Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #4: Books 13-16 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [story read aloud .txt] 📗

agreed, even people who barely knew them. They adored each other. And she, I hardly ever see her now, but I know, she never recovered from his death. She used to be bright, lively, fun; but since his death she has just faded away. And her writing! It has become so dark!”

I gave a small sigh and rubbed my chin again. The picture I was getting, both from Helena and Greenway, was almost absurdly detailed and yet told me nothing about the man. I went for the question that had been playing on my mind.

“You say he never socialized unless it was with his wife. So, where did he go for lunch that Thursday at one PM?”

For a moment he reminded me vaguely of a goldfish, staring at me with round eyes, his mouth working on unformed words which never made it past his larynx. Dehan said, “Presumably he had a secretary, and a diary.”

He scratched his eyebrow and stammered, “Long, long… um… long since departed, I’m afraid…”

“You mentioned a team.”

“As I say, that was about five years ago. There was Jean Reynolds, Angie Byrne, Peter Heseltine… Those are the names that come to mind. Angie was the graphic designer, Jean and Peter came from backgrounds in CG, animation, special effects, that kind of thing. They all had creative input.”

“They still with the company?”

“Oh, yes, they are still with us, we value…”

“Could we talk to them?”

He gave a laugh that was more stress than humor. “They are actually engaged in a presentation right now that is worth several million dollars to the company. Let me arrange it and tomorrow, the day after at the very latest, you can sit down with them and have their full attention.”

I smiled like someone who wants to be cooperative. “We’d appreciate that.”

Dehan scratched the tip of her nose and asked, “Mr. Greenway, who benefited from Jack Connors’ death?”

He opened his mouth, his eyebrows moved in various ways and he blinked several times.

“Ah… Nobody benefited from Jack’s death. Helena inherited a lot of money and property that was, in effect, already hers! She inherited controlling shares in this company, which she did not want, because she had zero interest in it; and she ended up selling me a bundle of shares. So there was no real material benefit there, but she did lose a man whom she was very much in love with.

“You are probably thinking that I benefited by becoming CEO, but you’re wrong. Jack was planning to take early retirement anyway, and we had already discussed how he was going to transfer the reins of the company to me, and with them a bundle of shares. As it turned out, I had to buy those shares from Helena, so I actually lost money, and also the support and guidance of a businessman who was frankly brilliant. I miss him every day as a guide and a mentor. Emotional horseshit no doubt, but true nonetheless.”

I stared at him a moment, chewing my lip and thinking that he sounded sincere. After a moment he spread his hands and said, “Detectives, forgive me for being blunt, but we are up against tight deadlines and I don’t see that I can be much more help to you.”

I nodded slowly a few times. Dehan turned to look at me. I said, “There is just one last question, Mr. Greenway. Who was he having the affair with?”

He closed his eyes and sighed heavily. “I don’t know, Detective Stone. I believe he strayed a few times over the years. He never talked about it, but there were telltale signs…” He gestured at me. “As you noted, going out for lunch, which was totally uncharacteristic, not collecting his wife from college to take her to the book launch. It was atypical behavior and strongly suggestive of an affair. But I cannot swear to the fact, nor do I know who he was involved with.”

Dehan narrowed her eyes at him. “Did she know?”

“Helena?” He hesitated. “She is a highly intelligent woman, very deep and very intuitive. I would be very surprised if she didn’t know, but I suspect they both accepted it. For him it was a biological need and she just accepted that that was the kind of man he was.”

Dehan raised an eyebrow. “A man’s man.”

Greenway shook his head. “Don’t attack me, Detective. I don’t condone what he did. I am just telling you how I think they dealt with it. We never discussed it and I have no idea what went on in their private lives.”

There was a tap at the door and it opened. I turned to look. It was a small man in a suit. He was perhaps in his mid thirties with a face that was not unpleasant, but not particularly pleasant either. The only way to describe him was to say that he was nondescript. He stopped dead when he saw us and said, “Oh, I’m sorry…”

Seth groaned and managed to turn it into a sigh. “Peter, come in, close the door. These are Detectives Dehan and Stone. They are investigating Jack’s murder, five years ago.”

His eyes were round, with small lashes. He approached, staring from Dehan to me and back again. He said, “Oh…” He looked past us then, at Seth, and said, “We finished the presentation. It went really well. The girls and I have been on our feet for thirty-six hours, we were going to go home if that’s OK…”

“Of course…”

I stood. “Mr. Greenway, thank you for your help. Peter…” I turned to him. “We’ll walk you down. We have a couple of questions we’d like to ask you. It won’t take more than a couple of minutes.”

THREE

We traveled down in the elevator with Peter and Angie Byrne. Dehan smiled at them and said, “You carpooling? Got far to go?”

Angie,