Read Online The Alpha Deception by Jon Land - Free Book Online

Mrs. Brandywine?”
    “Why?”
    “To discuss possible settings for the crystals.”
    “Oh, yes.” She started the door inward to unfasten the chain. “Certainly.”
    The door open, she bid Blaine to enter. He saw she was frail and wrinkled, her body hunched over. She was hardly the type he’d expect to be a second-floor customer of Erich Earnst and well known in the diamond district to boot. She wore a long dark dress with a shawl covering her shoulders.
    “It’s so nice to have company. If only I could find Kitty. Here, Kitty,” she called. “Here, Kitty… .”
    Blaine followed her through the huge marble foyer to a set of double doors. She thrust them open to reveal a grand wood-paneled library dominated by shelves of leatherbound books.
    “I feed her in here. Sometimes she hides.” She walked in, eyes peering about, voice higher. “Here, Kitty. I’m getting your dinner ready. It’s your favorite. Here, Kitty. Oh, where is that damn cat!”
    “Mrs. Brandywine,” McCracken started, “if you could spare a few minutes… .”
    “What’d you say your name was?”
    “McCracken.”
    “First or last?”
    “Last.”
    “You have cats, McCracken?”
    “No.”
    “Don’t. More bother than they’re worth.” She moved to an elegant brass-legged glass table with an antique bowl atop it and a can of cat food resting alongside. Leaning over, she began to spoon its contents into the bowl. “She’ll smell the food and come running. That’s my best hope. Here, Kitty.”
    “Mrs. Brandywine, about the setting …”
    She swung toward him. “Yes. Wanted to make a collar for Kitty. Something different. Fell in love with the crystals at first glance. Just the kind of thing I had in mind.”
    “The expense didn’t bother you?”
    “Why should it?” She was spooning again now, tapping the last of the can’s contents out onto the side of the antique bowl. “Here, Kitty!”
    Blaine kept himself patient. “The crystals, Mrs. Brandywine, did you tell anyone else about them?”
    “Just Kitty. She was very happy. Didn’t run away for a week afterwards. Damn cat. Why do I bother?”
    “Was there anyone else?”
    She eyed him sharply. “Anyone else what?”
    “That you discussed the crystals with.”
    “Who else would be interested? Don’t get out much anymore you know.” She was mixing the cat food up now. “Here, Kitty!”
    “How did you get into the city the day you visited our shop?”
    Lydia Brandywine had to stop and think. “My driver. Victor.”
    “Where is he?”
    “With the car. I call him when I need him.”
    Blaine felt he might be on to something. “Do you have his number?”
    “Somewhere.”
    “Did he ask you about the crystals when he drove you home from the parlor?”
    “Kitty doesn’t talk much,” said Lydia Brandywine. “Sometimes, but not much. Ah, here she comes now… .”
    McCracken had time only to register the fact that the padding of approaching paws was too loud and out of place. He swung, too late his eyes told him, and he froze in his tracks.
    Kitty was a black panther.
    The big cat opened its mouth and snarled from deep in its throat.
    “You’re carrying a gun,” said Lydia Brandywine, no longer interested in the cat food and suddenly quite in command of her faculties. “I saw the bulge. Reach into your belt and pull it out slowly. Move too fast and she’ll lunge. Don’t challenge her.”
    As if to reinforce the old woman’s words, the big cat snarled again and whipped its paw through the air, claws bared. A single lunge away, a lunge that could be covered in the shadow of an instant. Blaine slid the pistol he’d lifted from one of the 47th Street assassins out of his holster and let it drop to the floor.
    “Very good, Mr. McCracken,” Lydia Brandywine said. “Now slide it over here.” When he had, she stooped to retrieve it, all the while keeping her eyes on him. “Now move backward very slowly and settle yourself in that chair. Remember, slowly, and keep