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

she had discovered about Lee’s directorships. He listened with a deep frown furrowing his brow. When we had finished, he grunted.

“I see why you feel so strongly. I don’t mind telling you I have received a couple of telephone calls from the highest levels over the last couple of days asking me what you are playing at. I don’t have to tell you that we are facing a very formidable opponent, and a political conspiracy that has very far reaching tendrils.”

I nodded. “David was not exaggerating when he said that it was not dynamite, it was a nuclear bomb.”

Dehan spoke suddenly, and there was bitterness in her voice.

“It’s a cancer. If we leave it, it will spread and it will end up corrupting everything. It has to be cut out and destroyed before it goes any further.”

He studied her a moment, then nodded. “Whatever it costs, detectives. You have my full support.” He smiled at me. “I agree with you. Time to show what we are made of.”

He stood and left, and Dehan took his chair. “So what now?”

I took the lid off my coffee, tore a chunk off one of the croissants and dunked it in the hot black brew, then stuffed it in my mouth.

“What now?” I said with my mouth full. “Now we have an appointment at three PM with Carol Hennessy, and I mean to be there and scare the living bejaysus out of her.”

“You are going to the meeting? Today?”

I nodded as I dunked again. “Yup.”

She shook her head. “You are one hard motherfucker, Stone!”

I grinned, wolfishly. “I know. And soon Carol Hennessy will know it, too.”

Seventeen

Dehan drove because my left arm was in a sling. In a right-hand drive manual like my Jag, you need your left hand to shift the gears, and between the two of us we only had one functioning left hand. While she drove, I called my friend Bernie at the Bureau Field HQ on Broadway.

“Stone, how’s it hanging, pal?”

“At the moment it’s hanging in a sling.”

He roared laughter down the phone. “I’m sorry to hear that, my friend. That’s a great loss to womankind, hahaha!”

“Yeah, if only they knew that. But it’s my left arm that’s in a sling, Bernie, so no great loss to anybody. Listen, we need to talk.”

“Oh, sure, any time. Nothing serious, I hope.”

“I was shot last night. And that’s kind of what I want to talk to you about. I’d like to meet somewhere private. I’ll pick you up on Broadway in an hour and a half. And Bernie, don’t mention this call to anybody. I really mean that. Nobody. And don’t tell anybody where you’re going.”

“Sounds serious.”

“It is. I am particularly interested, Bernie, in assassins. World class assassins. Operating between 1999 and 2008.”

“Holy smoke…”

“Is right. Okay. I’m going to get off the line. Catch you later.” I hung up. “Have we picked up a tail?”

She shook her head. “It’s hard to tell with all this traffic, but I don’t think so.”

I grunted and flinched as I put my phone in my pocket. “So far, the two times that Hennessy has jumped, it has been after we made direct contact, either with her, or with D’Angelo and Lee. So far we haven’t been in touch with any of them, and there is no reason to believe she has ears or eyes inside the 43rd. So chances are she doesn’t know yet that we are still alive. Why would she? So, it’s going to be interesting to see if she’s cancelled the meeting.”

Dehan nodded. “Right. If she thinks we’re dead, she won’t bother to show.” She was silent for a moment. “If she’s not there, how do you want to play it?”

I thought about it. “I’ll tell you what I’d like to do. I’d like to arrest D’Angelo and haul his ass in for questioning, and do the same to Lee. And play the bastards against each other.”

She glanced at me and her eyes were sparkling. “You want to do that?”

“I’d love to. But it’s premature. Let’s build up the tension a little more before we drag anyone in.”

She parked just outside the main entrance to the Rockford Building on 6th Avenue and we rode the elevator to the 32nd floor. The same prefab-pretty receptionist was at the desk and looked at me unhappily. I leaned close to her and said, “Yes, I have an appointment with Senator Carol Hennessy at three PM. Let her know I’m here, will you?”

She took a deep breath. “Senator Hennessy is not here. She is out for lunch.”

“How about D’Angelo? Is he here?”

She shook her head slowly. “No…”

“Is that true? You can get into a lot of trouble for lying to the cops. You know that, right?”

She nodded. “He is with her. He goes just about everywhere with her.”

“Okay, so you are going to deliver a message for me. You are going to deliver it personally to Senator Hennessy, understood?” She nodded. “Tell her that the next time I see her, she is going to be in cuffs at the 43rd Precinct, and I am going to put her away for the rest of her sorry life. You got that?”

She nodded. “Yes, sir.”

We rode the elevator down in silence, climbed back in the Jag and took West 52nd east to Park Avenue, then followed that south to Union Square and Broadway. I called Bernie and told him we were on our way, He said he’d meet us outside the pet crematorium on Worth Street.

He was there in the doorway when we arrived. Dehan pulled up with her hazards on and Bernie ran and climbed in the back. We pulled away and headed north up Church Street. Then Dehan took a roundabout route, turning back on herself several