Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [readnow TXT] 📗

picking absently at the threads in the blanket. Then she took a deep, shuddering breath. “Luis is a nice kid. He’s just a bit wild. When they were younger, he was lovely to have around.” She gave a wet smile. “He was always joking, always laughing. His humor was irrepressible. Sebastian loved him like a brother. Maybe if he’d had a brother… But Matt died…

“As they got older, they both proved to be very bright. But Sebastian was more than bright. He was highly intelligent, like his father. He had Matt’s temperament, too: dedicated, serious, kind. Luis was out to enjoy life. I always felt he was a distraction for Sebastian. Sebastian told me I was wrong. He welcomed the distraction…”

Dehan came and placed two mugs of tea on the table, and handed one to Sue. She sat and noted, “From what Frank, the ME, says, Sebastian was doing very well.”

“He was.”

I smiled. “So Luis wasn’t having that much of a negative effect.”

“I guess not.” She shrugged. “Mothers…”

I waited a moment, but she wasn’t going to say any more, so I pressed the point. “Your explanation only tells half the story, Sue. It doesn’t explain why Ed is so hostile.”

She gave another small shrug. “Ed is hostile to everybody and everything.”

“He wasn’t always, though, was he? There was a time when you were all close friends.”

She held the mug in both hands, staring into it as though she was trying to draw strength from the hot brew. After a moment, she said, “Do we have to do this?”

“We won’t know until you tell us what it’s about. For my part, Sue, I don’t intend to leave a single stone unturned in my search for whoever did this.”

She closed her eyes for a long moment, then opened them again. They were swollen. She looked doped, but doped with pain.

“Matt and Ed had met at college. They were both law majors, both left-wing liberals, both deeply concerned about social justice and civil rights. But Matt lacked that aggression, that killer instinct you needed to be a good defense attorney. Besides, he was always more concerned about educating people to understand and embrace equality and diversity, rather than dividing society into stereotypical good guys and bad guys, and then punishing the bad guys.” She gave a small, sad laugh. “I used to tease him that he only married me as a political statement, but that wasn’t true. He was the most honest, noble man I ever knew.”

She paused. After a moment, Dehan asked her. “How did Ed feel about your marriage?”

Sue made a face. “To begin with, we all got on well. We all shared the same beliefs and ideals. I guess, while we were students, and just after we started work, we all felt we were making a statement with our friendship. But when Matt got ill, and we learned that there was nothing the doctors could do about it, things began to change.”

“In what way?”

“The real bond of friendship had always been between Ed and Matt. Mary and I were fond of each other, but I guess the driving force of the group had always been Ed. He was very virile and strong. And he had chosen Matt for his friend. When he learned that Matt was dying, I think it hit him harder than he was willing to admit. He became increasingly aggressive, bitter, patronizing…”

I frowned. “Toward whom, Sue? Aggressive and patronizing toward whom?”

She was quiet for a long moment. “Toward everybody. Toward Mary, toward me… Then, he suddenly announced that they were moving. He was doing very well in his practice. He was popular with the Latino community, he was an active campaigner for civil rights, he was very vocal, and all of that added up to a thriving practice. So he announced to us that he was buying a house in Morris Park. Shortly after that, Matt died and they moved.”

Dehan was watching her with a furrowed brow, aware, as I was, that she was talking around something. She sipped her tea, waited a moment, but Sue seemed to have come to a stop. So Dehan asked the question I had been thinking.

“Sue, none of this explains Ed’s hostility toward you and Sebastian.”

She started to talk two or three times, but each time ended with a deep sigh. Finally, she said, “You have to understand that I was very fond of Ed, in spite of his brash character. But Ed hates me, and he hated Sebastian, because he made a pass at me and I rejected him… and he raped me.”

Ten

The room was very quiet. Sue was staring into her mug of tea and Dehan and I were watching her closely. My mind was racing, trying to fit this new fact into the incomplete picture I had. Dehan leaned forward and placed her mug on the table and her elbows on her knees.

“Eduardo Irizarry raped you?”

“Right here, in this room. The day after my husband’s funeral.”

“The day after…?”

“He’d taken to coming around during Matt’s illness, ostensibly to see how I was, how I was coping. I suppose I should have said something, but to be honest, I had enough on my plate with Matt’s illness, knowing I was losing him, without the added anxiety of falling out with Ed and Mary.” She sighed. “Besides, he never did anything. He was always kind and thoughtful. I suppose in some way I was grateful to him for the attention. I did say a few times that it would be nice if Mary came with him, but he always made some excuse.”

She went quiet, picking at the minute hairs on the blanket with her left hand. She drained her mug and set it down on the floor beside her, then spoke almost like an automaton.

“You can imagine the state I