Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #1: Books 1-4 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [classic children's novels txt] 📗

still at work. He did the night shift, but Marcela was home. They had the top floor of a double fronted house on Irvine Street, near the corner of Garrison Avenue. We climbed the stairs to the top floor, where a plasterboard wall had been put in to turn what should have been a family home into two apartments. Once the wall was up, somebody had started to paint it, but given up half way. The landing was big enough for just one person. Dehan went ahead and rang the bell.

Marcela was short, overweight, and pretty. Dehan had to stoop to hug her, and winced at the shriek of pleasure the woman let out in her ear. They babbled in Spanish while I waited on the stairs, and Marcela kept coming in for follow up hugs and kisses. Finally, Dehan turned and said, “Marcela, this is John, he’s my partner.”

She dragged Dehan into the apartment so she could get at me, gave me two big kisses on my cheeks and told me how handsome I was in two languages. Then she pushed us both into her living room.

They sat together on the sofa and Marcela pinched her cheek and squeaked, “Ay, mi Carmencita preciosa!”

Dehan smiled and held her hand in both of her own. “Tita, we need to talk to you. It is really important.”

Marcela became serious. “Is this police business?”

“It’s about Alicia, Tita.”

Marcela put her hands to her cheeks and gasped. “Ay Dios mío! Did you find her? Is she okay? Did something happen to her?”

“We don’t know yet, but we found Sean.”

“You found Sean?” She could tell from Dehan’s face that it wasn’t good news. “Is he dead?”

Dehan nodded. “Yes, Tita, he was murdered twelve years ago, when he disappeared.”

Marcela’s face drained white. “So, Alicia…?”

Dehan reached quickly for her hand. “No, Tita, not necessarily. We don’t know what happened to Alicia. Sean’s body was there all along, right by the church, tu me entiendes? But nobody recognized it because they changed his clothes. But Alicia, there was no body found anywhere, so maybe she escaped. Maybe she went away where they couldn’t find her.”

There were tears in Marcela’s eyes. “She would call. She would tell me where she was.”

“Not if she was trying to protect you.”

“Protect me? Who from?”

“That’s what we need to find out, Tita.”

I sat forward. “Marcela, did Sean come to your house often?”

Her face lit up. “Oh, yes, all the time. Such a nice boy, very handsome and so kind. They were going to get married.”

“How did he and Alicia meet?”

“At the church. He was a good Christian. Very devoto.” She gave a cheeky smile. “Maybe too much, huh? I think maybe I never get grandchildren!” She laughed uproariously, slapping Dehan on the leg.

I smiled. “And Alicia was also a good Catholic, right?”

She clasped her hands to her heart and cocked her head. “So good, such a good child. Loved her mammy, didn’t she, Carmencita?”

“She sure did, Tita.”

“So, what was Alicia doing at the church, Marcela?”

She shrugged and pulled a face. “The soup kitchen, distributin’ the clothes for the poor people. ’Cause it gets real cold for the homeless people in the winter. She work with the huerfanitos…”

“The what?”

“The little orphan children. Some of them, their parents have died, others their parents have gone to prison, or they can’t care for them because they drinkin’ or takin’ drugs, you know? These kids got nowhere to go, no school, nowhere to live.”

“And Alicia helped them? How?”

“Father O’Neil is a good man.” She turned reprovingly to look at Dehan. “I know you don’t like him, but he is a good man.” She looked back to me. “He organize classes for the kids to learn reading and writing, math, the basic things you gonna need, and he provide a place for them to sleep and stay when is cold.”

“And Alicia was involved in this program?”

“Involve? She run it! She was runnin’ the program, and Sean was trying to get compensation for the eviction on Tiffany Street. They were both really trying to help the community. Like two saints.” She started to cry. “But they was too good, and God take them to his bosom. Lord know we need people like this in the world. Why he takes them away?”

Dehan put her arms around her and held her. “We don’t know he did, Marcela. Let’s wait and see, okay?”

“Marcela, we only have a couple more questions.”

She blew her nose and nodded at me.

“Did he ever talk about what he was doing? Did he ever mention any people, any names?”

She rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air. “Ay! Always! Always! He was talking about Conor Hagan. He was obsessed with Conor Hagan. I tell him, ‘Sean, there are more bad guys in the world than Conor Hagan!’ but he don’ wanna know. He is obsess, he gonna bring him down and punish him for the bad things he done. I tell him, ‘back off a little or you gonna get problems,’ but he don’t listen to me.” She paused a moment to fold her handkerchief. “A week or a few days before he disappear, he come and he say to Alicia, ‘they callin’ me, warning me to back off,’ they are tryin’ to buy him off and threatening him. He said to her, ‘you want we can split up, so you and your family are not at risk?’ She said no, she was gonna stand by him. That is the kind of girl she is.”

“So Sean told Alicia he had received threats from Conor Hagan?”

“Oh yeah, for sure.”

Dehan held her hand tight. “Tita, have you got anything, letters, emails, a computer, a cell phone, anything from back then that might have something on it that we can