Read Online Tek Power by William Shatner - Free Book Online

$400 from an inner pocket and tossing it into the yawning folder. “I’ll be in touch, Charley.”
    The informant closed the folder. “ Hasta luego .”
    When Gomez emerged up on the street, the panhandling vet was no longer there. Even his crate was gone and the shops in the vicinity were all shut up. There was an uneasy silence hanging over the neighborhood.
    He became aware of a rumbling, rattling sound growing in the distance. From around a corner rolled a large landvan. It was painted a brilliant red and in a large white circle on its metal side was emblazoned a large black Nazi swastika. A second landvan, painted exactly like it, came rumbling in its wake.
    An amplified voice boomed out, “Looking for trouble, greaser?”
    â€œW HO GETS THE soyloaf grinder?” asked the gunmetal robot waiter.
    â€œThe lady,” Jake told him.
    â€œDone.” The waiter set down the plate. “And you must be having the nomeat meatball sandwich.”
    â€œExactly.”
    â€œEnjoy.” He went rolling off across the small shadowy dining room.
    â€œMy first name is Megan, by the way,” said the redhaired Miss McDonnell in her small voice. They were sitting in a booth at the back of Munsey’s Pub. There were fewer than thirty people in the booths and at the scattering of tables. Over near the bar two men in grey business suits were playing vidwall darts. “The food isn’t especially good, but nobody from the office ever comes here. That makes it a fairly safe location to talk, Mr. Cardigan.”
    â€œAnd you have something to talk about, Megan?”
    She lowered her voice. “About the man you’re looking for.”
    â€œDo you know where I can find the guy?”
    â€œFirst I need to know exactly why you’re hunting for him.”
    Jake said, “Has to do with Eve Bascom’s death. I think maybe he’s got some information about that.”
    She slumped, hands dropping into her lap. “I was afraid that’s what this was about,” she told him forlornly. “She’s going to keep hurting him even after she’s dead.”
    â€œI know he was involved with her at one time.”
    â€œYes, he was.” Her voice rose, grew louder. “That whore.”
    Jake rested an elbow on the tabletop. “What about you and Seagrove?”
    â€œWe’re friends,” she said. “Before he got embroiled with her, we were closer.”
    â€œHe wasn’t still seeing her, was he?”
    â€œNot, no, in the way he used to, not since she took to fooling around with young Maxfield,” answered Megan. “But she still took advantage of him, had him running errands, doing favors. I know she’s dead, but she was a dreadful bitch.”
    â€œAny idea who killed her?”
    â€œThe vidnews said it was an accident … but it wasn’t, was it?”
    â€œDon’t think so.”
    â€œThen he could be in danger, too.”
    â€œHe must think he is if he’s gone into hiding.”
    â€œYou—and your detective agency—you’re in a position to see that nothing bad happens to him.”
    â€œWe can protect him, yeah,” he assured her. “Unless he’s directly tied in to her murder.”
    â€œNo, he’s an innocent bystander. Well, innocent in the sense that he had nothing to do with her death.”
    Jake asked, “Where’s he hiding?”
    â€œWhen …” She began very quietly to cry. “Whenever he’s in trouble, he turns to me.”
    â€œI can help him get out of it,” he said. “Tell me where he is.”
    â€œConnecticut.” Her voice fell to a whisper. “In a town called Southport.” She gave him an address. “It’s a waterside house that belongs to my uncle.”
    â€œIs Seagrove there alone?”
    â€œYes, entirely. My uncle’s out in NorCal on an extended business trip.”
    â€œCan you contact