Free Pretenses by Keith Lee Johnson Page B

also gave me the startup money for my business and sent me clients to keep it going. Because of your client, I’ve made honest money doing the same thing I did for the government for far less money than what I’ve pulled in the last year or so.”
    â€œSo you knew it would come to this?”
    â€œI suspected it. But it was too good a deal to pass up. I was retired with almost nothing to show for forty years of government service. I trained Gordon Scott to take over my job when I left. He supplied me with some information about your client, which is why you killed him, I suspect.” She nodded. “Why Clayton Pockets? Not that I liked the SOB.”
    â€œHe was blackmailing my client. He loved the ponies just a little too much. He was on the verge of losing everything. I can understand his desperation. But as they say, if you dance to the music, you gotta pay the piper.”
    â€œSo your client was planning to kill me all along because of what I knew?”
    â€œProbably. I don’t know. But, considering what you just told me, that would be my guess.”
    Sydney Drew shook his head and muttered, “That’s ruthless as hell.”
    â€œMay I ask you about your daughter?”
    â€œWhat does my daughter have to do with this?” Sydney asked, suddenly fearful for Phoenix’s safety. “You’re not going to kill her, are you?” Coco was quiet. “You said you were an honest woman. Tell me the truth. Are you going to kill my daughter?”
    â€œOnly if I have to. She chased me through the streets of Washington with a relentlessness that matched my own. She isn’t the type to give up once she sets her mind to something, is she?”
    â€œNo, she isn’t. Please don’t kill my daughter. Please don’t kill her. She’s all that’s left of her mother and me.”
    â€œI don’t have a contract for her, so if I can avoid it, I will. But if I’m cornered and it’s me or her, you will see her sooner than you think.” Reliefflooded Sydney’s face. “Now, tell me. How old was she when the Shaolin monks accepted her?”
    â€œSix.”
    â€œI was five when I began my training,” Coco said reflectively. “And how long did she train there?”
    â€œTwelve years. Part of the reason I stayed in China as long as I did was so she could continue her training. You always wanna encourage your children when they take the initiative.”
    â€œSo it was her idea to study the art?”
    â€œYes. I took her to a Kung Fu demonstration, and it was love at first sight.”
    â€œI see. Then you returned to America, and she went on to college. And the rest is, as they say, history.” He nodded. “Well, would you like to eat your food?”
    â€œNo. I don’t have much of an appetite now.”
    â€œI understand.” Coco smiled. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t go to waste.”

CHAPTER 28
    T HE NEW NINJA MOTORCYCLE was just a a half-block away from Sydney Drew’s home in Takoma Park. If she hurried, she could get to Silver Spring, take care of Senator Blevins and her husband, and get back to the Hyatt Regency before midnight. As she rode the peppy bike to her next victim’s home, Coco thought about the class Sydney Drew had shown when she had intruded into his home. She liked him, and she would keep her word not to kill Phoenix unless she had to. But it was still personal. She could do so many things to Phoenix. Killing her was only one of them.
    Killing Drew, Coco knew, would give Phoenix Perry great incentive to track her down. Sure, Perry had seen the list. She might even have known the names and addresses of the intended victims, Coco thought, but she didn’t know when and where she would strike next. It could be in San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Manhattan, or perhaps Washington, D.C.
    Originally, she had planned to start in Washington, head west, and work her way back