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

to explain to me what it is exactly that I have on you that I could use for blackmail?”

“Stop playing games with me.”

“You have no idea how much I know, Emma, do you?” I waited, and she just kept staring, with flushed cheeks and eyes bright with threatened tears. And I kept thinking I had never seen a woman quite so beautiful. “I know about Tammy.” I studied her face for a reaction. “I know about Peter and Steve, and about Danny. And I know about Hugh. I know everything.”

“You can’t…”

“I can’t what? I told you, I’m a cop. Digging up shit is what I do for a living.”

“All right, you have my attention! So why don’t you tell me for once and for all what it is you want?”

I walked back to her and stood really close so we were touching. I felt her tremble and took hold of her arms, pressing her closer. “I want in. I want to be a part of it.”

Her voice was a harsh whisper. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

I took out one of my cards and slipped it into the low-cut neckline of her dress. I heard her breath shudder and smiled at her.

“I can help you, baby. That schmuck of a husband of yours ain’t going to cut it. You need me, and you know it. You knew it the minute I walked through that door.”

She shook her head. “No…”

“Think about it. Call me tonight.”

I walked out and crossed the road. As I climbed in my car, I could see her staring through the glass at me.

When I got back to the station, Dehan was at the desk writing up her notes on the case. She glanced at me as I sat down, and carried on writing.

“San Mateo PD called. They pulled Peter in last night. They’ll be here by five.”

“Good.”

She continued writing. “You got something to report, or is it private?”

“No, it’s not private, Dehan. Will you stop saying that already? I just don’t know what it is.”

She gave half a nod. She wrote in silence for a bit. After a while, she said, “Well, if you ever find out what it is, or decide you’d like to work with a partner, you let me know.”

“Dehan, what is eating you?”

She threw down her pen hard enough to make it bounce. “What is eating me? Seriously? You open up a whole new angle on this investigation. You completely exclude me from it. And all you have to tell me is that you don’t know ‘what it is.’ Well, from where I am sitting, it looks like it’s enough to have you most of yesterday afternoon on a stakeout. And it’s enough to have you all this morning doing whatever you’ve been doing in your best suit and your most expensive aftershave. But it’s not enough for you to tell your partner about. It’s enough for you—” She poked her finger at me. “To conduct your own private investigation, but it’s not enough for you to keep me in the loop about it.”

“I’m sorry, Dehan.”

She spread her hands. “So, what is this angle on the investigation that is enough to keep you so busy, but is not enough for me to be kept informed about it?”

“You’re right. I should have kept you in the loop. But it’s hard to explain.” She raised an eyebrow at me. I tried to ignore her and pressed on. “It’s just a hunch. Well, it’s a bit more than a hunch now.”

“So, what is it?”

“I told you Baxter went to see this woman, then she went to see him.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So I went in to talk to her. She’s young, attractive, and she’s married to the owner of the antiques shop, who is almost three times her age and one of the best-known experts in antiques in New York.”

“So?”

“Give me a break, Dehan, I’m explaining. So I went in this morning and made a play.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You made a play? What does that mean?”

“It means I came on to her, but I played the bent cop, told her I knew what she was about. I knew about Peter, Tammy, Steve, and Ernesto, and also about Hugh. I didn’t use any of their surnames, just their first names. She knew what I was talking about.”

She frowned. “How do you know?”

I gave a small shrug. “She was cagey, but she didn’t look at me as though I was crazy. She asked me if I was blackmailing her, and what I wanted.”

“What did you tell her?”

I gave a small laugh. “It wasn’t easy. Fact is, I don’t know. I don’t know what part she plays in this, but I am sure as hell she has some part to play. And so is Baxter. I gave her my card and told her to call me tonight.”

She stared out the window at a street suffering from heat exhaustion. “You should have told me about this.”

I spread my hands and shrugged. “Told you what? I had a hunch she had something to do with it. That was it.”

She sighed.

I sighed too. “I think, I feel, she has some connection with Tamara. She even looks a bit like her. But I have no idea what that connection is. That’s what I hope to find out tonight.”

She stared at me. “Stone, look me in the eye and tell me you are not getting emotionally involved with this woman.”

I looked at her like she was an idiot, held her eye, and said, “Stop worrying, Dehan. I am not getting emotionally involved with this woman. Satisfied?”

She watched me a moment, then said, “No. Let’s get some lunch.”

Seventeen

Peter Gunthersen was brought in at six p.m. We signed for him, and Sergeant