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

was going off duty and I was coming on. Can you please tell me what this is about?”

Telling people a loved one has died is one of the worst things you can do in life. Doing it to four people in five hours is exhausting. I drew a deep breath and said, “Elizabeth, I am really sorry to have to tell you this, but Sebastian was killed in the early hours of this morning.”

It was as though she’d been slapped in the face. She went rigid and the color drained from her already pale cheeks. Her right hand covered her mouth. At first she looked angry, like we had insulted her. Then the tragedy and the sadness flooded her eyes. She shook her head. “Not Sebastian. No…”

Dehan gave a small sigh. “I’m really sorry. There is no doubt about the identity.”

“How…? You’re asking me how well I knew him. Why? What’s happened?”

“He and Luis were shot at about three o’clock this morning.”

She stared at us like we were insane. “Shot? That’s ridiculous! There must be some mistake. Why would anyone…?”

I shook my head. “The medical examiner identified them both.”

Her head snapped around to look at me. “The ME? Frank…”

I nodded. “He seemed to be fond of them.”

She was stoic. I guess you learn that as a doctor. But you could see the pain in her face as the inescapable nature of what had happened dawned on her. She wasn’t going to wake up from this. It wasn’t going to turn out to be a bad dream, a misunderstanding, or a mistake. It was real. Her eyes were resentful, turning red as they flooded with tears.

“Why?”

I repeated the morning’s ongoing refrain. “That’s what we want to find out.”

She stared at me, then at Dehan. “You mean it wasn’t a mugging?”

Dehan shook her head. “The motive isn’t clear, Elizabeth. We are going to need help. Are you up to answering some questions?”

She nodded, staring at her hands in front of her on the table. “Of course. Where are they? Is Luis dead too?”

“Luis is in a bad way, but as far as we know, he is still alive. He’s here. So is Sebastian.”

“Elizabeth.” I paused a moment, not exactly sure how to frame the question for her. “As far as you know, were Sebastian and Luis involved in anything…” I paused again. She was frowning at me, wondering where I was going with my question. “Anything risky or dangerous? Anything that could have made them enemies, targets for somebody?”

“Like what?”

I shrugged. “This is a hospital. You tell me…”

She shook her head. “No! Nothing. Of course not! He was dedicated, committed, very serious. He wouldn’t have done anything stupid. Neither of them would.”

Dehan leaned her elbows on the table. “Think carefully before answering, Elizabeth. It may have been something that to them seemed harmless or unimportant, but to somebody else…”

She left the words hanging. Elizabeth sat looking at her for a moment. Then her eyes drifted. Dehan waited, then asked, “What is it?”

She shrugged. “It may be nothing and I don’t want to get anyone into trouble…”

I smiled, but it must have looked sad and tired, because that was how I felt. I said, “More trouble than they are in already?”

She studied my face, then gave a sigh that shuddered. “I guess you’re right. As I say, it may be nothing, but Luis…” She sighed again. “Luis was hanging out a lot with a girl, Lynda, she works at the pharmacy here, in the hospital.”

Dehan sat back in her chair, frowning. “OK…”

Elizabeth hesitated some more, uncomfortable with what she was doing. “She mentioned a few times to Luis that the pharmacist is not exactly meticulous in how he keeps his records. One night she was joking about getting some Cialis for the boys. Luis pretended to get excited about what else she could get. I didn’t think it was funny. Neither did Sebastian.” She sighed again, shrugged, spread her hands. “It’s nothing! It’s just that Seb and I never really liked her much. She’s a bit wild. Luis is a bit wild, too, and they kind of sparked each other off. We thought she was a bad influence on him. But I’m pretty sure he would never actually do anything.

“She’s Australian. She says that back home, she has a degree in chemistry. Maybe she has, I don’t know. But here she can’t practice. I don’t know exactly how legal her position is. Anyway, I guess it’s possible that she and Luis may have been taking stuff from the pharmacy and selling it. I really don’t think so, but it’s objectively possible.”

She stopped, covered her face with her hands, and shook her head. “That sounds so awful! And I have no grounds whatever to make such an accusation, other than, I don’t really like her much, and she’s a bit crazy and out there. She’s probably a perfectly decent person.”

I nodded that I understood. “If there is nothing in it, they have nothing to worry about. What’s her surname, do you know?”

“Graham, Lynda Graham.”

“And she is Luis’ girlfriend?”

She shrugged. “Kind of, not exactly. They hang out together, go out together sometimes. I know they sleep together. But it seems to be a pretty open relationship. I think there is or was another guy in her life, but I don’t know anything about him.”

Dehan grunted, then asked, “What do you know about Angela Rojas?”

“Angela?” Again she looked surprised at the question. “Not a lot. I met her a couple of times socially. I know she was like a half-sister to Seb and Luis. Why? What’s she got to do with this?”

“Can you think what they would have been doing outside her house at three in the morning?”

She stared at Dehan for a long moment, and you could tell