Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #3: Books 9-12 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [reading in the dark TXT] 📗

He studied the tip of his cigarette. “I think you will be interested in what I have to tell you.”

“So tell me.”

He smiled and pointed down toward the river. “Down there.”

“Are you kidding? You want to go down to the river?”

He nodded. “I need to show you something.”

I pulled my 1911, pointed it at him and cocked the hammer. “OK, show me something.”

His face went tight. “You pulled a gun on me? Man, you are so uptight.”

“Lean on the car.” He put the butt in his mouth and leaned on the car. I patted him down. He was clean. “OK, walk. Show me.”

He pushed himself off the car and moved toward the gate in the fence. We went through and he began to stumble and slide down the track toward the river. A waxing moon in its first quarter was rising, ghostly and orange over Brooklyn, but offered no light on the path, which was dense with shadows.

Finally he broke out onto the flatter ground and ran a couple of steps. I followed after him and he stopped and turned to face me. He looked at my weapon and shook his head. “Put your gun away, Detective. I don’t know what to do to make you trust me, man.”

I looked around, listening. “Telling the truth might be a start,” I said. “Sit down.”

He nodded. “That’s what I brought you here for. To tell you the whole truth.” He sat and I started to inspect the undergrowth surrounding us while he continued to speak. “You’re a smart man, Stone. A lot of cops are stupid. You know that? But you—you’re smart. What I told you was the truth, but it wasn’t all the truth, and you saw that.”

When I was satisfied we were alone I returned to where he was sitting, found a rock and sat where I could see the path up to the road. I released the hammer and holstered my gun.

“You saw the news, huh?”

He chuckled. “Yeah, I saw the news. I’m a hero!”

“You didn’t know we’d found Rosario and Sonia.”

He shook his head and waved his hands in circles. “But, dude, you jump to so many conclusions on the basis of nothin’. I told you there were other girls. I told you he was talkin’ to some chicks. The only one I witnessed was Angela.”

I smiled without much humor. “So what am I doing here?”

He wagged a finger at me like I had been naughty. With his left hand he took a last drag on his cigarette, dropped it on the turf and crushed it out with his toe. “I knew! I knew that you would start over-thinking things, and read too much into these other chicks. And I thought, if we could have a private conversation, just you and me, we could resolve any doubts that you have.” He leered. “You feel me?”

I shrugged. “The DA believes you, my inspector believes you, why do you care what I think?”

He nodded down at his feet. “Because you, my friend, are a Rottweiler. You grab a hold of somethin’ and you will not let go. Even if you’re wrong. I know dudes like you, and I am never gonna get a day’s rest as long as I have you on my tail.”

“So what are you going to show me, Wayne? Jimmy’s trophies from Rosario and Sonia?”

He sat upright and spread his hands. “Now, how in the world would I know where to find them?”

“You tell me, Wayne. The same way you got hold of Angela and Cherry’s panties. The same way you got hold of all those photographs.”

“I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, Stone. I think you have developed a fixation.” He leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees, and pointed at me. “You know what I think? I think you are sufferin’ from a bad case of jealousy.”

I smiled. “Really?”

“Your cute Detective Dehan, man, she could put the cuffs on me any day. You think I ain’t noticed the way she looks at me?” He grinned. “All that anger and hostility, man, that masks passion and hunger. A woman like that, with all that animal power, she is drawn to a badass like me. It ain’t cerebral, Stone…” He shook his head. “Her relationship with you? That’s love. I can see that. It’s a connection of two minds. But with me? Dude, it is pure animal biology. That pony wants this cowboy to ride her.”

There was a hot rage in my belly, but I was not going to let him see it. Not yet. Instead I kept the smile fixed, shook my head and gave a small laugh. “You’re sloppy, Wayne. You overrate your own intelligence. An IQ of 145? What did you do, get a DIY Home IQ Test? You sure it wasn’t just 45? Let me tell you what happened. You called Jimmy and you told him not to go to work, because you were going to go and visit him. As soon s you got out you went straight to his apartment. You took a bottle of rum with you, to celebrate your release. You sat with him on the sofa and filled his head with all that pretentious shit you talk, and then you shot him. You wiped your prints off the gun and squeezed his hand onto the butt and the trigger. Then you took the glasses to the kitchen, washed the prints off them and left, taking your bottle of rum with you, because you remembered you had told me you liked rum.”

“That’s quite a story.”

“It’s more than a story, Wayne.”

Yeah?” He laughed. “How you gonna prove it? You ain’t got no witness.”

“Witness? Oh, I have a witness, Wayne. I have you. You are at least intelligent enough to know that a guilty plea can seriously affect