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

ever having to work again. This, according to Dave, was how she should pay for what she had done to me and to my family.”

“You tried to reason with him. You wanted justice and retribution.”

“I wanted her exposed for the monster she was, and I wanted her punished. But as ever, he was blind to anything except his own grand visions. I pleaded with him, begged him. But he ignored me.”

“And that was why you split up with him. It had nothing to do with his wife.”

She shook her head.

“So he handed all the material over to his attorney as the first step in his blackmail scheme. The old standard: if anything happened to him, his attorney was to publish the material and make it available to the FBI.”

She smiled without humor and nodded again, more slowly.

“I can imagine that the rage must have been building inside you until it was impossible to control. And the solution seemed obvious. If he wouldn’t listen to you, there was only one course of action open to you. You went there on the Wednesday with the pretext of collecting books and CDs…”

“I also gave him one last chance and begged him to reconsider. But he was so arrogant and obstinate. He was convinced that once he was rolling in money and had divorced his wife, I would come back to him.”

“And you took the gun away with you. Then, on the Friday, you returned late at night. I am guessing you were wearing surgical gloves. When he opened the door, you stepped in and shot him once in the head. Then left the gun on the bookcase and walked away. In your mind, this would trigger the instructions he had given to his attorney, to release the material for publication and an investigation by the FBI. What you could not possibly have imagined was that his attorney would go ahead with the blackmail, and there would be no investigation.”

“All these years I have been wondering what happened, what went wrong. I assumed she had people in the FBI who sat on the evidence. Then when you came ’round…”

“And that’s why you sent the anonymous letter. That’s why you couldn’t let us know who you really were or how deeply involved you were in his investigation, because it could end up incriminating you. But your prints, Katie, were all over the letter, and all over the copy you handled. I found out this morning, and confirmed what I already suspected.”

Dehan was frowning and shaking her head. “Hang on. You had an alibi for Friday night.”

I nodded. “That had me stumped until I remembered something Sammy Gupta, David’s landlord, had said.” I turned back to Katie. “He said you turned up several times with your sister. Then we discovered that you were Kathleen O’Connor, and your sister had been killed at the same time as your parents. It followed logically that Sammy had seen you on a couple of occasions with a friend who was more or less similar to you. So I’m guessing, you invited her and her boyfriend out to dinner, made an excuse for not being able to join them, and gave her your credit card…”

“I told her I wanted to thank her for being so supportive when I split up with Dave. She and her boyfriend had been having difficulties. I suggested an early Valentine’s dinner for them and gave her my card. I trusted it would be enough to confirm my alibi.”

“You know I have to arrest you now, Katie.”

“I know. But at least Hennessy will finally be exposed for the murdering parasite that she really is.” She looked around at her living room. “I inherited this from my parents, you know.” She sighed and stood. “Shall we go?”

And outside the gray rain persisted among the cold, naked trees.

Epilogue

Newman had ordered us both to take at least a couple of weeks holiday, more if we needed it. I think he was terrified of what we might turn the next cold case into, and it was he who needed a holiday from us.

I had managed to light the fire and Dehan had put a chicken in the oven and fixed us a couple of very dry martinis. I was lying on the sofa with my eyes closed, listening to the soft patter of raindrops on the sidewalk outside, and the occasional, desultory rustle of paper as Dehan turned the pages of the magazine she was reading.

After a while, I heard the magazine drop to the floor. She stretched and yawned and I counted back from five to one. I knew she’d talk on one.

“Say, Stone. Aren’t you sick of the rain?”

I nodded. “Mm-hm…”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to go somewhere with sunny beaches, nice restaurants, big steaks…”

“Yup.”

“And god knows you’ve earned it!”

I shrugged. “Nyah… I’m no good at going on holiday on my own. I get bored.”

She was quiet for a while. She was behind me and couldn’t see me grinning to myself. I heard her pick up the magazine again and turn a couple of pages. “I could keep you company. I don’t mind…”

“Oh… well… I guess that would be OK…”

“Dork.” She was quiet a little longer, then said, “I always wanted to go to Goa.”

“You want to go to Goa?”

“It’s in India. It looks amazing.”

I shrugged. “Okay. Book it. My card is in my jacket.”

There was a stunned silence.

“Seriously?”

She sounded so much like an excited kid I had to open my eyes and turn to look at her. Her face was radiant. I laughed. “Seriously.” I flopped back and closed my eyes. “I learned in the last week that you can’t take anything for granted in this life. Let’s do it. Goa, here we come!”

She jumped up and astonished me by