Read Online Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones by Andy Straka - Free Book Online Page A

knowing she and Tye were considered independent–even if it was an obvious move by Williamson to generate plausible deniability to protect himself and whoever else they were working for. She and Tye could refuse any mission for any reason they liked. That was sure different than any job she’d ever had working for Uncle Sam.
    The door finally opened. It was Hutchinson.
    “Yes?”
    She wore a pair of baggy sweatpants bearing the college logo and a sleeveless tee. Even without makeup she looked stunning.
    “Stacie Hutchinson?”
    “Yes?”
    “My name is Raina Sanchez, and this is Tye Palmer. We’re investigators and we wondered if you could spare a few minutes to answer some questions.”
    Raina flashed her Virginia private investigator’s picture ID and Tye did the same. Williamson had provided them with official-looking, laminated cards made up for each of them, exact duplicates of the real thing. He’d even gone so far as to somehow get their names listed in the Commonwealth’s PI database.
    “What’s this all about?”
    “Derek Kurn,” Raina said.
    “Derek?” Hutchinson stared at them for a moment.
    “You know him?”
    “Yeah. Sure. Everybody on campus knows who he is.”
    “You were with him at a party last weekend.”
    More staring. “Umm…yeah.” She ran her hand across her slender neck. “But what–?”
    “Do you mind if we come in, Ms. Hutchinson? We just have a couple of questions and we really don’t bite.”
    Hutchinson looked them up and down for moment, her gaze lingering for a moment on the slight ankle bulge in Raina’s jeans from her prosthetic foot, before making eye contact with them again.
    “Yeah, sure. Okay.” She opened the door wider and stepped to one side as Raina stepped awkwardly across the threshold followed by Tye.
    Raina’s first impression of the apartment was one of clean but chaotic housekeeping. There were some nice decorating touches to the place–a blue glass vase on a table and couple of modern paintings. But there were also baskets of dirty clothes lining the hallway wall.
    “It’s my roommate’s turn to do the laundry this week,” Hutchinson apologized. “The machine’s just next door in another building, but she hasn’t gotten around to doing it yet.”
    “Not a problem,” Raina said. She needed to do some laundry herself. “Is your roommate in?”
    “No. She had a class.” Hutchinson closed the door and led them through the foyer into a small living room containing a threadbare but still serviceable couch, a couple of rocking chairs, and a credenza with a small flat-screen TV. Lacy, makeshift curtains framed the windows. Not bad for college students on a budget, Raina thought. Hutchinson put a hand on one of the rocking chairs and motioned for Tye and Raina to take the couch.
    When they were all seated, Tye and Raina sitting forward on the edge of the sofa, Hutchinson said, “So you have questions about Derek. What did he do? Some kind of prank? He’s actually a pretty sweet guy underneath it all.”
    “Really.” She glanced over at Tye. “Underneath all what?”
    “Well, you know. Him being on the football team and his dad being such a celebrity and all…Sometimes he and some of the other guys feel like they have to put on this kind of front.”
    “Sure. Have you been dating him long?”
    “Oh, we’re not dating. I’ve seen him at a couple of parties and hung out with him.”
    “Okay. What else do you know about him? He ever mention his dad?”
    “Oh, yeah. He hates his dad. I mean, I think his dad treated him really badly growing up. Derek hardly ever saw Mr. Kurn while he was in prep school, his dad never even showed up to any of Derek’s games. But now that Derek’s on the team here at college and his dad’s this bigwig alumni, his dad’s started trying to talk to him and coming around more.”
    Raina looked at Tye for a moment, who was nodding, before looking back at Hutchinson. “You say you’ve hung out with him…Does