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

“Greg Carson. He was our friend, part of our gang, back when we was kids. He was pretty sweet on Kath, we all were, but he was only ever a friend to her. He’s the only person I can think she would go to see. He was…” He thought about the word. “I want to say smarter than the rest of us, but Mo was pretty smart and so was Pat. He was a different kind of smart; kind of mature. Do you know what I mean? You could talk to him and he would listen. Then, whatever he said to you, you could rely on as being right.”

“You got an address for Greg Carson?”

He gave his head a little sideways twist. “If I know Greg, he’ll be where he’s always been, at his pa’s ranch, where his pa was before him, and his grandpa and his great-grandpa before him. Greg don’t move. He told us we was crazy for goin’ east, and I guess he was right, weren’t he?”

Dehan gave a small, sad smile which dimpled her left cheek. “I guess he was, Isaac.”

We all nodded.

Five

Isaac left and Dehan and I stood in the corridor outside the interrogation room staring at each other without speaking. Dehan was chewing her lip. As I drew breath to speak, she said, “One: Mo, Anne-Marie, and Isaac all have alibis for the week in which Kath was killed. Two: it’s looking very much like Kathleen went to Seven Hills to meet with Greg.” She held up her hand. “It’s not certain and we need to confirm it, but it’s looking that way. The fact that she apparently lied when she told Mel and Mo that she was going to see her in-laws suggests that she had some ulterior motive—at the very least, she didn’t want them to know she was going to see him.”

“If she was.”

“If she was. Three: unless somebody else pops out of the woodwork, he is as of right now our prime—and only—suspect.”

I sucked my teeth for a second. “Prime, perhaps, but not only. There are also Mo’s parents. You never know what people are likely to get up to when they start doing God’s work.”

She pulled a face and nodded. “That’s true enough. Either way, this all presents us with a problem.”

I nodded and sighed. “Our prime suspects are all over in Lee County, Colorado.”

“So what do we do, bat it back and say, ‘we think it’s this guy or maybe Alfredo Olvera and or his wife,’ or…?”

I shook my head, “Dehan, we don’t really think it’s Greg Carson. We suspect it might be Greg Carson. I think it’s premature to send it back to the sheriff, casting suspicion on Greg, when all we have is Isaac’s notion that she may have been going to see him.”

She nodded for a while before saying, “Yeah, that’s true. But I don’t see how we can pursue the leads we have without going to Seven Hills.”

I glanced at my watch. It was just before seven P.M. The captain would still be there. I climbed the stairs with Dehan just behind me and knocked on his door. He smiled amiably as we stepped in.

“Stone, Dehan, it seems like only this morning. Oh wait…!” He grinned facetiously. “It was! What can I do for you before I head home in five minutes?”

I closed the door and leaned on the jamb.

“We have interviewed all the available witnesses in the Kathleen Olvera case…”

“Good work. And?”

“Some new facts have come to light which the Lee County sheriff could not have obtained, because he never interviewed these witnesses.”

“That makes sense, and it was, after all, the object of the exercise. So?”

“The new facts point to one particular person possibly having been the last person to see her alive. She may, in fact, having been going to see this person, rather than her in-laws, as was previously thought. Trouble is, he is in Seven Hills, in Colorado.”

The captain opened his mouth but Dehan was quicker.

“Thing is, sir, we don’t think it would reflect well on the department if we kick it back so soon, with only a suggestion that it might, maybe, possibly be worth interviewing this person, because he might have something to do with it.”

The captain shut his mouth again, then said, “Clearly you have talked this over and have something in mind. Let me say that you both know full well I cannot authorize an investigation outside our jurisdiction.”

“We know that, sir. But perhaps you could talk to the sheriff, explain we have some leads which we are not sure of but need to follow up, and rather than keep knocking the case back and fourth, why not authorize us to talk to some possible witnesses in Lee County. If they prove good, we hand the case back to him, but if they just lead us back to the Bronx, no harm done.”

He heaved a big sigh and glanced out the window at the quickening darkness. “It’s never easy with you two, is it?”

Dehan shrugged and grinned. “I guess that’s why they’re cold cases, sir.”

He picked up the phone and dialed.

It was cold enough for us to exhale clouds of condensation when we stepped out into the night and headed for my car. As I unlocked it, I looked at her over the roof and said, “You want to stay over? If we push off around five or six, we should get there for breakfast.”

“Best offer I’ve had all year.”

We climbed in and the slam of the doors cocooned us from the cold outside. As we cruised along Bruckner Boulevard she asked, “Do we need any shopping?”

I ignored the odd phrasing and glanced at her. “I think I