Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (A Dead Cold Box Set) Blake Banner (read out loud books txt) 📖

She stared at me. “You’re crazy.”

I nodded. “Very probably.”

She stared at me for a long moment. Then shook her head. “You are too intense for me, John. You are just all, totally, all or nothing. There is no gray area for you, is there? You’re just full on, all the time.”

I wasn’t sure what to answer. For a moment I had a flash of my wife saying something similar to me, a long time ago. And at the same time I saw Dehan, lounging in her chair, staring at the screen of her laptop, totally focused, full on, no gray areas. Then my cell rang. I pulled it from my pocket and looked at the screen. It was Dehan.

I glanced at Shelly. “I have to take this.”

She sighed. “Detective Dehan?”

“Yeah, Stone.”

“Hey, Sensei. Hope I didn’t get you out of bed.”

“Funny.”

“Soon as you can, Stone. You need to see what I’ve got.”

I looked Shelly straight in the eyes and said to Dehan, “I’m on my way.” I hung up. “I’m sorry.”

She gave a cute, lopsided smile and said, “I misread you, Stone. I misread you both. It’s not that she’s in love with you, though she clearly is. It’s that you’re both in love with each other, but you won’t admit it.” She stepped forward and kissed me on the cheek. “Be happy, John, but just remember, under all that attitude and cocky self-confidence, she is just a vulnerable, lonely girl.”

I smiled and shook my head. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Shelly. But thanks, and you know you have the exclusive on this.”

She patted my arm and I left, with a hot pellet of excitement in my belly. The game had shifted, now we were moving in for the kill.

Fifteen

It was gone nine PM when I climbed out of the taxi under the frozen stars and walked into the station and made my way to the detectives’ room. Most of the desks were empty, but Dehan was still there, sitting in a pool of lamplight. She looked up as I approached, and grinned at me.

“Whoa! Look at you! James Bond, eat your heart out. How come you never dress like that for me, Stone?”

I dropped into my chair and studied her grinning face for a moment, smiling at her. “I’ll tell you what, if you wear a long, red satin dress with a split from ankle to hip, a pearl choker, and those little high-heeled shoes with a strap across the ankle? You know the ones? You wear that, and I’ll take you to dinner in my tux. Deal?”

“In your dreams, Sensei. Get your head out of the gutter and focus on this.” She threw a sheet of paper across the desk at me. “Pre-2008 Lee was an attorney working for Bismarck, Jones and Epstein, a reputable firm in Manhattan. In February 2008, he ditches David Thorndike, a good client, and two weeks later Thorndike is murdered. Now, buckle up. Three months after that, Lee resigns from Bismarck, Jones and Epstein to take up two directorships, one on the board of Consolidated Imports, the other on the board of PC Derivatives. Both New York based import-export companies. His position in those companies is non-executive. In other words, he gets paid for doing nothing.”

“Holy cow.”

“The cow gets holier. Over the next nine years, he accumulates four more directorships, all non-executive: Allied Petrochemicals, Gulf Shipping, United Investment, and Petro-Plastics. I guess he must be really good at doing nothing, because he keeps getting headhunted by multinationals that want him to do nothing for them—and are ready to pay big bucks for it. He is on the board of directors of six corporations, making an average of six hundred grand from each one every year. His total annual income is three million, six hundred and forty-five thousand bucks. For doing zip.”

“Do we know anything about these companies…?”

“Did I tell you you could unfasten your seatbelt? Siddown, lover boy. Each and every one of these companies belongs, directly or indirectly, to the Hennessy Investment Fund, in that they own controlling shares in them, or they own a company that owns them.” She grabbed another sheet of paper and slid it across the desk to me. “Consolidated Imports and PC Derivatives both belong directly to the Hennessy Investment Fund. Allied Petrochemicals belongs to the Global Corporation in which the Hennessy Fund has a forty-five percent stake. Gulf Shipping belongs to Consolidated Imports and Petro-Plastics belongs to United Investments, which in turn belongs to PC Derivatives. All, ultimately, are controlled by the Hennessy Investment Fund, and of course Carol Hennessy is the CEO of the Fund.”

“So the directorships were a pay off.”

She shrugged and spread her hands. “It’s not proof, yet, but it is very, very suggestive. He was in Hennessy’s pocket. When Dave told him about the article, he passed it on to Hennessy, with the added warning that he knew how good and how thorough Dave would be in his investigation. Plus, if we are to believe the anonymous letter—and it’s a big ‘if’—there was the added risk that Dave was in touch with her hit man. That’s something even Mrs. Teflon couldn’t slide out of. So she makes a deal with Lee. He kills Dave, and she takes care of him for life.”

I thought about it for a long moment, turning it around and examining it from every angle.

“That is good work, Dehan. Exceptional. I have a meeting with Hennessy tomorrow at three. We should get Lee in, at midday, and confront him with this, see if we can make him crack. Then go for Hennessy.”

She made a ‘yeah but’ face and said, “Nnnyeah, maybe. Just hear me out a bit.”

“Talk.”

“Okay, we both said how weird it