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

“Makes sense to me.”

I called the captain as I climbed the steps.

Twenty One

The drive back was tedious and uneventful. We ended up stopping, around midnight, at a motel near Lake Erie and sleeping for four hours. Which meant we finally pulled in to the 43rd Station House at noon. The first thing we did was drop in on the captain for a debriefing. He was less than amused by the fact that we had, arguably, entered Greg Carson’s property illegally, but satisfied that we had ‘assisted’ the county sheriff in busting a drugs trafficking ring.

“But,” he said, gazing out the window at the fall leaves on the plain trees. “If I understand you, John, the sheriff of Lee County asked for your assistance because he did not believe the murder was committed there. You went there believing it was, and effectively proved that he was right in the first place. So you are now back at square one. Would you say that was a fair assessment?”

He narrowed his eyes at me, but it was Dehan who answered.

“It’s not a fair assessment, Captain.”

He shifted his gaze to her. “It’s not, Carmen?”

“No, sir. In the first place, Sheriff Watson had done squat. He kicked it back to us because he said he hadn’t the resources to investigate, but in fact he had simply assumed that the murder took place here. He didn’t prove it, he assumed it. Our investigation not only busted a drugs ring that was selling dope in New York, we also found evidence, related to that ring, that will assist in clearing up the case. Evidence the sheriff should have uncovered himself.”

“I see. So what is your next move?”

I took a deep breath and sighed. “I want to know what life insurance Kathleen had and who benefited from it. So we’ll be talking to her insurance company. I also want to talk again to Mo and Anne-Marie. They are the obvious beneficiaries of her death. Presumably he benefited from any life insurance, and they both benefited because they were free to marry.”

He frowned. “I thought you’d looked at that and discarded it.”

I nodded. “Yes, and it still doesn’t make a lot of sense. Why kill her but divorce Isaac? But still, we have to look again because we obviously missed something.”

“OK, perhaps her life insurance, assuming she has any, will provide an answer.”

Back downstairs, while Dehan went through Kathleen’s file to find out what policies she had, I called Mo and told him I wanted him and Anne-Marie to come over to the station for a chat. He said they’d be there by one.

When I hung up and looked across the desk at Dehan, she had a face like brain-ache. She tossed a sheet of paper on the desk in front of me. It told me Kathleen did indeed have a life insurance policy, it told me how much for and who the beneficiary was. I stared at it for a long moment, then tossed it back.

“Find out who took it out. Mo and Anne-Marie will be here in half an hour. I’m going to talk to Mo. I want you to take Anne-Marie. Don’t lean on her. Be nice. Be understanding, woman of the world stuff. Ask her what she knows about Kathleen’s movements the morning she was supposed to have left. Go over it in detail, step by step.”

“OK. Are we telling them we know she didn’t go to Colorado?”

I shook my head. “No. Let them think we still believe she was killed out there. All we are trying to do is piece together her movements that morning. I want them both relaxed and off their guard. Then I want to compare their stories. So press her for details, as many details as you can. That’s where the devil is, in the detail. And that’s where they might start contradicting each other.”

They arrived at five past one. We greeted them cordially and said we’d be more comfortable upstairs where no one would disturb us. Mo looked a bit disconcerted when Dehan led Anne-Marie away, but I smiled and assured him we just wanted to discuss different things, and this would save time.

I led him into the interrogation room and we sat. He leaned on the table and asked me, “How’d it go in Seven Hills?”

“Inconclusive so far. I wanted to ask you about Kathleen’s movements on the Friday morning that she left for Colorado. But before we get to that, tell me something. What do you know about a guy called El Coyote…?”

He smiled. “Coy? He’s a friend of Greg’s. I don’t know much. I believe he’s some kind of wetback, if you’ll forgive the expression, Detective. He likes to make people believe he ran with a Mexican gang when he was younger, likes to play the hard man. I don’t know if it’s true. Folks up in the mountains ain’t easily impressed, if you take my meaning.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I noticed. So you don’t know if his stories are true?”

He gave his head a little twitch. “I don’t know. He liked to play with knives, and he used to tell this story that he was known in Mexico for cutting folks’ heads off, but I never gave it much credit, to be honest.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’d heard.” I nodded. “OK, Mo, what I really want to talk about today is Kathleen’s movements before she left. First of all, how did she travel, and where to?”

“Well, to be honest, Detective, I have never been sure. See, we’d had a bit of a fallin’ out, on account of she thought I wasn’t spendin’ enough time with her and Baby. So she didn’t actually tell me how she was goin’. She just said she was gonna go see my parents. I always assumed she took the train