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

“I said, I don’t give a damn if you’re a snitch or not, José. I just want to find your sister.”

“She went away ten years ago. I was ten. She was nine years older than me. She was nice. She wasn’t like other people round here. She wanted to get out of the hood and do something. She used to talk about going to college. She used to say that me an’ her were going to San Francisco. There was a good college there where she could study psychology. She was smart.”

Dehan said, “You think she went to San Francisco?”

He shook his head. “She was real pretty. There was a gang back then. They were real tough. The boss of the gang was Nelson. He used to take all the nice-looking chicks. They were his girlfriends, but he’d use them as hookers too. He came one day and said Maria was going to be his wife. She was the best chick in the hood, so she deserved the best guy.”

He stopped because he was having trouble holding back the tears. His jaw muscles worked, and he looked away. After a bit, he drank some coffee.

“She cried and she begged him. He said if she didn’t come with him willingly, he’d hurt Mamá and me. Maria had a boyfriend from Brooklyn who used to come and visit her. They were makin’ plans together. Nelson said he’d kill him if he ever came round again.”

“You were ten?” It was Dehan. He nodded. “And you saw all this?”

“He told Mamá we had to be there, so we all knew he was serious. So in the end she married him.”

I frowned. “By the church.”

“No, man, it was a ceremony of the Ángeles de Satanás. But she was his wife, which meant she belonged to him, like his bike.”

“How long did this go on?”

He shrugged. “Couple of months, maybe a bit more.”

“Did she confide in you? Did she tell you anything about what went on?”

“She told me she didn’t want me to worry about it.” He gave a small bitter laugh. “She wanted me to think about getting out, about makin’ a good life. But Sam came and visited a couple of times, and he was always phoning her.”

Dehan interrupted. “Sam?”

“The guy she was seeing before.”

“He came back?”

José smiled. “He was crazy about her. I used to listen to them talk. He said he wasn’t scared of Nelson. He was going to save her.”

Dehan asked, “Did he say how?”

“It was just talk. He never did. He said he was gonna go to the cops, but she told him not to. She said there was a cop Nelson used to pay with money and girls. He liked Latina girls. Nelson gave him my sister one night, and he fell crazy in love with her.”

I said, “Wait. You’re telling me this cop fell in love with your sister?”

“Yeah. What? That so hard to believe? What, only white chicks…?”

“Shut up, José. Just answer the question.”

“Yeah. He was crazy about her. He was losin’ his fockin’ head!”

“And this cop’s name was…?”

“Mick, they called him Irish Mick. And his pal Kirk, like fockin’ Star Trek.”

The madder he got, the more he exaggerated his accent. Dehan suddenly exploded, “Cut the fucking act, will you! Show your sister some respect! Is this what she wanted for you? Mouthing off at a couple of cops? Nelson kidnaps and rapes your sister, and instead of honoring her and what she wanted, you do your damnedest to be like Nelson!” She leaned across the table and spoke into his astonished face. “It’s pronounced fuck, with a u. Fucking. Fuck.”

I suppressed a laugh and tried to look serious. “So what happened, José?”

“They used to have a poker game regular once a week. Maria and sometimes some other chicks would be there to serve drinks and… take care of the guys. One night some guys turned up and wiped out Nelson and his cousins and took Maria with them. That was the last time I saw her. She give me a kiss. She said next day she’d take me to the zoo. I remember that. I’d never been to the zoo. She left and I never saw her again. Word was Irish Mick disappeared that night too, and Captain Kirk.”

I sighed, weighing all the angles, trying to fit the pictures together in my head. “You think it’s possible she could have planned all this with Mick?”

He shook his head. There was no hesitation. “She hated Mick. She hated him as much as she hated Nelson. Maybe more.”

“Did you ever hear from Sam again?”

“No.”

I drummed on the table for a bit while my mind did some thinking. Then I said, “José, we’re going to find your sister.” I pointed at Dehan and then at myself. “We’re going to look for her, and we are not going to stop until we find her. You can help. Now you’ve done this much, why not go the whole ten yards?”

He eyed Dehan cautiously. “What you want me to do?”

“I want you to talk to your mom about Maria. I want you to ask her if she knows where she is. And I want you to persuade her to talk to us. We can fix it so that nobody ever finds out. Will you do that?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do that.” He stood. “We done?”

“We’re done for now.”

He looked at Dehan, and there was a real sincerity about him when he said, “Thanks, Detective.”

He left, and I looked at her and shrugged. “I guess it’s the way you pronounce fuck. Who could resist it?”

Ten

I was sitting at my desk with squares of sunlight warped across the old sheets of paper I was looking at. Dehan was