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

I laughed painfully. “I thought that was your grandmother.”

“It varies,” she said, gazing without humor at the smoldering wood. “It’s the collective superego of the female side of my father’s family.”

“Wow… You only say that because you know I’m too weak to defend myself.” She snorted and we sat in silence for a bit. Finally, as the whiskey began to take effect, I said, “Thanks, Dehan.”

She glanced at me and there were tears in her eyes. “I thought you were right behind me, you fuckin’ asshole.”

I smiled. “By the time I made it to the door, Greg was waiting for me with a gun. I thought you’d gone to get the Feds.”

“No.” She frowned. “When I reached the plantation, I realized you weren’t there. I thought maybe you’d been…” The muscles in her jaw bunched and she looked away. She took a slug, swallowed, and then took a deep breath. “I searched for you in the woods. When I didn’t find you, I realized you must still be back at the barn. So I went back.”

“That wasn’t smart.”

“Who gives a shit? You’d have done the same.” My face told her she was right and she went on. “When I got there, I saw they had you tied up…” She shrugged and looked sheepish. “But they weren’t torturing you or anything. Also, you wily bastard, you had them talking. So I thought, as long as they were talking and they weren’t hurting you, I’d record what they said.”

Our bison steaks arrived, along with a bottle of wine. The first mouthful was hard, but the second was easier, and aided by a couple of glasses of Napa Valley Merlot, it soon tasted like the most perfect medicine I’d ever taken.

Sleepy, comfortably numb, and with my joints slowly seizing up, Dehan supported me up to what was still our room. By now I didn’t even question it. She closed the door and helped me take off my jacket. I fell carefully on the bed and she pulled off my shoes. Then she helped me under the covers.

“You not going to brush your teeth?”

“Not tonight, Josephine.”

She went into the bathroom and prepared for bed. When she came back, she lay down next to me, leaning on her elbow and looking down at my face. She was serious.

“Stone, what happened tonight, when I thought…” She hesitated. “When I thought something had happened to you, something bad, I thought I’d…”

She was having trouble saying it, and I was exhausted and just inebriated enough to realize that life is too short. So I said, “I know. I’ve been there, remember?”

We stared at each other for a long moment. We often did when we were thinking, but this was different. I knew I should be worried, but I wasn’t. She said, “I know we’re partners. But we’re friends, too, right?”

I smiled. “More like family.”

She smiled back. “I got a lot of family. But no one quite like…” She paused again, reached out and placed her hand gently on the raw wound on my chest. “I don’t know what I would have done…”

The knock at the door made us both jump. She hesitated a moment, then sat up quickly and went to open it. It was Ned.

“I am so sorry to disturb you, Detectives. I’d thought you were still dining. I didn’t realize you had come up, and I wouldn’t bother you, only I know you were anxious…”

“What is it?”

“Well, we finally have another room for you. It’s right next door here. I’ll leave the key with you and let you sleep. Good night!”

I heard him hurry away and, after a pause, Dehan closed the door. She came and stood at the foot of the bed, holding the key, and smiled down at me.

“You going to be OK on your own?”

I shrugged. It took me a moment to answer. “Of course. I’ll be fine. Thanks.”

“So I guess I’ll go next door, let you sleep in peace.”

“You too. No snoring tonight.”

She laughed and grabbed her stuff. At the door, she stopped and looked back. “Sleep well, Stone.”

I grinned. “It was nice sleeping with you, princess.”

“Take a hike. Idiot.”

The door closed and I struggled out of bed and into the bathroom, where I had a long, cold shower.

Eighteen

I got up late, showered, dressed, and checked my email. There was still nothing about Kathleen’s records. I went down to the dining room and found Dehan on the phone to the sheriff. She hung up as I sat down and Peaches and Cream came over to pour me some coffee.

Dehan waved the phone at me. “I called the sheriff. He was very cooperative. We can go over any time to interrogate the prisoners. How do you want to play it?”

“It would have been nice to have those damned records before we went in. Still, it is what it is.” I sighed and thought it through for a minute. “Greg is scared. You saw that. He thought he was onto a safe thing, but it’s spiraled out of control. He’ll be happy to give us Sly and Coy if he thinks he’s going to save his own skin.”

She frowned as though she didn’t like the idea. “So, offer him a deal?”

I shook my head. “No. I want you to take him first. Let him know I am interrogating Sly and Coy. Make him believe they’re spilling their guts and he is going down on a capital charge.”

She was nodding. “We can use the Angels, too, if we need to. Their story is they thought they were just distributing weed. Now it turns out they’re up for murder one. They’re panicking and pointing the finger at him and Sly and Coyote.”

“Yeah. Make him believe you hate his guts, and your one purpose in life