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

“But you beat him up.”

“Yeah, we beat him. But we did not kill him. Shit! He weren’t through talking to him…”

He knew he’d said too much, sighed, and shut his mouth.

Dehan gave a small laugh. “Okay, help me out here, Alfonso, because to be honest, things are not looking good for you right now. See, here’s my problem. There is you, there is Ernesto, and there is Steve. Steve is tied to the chair, and you both are beating him…”

Alfonso was shaking his head.

Dehan ignored him. “Then what happens, Steve suddenly slips his bonds, shoots your brother, then shoots himself, and just before he dies, he ties himself up again? Come on, level with us, or you are going down for the double homicide of Steve and your brother.”

He sighed. “Hija de puta…”

I growled, “Watch your tongue.”

“We were not the only ones there.” He looked real scared for a moment and leaned forward. “You gotta understand, this had nothing to do with the Sureños. This was just me an’ Ernesto, doin’ a private job.”

Dehan snapped, “What kind of private job?”

“I’m comin’ to that. But you got to understand, this is nothin’ to do with the gang. Okay?”

I nodded. “I understand.”

“It was Danny Schultz. He come to me and Ernesto in Pepe’s Place. We knew him from when we were kids. He’s a fuckin’ loser. Always wheelin’ and dealin’ and always makin’ a fuckin’ loss.” He laughed and I saw he had three teeth missing. “But he comes to me an’ Ernesto an’ he says he has a job. His employer—he call him his ‘employer’—wants him to beat up some guy and find some chick. He says the pay is real good. Danny is no good for that kind of job.” He turned to Dehan like they were old pals. “You know Danny, right? Skinny little fuck. So his employer tells him to go find some real pros. So he come to us.”

Dehan’s voice could have corroded stainless steel. “Yeah, you’re real professionals. So the guy you had to beat up was Steve?”

“Yeah, Danny said this guy knew where the chick was.”

“So what happened?”

He shrugged and pulled a face. He looked confused. “The whole thing was crazy. We get to the apartment and Danny knocks on the door, like he is going to visit his fockin’ family. The guy opens the door and we go in. Danny is pushin’ him. But the fuckin’ chick is there in the apartment. So what the fuck? Now what?”

I stopped him. “Is this the girl?”

I showed him a photograph of Tammy.

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s her. Cute chick.”

Dehan said, “So what happened next?”

“Danny starts going crazy, screaming at both of them to tell where it is.”

I stopped him again. “Where what is?”

He shook his head. “I dunno, man. He’s just screaming, ‘Where the fuck is it? Tell me where the fuck it is!’ But they just keep sayin’ they don’t know what he’s talkin’ about. So Danny tells me and Ernesto to tie Steve to the chair. Now Steve is getting scared, right? So he changes his tune. Now he’s sayin’ he don’t know where it is, but she does.”

“Hang on.” It was Dehan. “Did Danny tell you at any point who his employer was?”

Alfonso shook his head. “No, man, that was like, secret. But he made it sound like this guy had plenny money. That was not a consideration. An’ this chick, she had something that he wanted real bad. So I’m thinking now we gonna have to beat up on the girl. But Danny has a different idea. He is gonna be smart. She is like crying and begging for them not to hurt Steve. She even gets down on her knees, and she is sayin’ over and over, ‘please don’t hurt him, please don’t hurt him.’ So Danny tells her he is going to beat Steve to death if she don’t tell him where it is. All she does is cry. So Danny gives Steve a backhander…” He started laughing with real mirth. “The motherfucker almost breaks his fockin’ hand. You could see the fockin’ tears in his eyes, man. So he says to me and Ernesto to beat Steve to death, and don’t stop until she talks.”

Dehan shook her head. “But you didn’t.”

“No, man. We give him a good beating. Danny is standing by the door, smoking. Me and Ernesto is takin’ it in turns, and Steve is in a bad way. She is on the floor, hysterical, cryin’ and beggin’, ‘please don’t hurt him! Please don’t hurt him!’” He turned to look at me with genuine bewilderment. “But who gets chicks, right? Suddenly, she’s screaming, ‘all right! All right!’ like this, ‘all right, I take you to it! Just stop hurting him!’ And she goes to a chest of drawers, like she’s gonna get some keys or some shit. And, I am swearing to you, man, she takes out a .38 from the drawer an’ she plugs a hole right in Steve’s chest. Right there! Like that, pom! Then she shoots Ernesto. Then she turns the gun on Danny, but he is out of there like fockin’ shit, man.”

Dehan narrowed her eyes. “She didn’t shoot you…”

He shook his head slowly. “No, man, I bent down to help Ernesto and get him out of there. He’s hurt bad. I look at her. She looks at me. Then she’s gone. I don’t know if she went after Danny or what she did. I just know I didn’t die that night porque Dios no lo quiso.” He looked at me. “God didn’t want it.”

I drummed the table with my fingers. “Yeah, no doubt he’s saving you for a sunbeam.”

Dehan stared at me for a moment,