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

There was a growing Asian population in the Bronx. Mick said the Mafia weren’t interested, and all we had to contend with was the Mexicans. He said the Mexicans were not organized, and with our resources we could control them. There was a lot of money to be made in prostitution and drugs. Prostitution and drugs is what we do.”

Dehan said, “But he told you there was just one obstacle.”

Zhu nodded. “Nelson Hernandez. He said if we could take out Nelson, we would own the neighborhood. He wanted a fee for information on where and when to hit Nelson, and he wanted a retainer every month.”

I asked him, “How much?”

“Twenty-five K for the information, and twenty-five K a month.”

Dehan asked, “So that was fifty K upfront?”

“Yeah. When we got there, Nelson was dead. His head and his balls were on the table. There were four other guys dead too. It was an execution. We had a man outside, watching, who told us the cops were coming. We got out just in time, otherwise we would’ve gone down for it. Mick set us up and walked away with fifty grand.”

Dehan shook her head. “Why would he do that?”

He turned his direct stare on her. “That isn’t complicated. He knew his time was up. He was approaching retirement. Every year the system was getting harder to play. Every year there was a new bunch of clean cops coming onto the force, and every year it was getting harder for him to hold on to his position. He was beginning to feel the heat. It was just a matter of time before somebody took him down, either to clean up the show or to replace him. So he played us, Nelson and the Italians against each other. He took fifty grand from us. I don’t know how much he took from the Italians, but at least that much, and what he took from Nelson must have been close to five hundred K. Plus, whatever he’d been stashing away for the last couple of years, I figure he ran with a couple of million at least. Maybe five.”

I said, “So while you’re looking at the Mob, the Mob are looking at you, and the cops are looking at you both. Nobody is looking at Mick, who quietly slips away.”

“That’s how I figure it.”

Dehan asked, “So where’d he go?”

I was expecting the same answer I’d got from everybody, so it was a surprise when he answered without hesitation, “Mexico.”

“Mexico? How does that make sense? He just killed five guys who are in with the Sureños and he goes to Mexico?”

He smiled and shook his head. It was the most expressive thing I’d seen him do. “You think on the surface. You got to ask deeper questions. Ask yourself, how much would the Sureños pay Mick Harragan to kill Nelson?”

I dropped back in my chair and stared at him. “He was a fucking embarrassment to them. Mick wasn’t causing the turf war, he was playing the turf war the Nelson was creating.”

“The Sureños wanted Nelson out of the way more than anybody. With Nelson gone, they hoped we’d go back to Chinatown and they could negotiate a deal with the Jersey Mob. They knew Mick had a beef with Nelson because Nelson had stopped paying him. Mick wanted to make a stash and get out. So he struck a deal: he kills Nelson, they pay him and give him a safe place to retire. Ask yourself, which is the one group that isn’t chasing after Mick?”

“The very group you’d expect to be out for vengeance and punishment,” said Dehan.

I said, “You know this? You got proof?”

He shook his head but then said, “When we came out of Nelson’s place, we saw the Italians there. They thought we’d killed Nelson, so we knew they didn’t do it. We went and looked for Mick. His house was empty, but there was a bottle of tequila in the breakfast bar in the kitchen, with two glasses. We searched the place. There was nothing, but we found brochures.”

“Mexico?”

“Nelson had a couple of bitches. Mick has a thing for Mexican girls. Nelson kept him supplied. I figure Mexico is where he went, with one of the bitches.”

We sat in silence for a moment. Dehan said, “We done?” I nodded. She picked up the laptop and the pictures and showed them to Zhu. “Send your brother to college. Get him out of the rackets. Give him a chance to become the human being you never did. You obviously love him, so do the right thing by him. If I see him going into the family business, Zhu, this goes to your grandfather.”

He stared at her but didn’t answer, and we left.

In the lot, she leaned on the roof of the Jag and stared at the woodlands that surrounded us.

“You buy it?”

I leaned on the other side. A rook laughed at us without much commitment.

“Do I buy it? There’s no hard evidence for anything right now. All we’ve got is theories. It’s the best theory I’ve heard so far. It has a smell about it of being the right track. But does it make me want to snap my fingers and say ‘Aha!’? No. It doesn’t. How about you?”

She gave me a small smile that unsettled me for some reason. “What you said.”

She got in and we drove to Attica to eat pizza.

Eight

I chewed on the last piece of crust. I was looking out of the window, but in my mind I was seeing the five men sitting around a table, drinking beer and whiskey, eating crisps and nuts, playing poker.

Dehan said, “They’re sitting at the table.” She was tipping a glass of sparkling water this way and that, watching the bubbles, “There’s a knock at the door. Nobody