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

Nineteen

I met Dehan in the corridor and we moved down to the coffee machine. We stood looking out the window at Main Street and the gabled roofs that poked out from among the pines on the slope above it. There were a few wafts of wood smoke trailing out of the chimneys. It was kind of idyllic, and for a moment I understood Watson, and why he didn’t want to believe that his people could be like Sly, and Coy, and Greg.

I asked her, “How’s Cowboy Carson?”

She shrugged. “He’s scared, but he says he hasn’t got anything to tell us. How about you?”

“Sly says Coy did it. His story more or less matches what we thought. Only trouble is, he’s not much of a witness, being blind. In any case, he says he wasn’t there at the killing, and the rest of it is mostly hearsay.”

“Great.”

“Yeah, listen, you take Sly now. Get him to go over his story a couple of times, see if there are any inconsistencies. Have a deputy draft it, then have him sign the statement. If I’m not finished with Greg by then, have Sly taken down and get Coy up here.”

“Got it.”

She went into interrogation room two and I went to check my laptop for the records. There was still nothing. I went in to Greg. He looked scared. I sat opposite him and said, “I suppose Detective Dehan has made you aware of the situation.”

“Yeah, she’s made me aware of the situation. But I am going to say to you what I said to her. You are making a big mistake.”

“How’s that?”

He leaned forward. “I don’t know what Sly and Coy got up to in New York and Mexico, but that don’t have nothin’ to do with me. I ain’t no goddamn killer!”

“That’s not the way it looked last night. I was there, remember? You told me you whipped somebody to death.”

He sighed. “You have to understand, Detective. I meant to put a scare into you. That’s the way we do things ’round here. Somebody treads on your toes, you gotta put a scare into them, or they’ll walk all over you. I threw a scare into you and I hurt you, and maybe that was wrong. But I never meant to kill nobody!”

“You bullwhipped me, and now you are asking me to be understanding and sympathetic?”

He swallowed and flopped back in his chair, staring at me. I was looking across the table at the man who had caused me more physical pain than I had ever believed possible, and I wondered whether I could remain objective. He was close to panic.

“Look,” he said, “I have a reputation ’round here. I have to look tough…”

“You don’t look so tough right now, Greg.”

“No, I know, I understand that, and I understand that I made a big, big mistake last night.” He leaned forward again, “Not just last night. I made a big mistake getting involved with those boys. I should never have done that. But, see, I didn’t think no harm would come from selling a bit of weed. You know, if it’s legal here, it can’t be that bad, right? And I’m told everybody smokes it in New York anyhow.”

“The law of joint enterprise holds that all three of you are equally guilty.”

He took a deep breath and held the edge of the table, trying to control himself. “I know that, and I am admitting to you that what I done was wrong…”

I cut across him, “Who killed Kathleen Olvera?”

He stared at me. “I don’t know.”

“Right now, while we are talking, Sly is next door giving a statement to my partner.”

He went pale. “What’s that son of a bitch sayin’?”

I smiled. “I’ll bring you a transcript, shall I? He wants to make a deal with the DA.” I sighed and sat forward, with my elbows on the table. “You have to realize, Greg, that all three of you are going down. You’re all facing the death penalty. Detective Dehan must have explained that to you. Now, that is the reality you have to face. We have irrefutable proof of what you did. Now one thing, and one thing only, is going to earn one of you leniency, and that is the name of Kathleen’s killer.”

His face flushed and there were tears in his eyes. He leaned forward. “If I knew, do you think I wouldn’t tell you? I liked Kathleen! Her an’ Pat was like sisters to me. I was real fond of ’em both. If I didn’t help you, that’s only ’cause I don’t like strangers butting their nose into our business. But I cared for both of ’em. And when Pat got in trouble with Sly and Coy, I bailed her out. You ask ’em.”

I made a face like he was boring me. “Come on, Greg! You must have some idea. You picked her up from the bus station and delivered her to the Shack!”

He screwed up his face. “What? When?”

“The weekend she was killed.”

“That’s horseshit! I never picked her up. How could I? I didn’t even know she was comin’.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and tried to ignore the headache that was developing in my temple.

“Pat owed Sly and Coy money.”

“Yes sir. She did. Five grand, according to Sly.”

“You paid?”

“On one goddamned condition. I told them plain. If they hurt a hair on her head, I would bullwhip…” He faltered. I gestured him to continue. “That’s what I said to them. If they hurt Pat, I would bullwhip them to within an inch of their lives. I paid them the money and told them not to use her no more for distribution.” He shrugged. “That was when we started talkin’