Kiera Hudson & The Lethal Infected Read Free Page B

and sipping from the Coke bottle.
    “Lois Li runs the agency, right?” I asked. I tried to keep my voice even-tempered and friendly, like we were having nothing more than chit-chat, but I think we both knew it was more than that.
    “Right,” Phebe said.
    “Do you know how I can get in contact with her?” I asked.
    “You have a number for her?”
    “Yes, I’ve tried to call but I got no answer,” I explained.
    “Perhaps you should try again,” Phebe smiled, before taking another swig of Coke. 
    I stood and watched her as I drank from my own bottle. The liquid was black and sweet. “And what if I can’t get hold of this Lois Li?”
    “Speak to Murphy,” Phebe said, nursing her bottle. “He deals with the newbies around here.”
    “Have there been any other newbies recently?” I pushed as carefully as I could.
    “They come and go all the time,” Phebe said. “I lose count.”
    “But there only seems to be me working out of the office in town – me and Potter,” I said.
    “Not everyone who arrives stays in the Ragged Cove,” Phebe said. “They get sent away.”
    “Sent away where?” I asked, wondering if perhaps I was getting Phebe to open up a little.
    “Jobs,” she said.
    “Jobs?”
    “Assignments. Investigations. Call them what you want, it’s all the same thing, really,” Phebe explained.
    “And will I get sent away?” I asked.
    “I think you’ve been partnered with Potter for now,” Phebe said. She glanced back at the kitchen door. I got the feeling that perhaps I’d misjudged her and she did want to tell me more, but was scared to do so. Scared of what I didn’t know. 
    “So who am I replacing?” I asked her, stepping closer to the bar and lowering my voice just a little. “Who was Potter’s partner before me?”
    Dropping the level of her voice to match mine, Phebe glanced back once more toward the kitchen door and then back at me. “He had two. They were a pair. Brother and sister.”
    Kayla? Isidor? My heart started to race so fast, it felt as if it had shot up and become lodged in the back of my throat. “What were their names? What happened to them? Are they here in the Ragged Cove?”
    My questions came out in double time, like a series of throaty rasps. I needed to know if my friends – the two people I loved like they were my own brother and sister – were here.  I would have given anything to see Isidor’s goofy smile and Kayla’s wild grin before she launched one of her ferocious attacks. What I would trade to hold them both close to me again.
    “You better ask Murphy about them,” Phebe whispered. “I’ve said too much.”
    “Please, Phebe,” I said.
    Searching my eyes, Phebe said, “Why is it so important to know who Potter was partnered with before you?”
    “I’d just like to know,” I said as nonchalantly as I could. But I couldn’t hide the sudden flush of excitement I felt at the thought that my friends might be close by.
    “Like Phebe has already said, you’ll have to ask Murphy,” a voice said.
    I looked up to see Uri standing in the now open kitchen doorway. He was wiping his hands with a cloth. Unlike Phebe, he wasn’t smiling.

 
    Chapter Four
     
    Kicking the door to my room closed with the heel of my boot, I looked across the room at the bed. It looked so inviting. I had been awake all night and I couldn’t remember a time when I felt so tired. It wasn’t just my muscles that ached with tiredness, but my head, too. Peeling off my coat, I dropped into the armchair placed by the window. Old habits die hard. I took my iPhone and headphones from my pocket. I ran my thumb over the track listings. Had I at some point uploaded the hundreds of tracks that were on the device? If I had I couldn’t remember doing so. The tracks were on the iPhone, just like the credit card in my purse, the key to the office of The Creeping Men, and Murphy’s crucifix.
    I selected Real Love by Tom Odell and went to the small bathroom with the music