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

or the bus. But she might have flown, I suppose. Or she might have rented a car.”

“OK. So talk me through what happened that morning.”

“Jeez.” He gave his head another twitch. “It’s a long time ago, but I’ll do my best.” He thought for a moment. “I recall I had spent the night at Mom’s place.”

“Why was that?”

He looked a little surprised. “Well, I had to be up early to go with Isaac. He had a friend who was maybe gonna give me some work. So I had to be up early and Baby, bless her, she was keepin’ us up all night.”

I nodded understanding. “Sure, I get it. But you didn’t go with Isaac in the end.”

“Oh, well, uh, no. He phoned to say he’d got up late. So we’d go on Monday.”

“OK, so what time did you get home?”

“Well, I can’t remember exactly…”

“Did you have breakfast at home?”

“Uh, yeah. I reckon I did, yeah.”

“And how was Kathleen over breakfast?”

“Like I say, she was a bit mad at me for havin’ left her alone.”

“Did you often get mad at each other at that time?”

“No!” He laughed. “Most of the time we was inseparable. Everybody used to comment on it, how close we was. We never had what you’d call a fight. We was real close.”

“So what happened after breakfast?”

He shrugged. “We talked a bit. She told me she was mad and she told me why…”

I interrupted him. “Now, I’m a little confused. You said she was mad because you hadn’t been spending enough time with her and Baby—Sinead, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But you just said that you were real close… So how come you hadn’t been spending time with her?”

“Well, no, I mean, it was just that night. Maybe a couple of other nights, if I had to be up early.”

“OK, so she told you why she was mad, and what happened then? How come you didn’t make up?”

“Well, she said she was goin’ up to see my folks.”

“Did she often do that?”

“No.”

“Had she ever done that before?”

“Not really.”

“Not really…?”

“I mean, never.”

“Did that strike you as strange, Mo? Her suddenly up and going off to see your folks like that?”

“Well, I guess it did. But she was mad and women can do real strange things when they’re mad.”

I laughed. “You got that right! And it sounds like she was pretty mad!”

He laughed with me, relieved at the drop in tension. “She was that!”

I stopped laughing and frowned. “Odd though, isn’t it, that she was that mad. You know, you say you had a great relationship, never had fights, and yet she got so mad about you staying at her mom’s place… Doesn’t seem much to get that mad about.”

He swallowed. “I guess…”

“So she was real mad, and not in the mood to make up and kiss.”

“Nope.”

“So what happened next?”

“Well, uh… She left. Said she was goin’ to see my folks and have a break for a few days. And she walked out.”

I nodded and thought about it for a while. Then I stood and said, “Will you excuse me for five minutes, Mo? I’ll be right back.”

He looked a little anxious. “Sure…”

I stepped into the corridor and walked down to the room where Dehan was talking to Anne-Marie. I poked my head in and they both looked up. I smiled at Anne-Marie, then said to Dehan, “A word?”

She came out and closed the door behind her.

“Give me five minutes with Anne-Marie, will you? Take Mo. Just make him go over again, in minute detail, what happened on the Friday morning, and where he spent Thursday night.”

She frowned at me. “Care to tell me what we’re doing?”

I nodded. “As soon as I know I’ll tell you. Just go with it for now.”

She walked down the way I’d come and I stepped in to the room with Anne-Marie, closed the door and sat opposite her.

“Anne-Marie, I want to make this as painless and simple as possible. Nobody is judging anybody here, we are all adults. All we are doing is trying to unravel this mess and get at what happened to Kathleen up in Lee County…”

She frowned at me. “What do you mean?”

I smiled and placed both hands on the table. “OK, Mo has just come clean with me and told me that you and he were having an affair before Kathleen’s death.” I laughed. “I have to tell you that that came as a surprise to absolutely nobody!” She laughed nervously. I went on in a reassuring voice. “Now, I know that he spent the Thursday night with you, he told me. So what I need you to do is confirm that for me, and tell me exactly what happened on Friday morning.”

She hesitated, then flopped back in her chair, smiling. “Oh, Lord! That’s kind of a relief. It’s like a weight off my chest to be able to admit that.” I smiled and waited. “Yes, Mo spent the night with me. And then next morning he went back to his apartment…”

“I don’t mean to be indelicate,” I gave her my best lopsided, man of the world smile, “but being in the first flush of a new romance, that would have been what, about eleven in the morning?”

She blushed and gave a pretty, demure laugh. “About that, yes.”

“Now, just clear something up for me, Anne-Marie, how did this work? Isaac…?”

I paused so she would fill in the gap. She obliged. “Isaac stayed in our apartment and me and Mo stayed at Mel’s.”

“And Mel?”

She sighed. “Things had got real bad between me and Isaac and I had been stayin’ at Mel’s most all the time for about a month, I guess. She’s real fond of me and I