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

about her, and what was wrong with her. And so we kind of come together.”

Dehan raised an eyebrow. “So were you two seeing each other before…”

They both erupted simultaneously, and the look of horror on their faces seemed genuine.

“Oh, Lord no!”

Then Mo added, “We became close as friends. But what really brought us together was when poor Kath died. Then Anne-Marie was a real consolation. She was my tower of strength. But we spoke to Isaac before we ever took it any further than holding hands. We never went behind his back, or Kath’s.”

I scratched my chin. “Here’s the thing we can’t understand. What would make Kath take off and travel one and a half thousand miles across the country, when her mother and her whole family was right here?”

He nodded a few times, like he was saying the question made sense, but had a reasonable answer. “What she said to me and her ma was that she needed to get away from me and baby for a few days. We didn’t have money for her to go on a weekend break or anything, so she was going to go and visit my parents. She got on real well with Ingrid and Alfredo.”

Dehan’s eyebrows shot up. “Ingrid and Alfredo?”

“My parents.”

“I know. You don’t call them Mom and Dad?”

He gave a sheepish grin. “I guess we never did. Ingie was kind of strict that way. Ingie, my mom.”

“So…” I scratched my chin again. “Kath had a good relationship with Ingrid and Alfredo.”

“Yeah, they loved her, got on real well.”

“When was the last time she had seen them, Mo?”

“Oh, well, that would be a couple of years. Since we moved out here.”

“You and Isaac.”

“And Anne-Marie.”

Anne-Marie spoke before I could ask. “Me and Isaac got married just before we all three moved out together. Mel was real helpful and supportive. She helped Isaac get his construction job before we come. Then he helped Mo.”

I nodded for a bit, drumming my fingers on the table. Dehan asked, “How did Isaac take Kath’s death?”

Anne-Marie’s face hardened for a moment, then she shrugged. “It hit us all real hard. He was upset, like the rest of us.”

“Do you stay in touch?”

Mo shook his head. “Not really. It was hard for him.”

There was something ruthless in Dehan’s voice when she said, “Triple blow for him, huh? His childhood sweetheart, his wife, and his brother.”

They both looked down at the table. Unconsciously, Anne-Marie reached for Mo’s hand. He gave a small shrug. “I guess that’s just the way the cookie crumbled. We didn’t mean him no harm.”

I patted the glossy brochures with my palm a couple of times. “Sure. Listen, you’ve been very helpful. We may need to talk to you again. I hope that’s not a problem.”

Mo smiled, but Anne-Marie was still staring down at the table. She hadn’t liked Dehan’s crack. Mo said, “Anything we can do to help, Detectives.”

We left them in the office and stepped out, through the shiny showroom and into the mellow afternoon, where the shadows were growing long as the sun began to sink in the southwest. We climbed into the car and eased into the flow of traffic. Dehan eyed me and said, “Isaac?”

I frowned and shook my head, then nodded. “Call him, will you?” I reached in my pocket and handed her the details Mel had given me. “Ask him to come in to the station. I have a feeling he is going to have quite a lot to tell us. This loving, close-knit family is hiding something, and Isaac might be just the man to tell us what.”

Dehan was dialing. “Yup. My feelings exactly, Sensei.”

Four

Isaac showed up at six o’clock. The sun hadn’t set yet, but it was hovering over the rim of the world and making the sky blush. I had a uniform take him to an interrogation room and after five minutes, Dehan and I went up to talk to him.

He was a big guy. If Ingrid was Scandinavian, he had inherited all of her Viking genes. He had big hands, big shoulders and a big head. His eyes were pale blue and his hair, which was thinning on top, was a sandy blond. He didn’t say anything as we came in, but watched us sit opposite him.

I introduced myself and Dehan. “You want some coffee?”

He shook his head. “What’s this all about? This about Kathleen?”

He had a stare like a poke in the eye: simple and direct. I nodded once. “Yup. We’re giving the Lee County sheriff a hand, and we wanted to ask you a few questions. That OK?”

“Why not? You talked to Mel and Anne-Marie, and that son of a bitch Mo?” He turned his direct stare on Dehan. “I beg your pardon, ma’am.”

She blinked a couple of times and I smiled. “We’ve heard that Kath was pretty depressed shortly before she died. What can you tell us about that?”

“Plenty.”

I leaned back in my chair. “In your own words and your own time, Isaac.”

He nodded at Dehan again. “Beggin’ your pardon in advance, ma’am, in a nutshell, she was depressed because she realized she’d gone and married one major son of a bitch. Now, I’ll try not to swear anymore, but I can’t guarantee nothing coz talkin’ about Mo makes me real mad. And that’s about the size of it.”

“In what way was Mo a son of a bitch, Isaac? And what made Kath realize it, just after she had her baby?”

His face flushed and he looked down at his huge hands on the table in front of him. He made huge fists out of them and did a funny kind of sideways twitch with his head. You could tell he was getting mad. “He’s a son of a bitch