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

“Because I watched you. You were checking if you could see in through the windshield, or the side window. He would not have been able to see their faces from the front because of the glare from the streetlamps, or the back simply because it’s impossible. And from where he stood to shoot, unless he was a dwarf, their faces were hidden by the roof of the car. Plus, he shot through a closed window, which, under the lamp, would have made it doubly hard to see them. Ergo, he knew who they were, and he knew their car. Obviously he was waiting for them, popped them when they arrived, and then made off.”

I nodded. “What about Angela?”

She shrugged. “I was thinking maybe she’s just a random witness. You know…” She spread her hands. “Med students, access to chemical substances, tempted to help pay their fees with a little private enterprise. Maybe they thought they were meeting a buyer and instead they met with somebody whose toes they were treading on.”

I sucked my teeth. “Mm-hm, that crossed my mind too. And they just happened to meet outside her house.”

“But your bullet holes in the door suggest the connection might be more than that.” She hesitated a moment. “Especially as they knew each other.”

“I agree. Witnesses in the street say they heard between five and seven shots. There were seven shots in the victims. The two in the door would have made it nine. I found a bullet hole in the wall, but no slugs.”

“Just one?”

I nodded, then shrugged. “Suggests somebody got injured, but there was no blood. I’m pretty sure those two shots were not fired tonight. If I’m right, there ought to be a police report. I’m interested to hear what Angela has to say about it.”

We stared at each other for a long moment. Then she gave a small smile and said, “Let’s find out.”

Two

She didn’t look at us as we sat down. Dehan placed the cup of coffee in front of her and smiled.

“It’s not exactly coffee, but it’s hot and sweet and it will help with the shock.”

Angela nodded but still didn’t make eye contact. After a moment, she said, “Will I be able to go home soon?”

Dehan didn’t answer for a moment, then she said, “Of course, whenever you like, but we need to get a statement from you. It shouldn’t take long.”

Angela went to speak, stopped, then said, “I didn’t really see anything.”

I scratched my head. “Did you make the 911 call?”

She nodded.

I went on, “What made you call?”

“I heard shooting.”

“How many shots did you hear?”

She fiddled with her fingertips, looking at her coffee, like she hoped it would tell her how many shots she’d heard. After a bit, she shrugged. “I don’t know.”

I bobbed my head slowly a few times, like I was thinking. “More than one?”

“Yeah. More than one.”

“Less than twelve?” She nodded again. I went on. “More than three?”

“Yes,”

“Less than, say, ten?”

She gave a small sigh and reached for the coffee. “Probably five or six.”

“Good, that’s very helpful, Angela. Now I’d like to ask you something else. Did the shots come all together, kind of bang, bang, bang! Or were they spaced out?”

“All together, like, one after another, real quick. Like, one two three, one two three, and then one. So I guess it was seven.”

I smiled at her. “That’s very good. That’s excellent. Were you in bed?”

“Yes.”

“What made you realize that they were shots?”

Now she stared at me, real hard, and swallowed a couple of times. “I don’t know what you mean.”

I spread my hands. “I’m just trying to get a picture of what happened. You’re in bed and you hear what sounds like seven firecrackers going off in rapid succession, right…?”

She gave a very small nod and half-whispered, “Yes…”

“And you didn’t go and look to see what it was, you immediately went to the phone…”

Dehan added, “Downstairs.”

“So you must have known they were gunshots. I was just wondering how you knew they were gunshots.”

She looked like she was about to start crying again. She started to speak two or three times but stopped herself, and finally said, “Well, I looked quickly out of the window.”

I smiled kindly. “Oh, that’s great. So you did see something, just—not very much.”

“Yes.”

“So you heard the shots, you got out of bed and peered quickly out of the window. What did you see that made you call 911?”

Her bottom lip was trembling and tears spilled from her eyes. She covered her mouth with her hands. I reached into my pocket for a handkerchief and handed it to her.

“There is no hurry, Angela. I know this has been very traumatic. We would just really like to get whoever did this to…” I frowned at Dehan, like I couldn’t remember their names.

Dehan reached across the table and took Angela’s hand. “Hey, listen, take it easy. In your own time.” She smiled. “What were their names? I remember you guys used to play together, right?”

It was like a trigger. She went to pieces, sobbing violently into my handkerchief, making the ugly, convulsive noises of deep grief. Dehan stood and pulled her chair around so she was sitting next to her, and put her arm around her shoulder. The sobbing lasted a good four or five minutes. Eventually, Dehan persuaded her to have some of the coffee and that seemed to settle her a bit. Then, Dehan said, “Hey, we can do this a little later. Maybe we can come ’round in the afternoon and take a statement from you.” She looked at me and I nodded. “But, just before we take you back, can you just give me a rough idea of what you saw