everything else he’d read so far.
    “Is that the general consensus?” he asked.
    “Pretty much,” Carla nodded. “This is something completely new to us. What do you think?”
    Ron mused for a moment. “That forfeiture deal. Just how much money are we talking about?”
Carla told him. It was a fair chunk of change, but if this Kreuger woman was as well off as the file said, it was something she could walk away from without too much pain. He pointed this out.
    “Yes, we know that,” Carla said. “But she’s also a pretty savvy businesswoman, so we thought she was probably trying to recoup her investment.”
    “There’s another possibility,” Ron told her.
    “What might that be?”
    “She’s not making it easy for you. But she hasn’t left town, either. If she was just trying to run out the clock, she could just as easily stay safe in the hotel, right?”
    “I suppose,” Carla shrugged. “But that would be kind of boring, wouldn’t it? Nothing to do all day?”
    “I think she could stand that if it was just a matter of the money. But from what I’ve been told she goes out every day, right?”
    “Yes. She’s