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

was in the day after the funeral. My doctor had given me tablets to help me sleep, and I am pretty sure I overdosed on them that night. I slept right through the morning and finally woke up when Ed rang on the bell. I came down, I must have looked a wreck. He made me some tea and, I don’t remember how it went exactly, but he started talking about how I was going to need help. Now, without Matt, without his income, alone with a small boy, how was I going to cope?” She gave a small, humorless laugh. “I could hardly believe my ears. I told him I had just buried my husband, I was doped out of my head and I had only just got up…!” She spread her hands and shook her head, made eye contact with Dehan for the first time. “Couldn’t it wait? But he insisted.”

“He was setting the ground.”

Sue nodded. “Exactly, but I was too doped up to see it. Finally, he came straight out with it. We could reach an arrangement. He could help me. They were moving, but his office is right near here, in Colgate Avenue. I could work part-time, cook him lunch, sometimes he could stay the night. His wife need never know. He had it all worked out, the way men do.” She looked at me and sighed. “Sorry. No offense.” She turned back to Dehan, shook her head, and started to cry, picking at the threads of her blanket again.

“It was like he’d kicked me in the stomach, slapped me in the face. I couldn’t believe it. I screamed at him to get out. It was the worst thing I could have done. He went crazy, called me a filthy whore, slapped me, then threw me on the sofa and raped me.”

She gripped her mouth with her hand, trying to stifle the sobs. She spoke with her eyes closed and her voice muffled. “I was so scared. He gripped my throat with both hands and squeezed. I thought he was going to choke me. He was like an animal. I really thought I was going to die.” She stopped, was quiet for a while, then went on, “When he left, he called me a puta, said that if I reported him he would destroy me.”

Dehan shook her head. “Why didn’t you report him, Sue?”

She spread her hands again, shook her head. It was a pathetic gesture. “I was broken. I loved my husband so much. I had lost him. I didn’t know how I was going to cope with life. I was worried sick about Sebastian, about what would become of him. Can you imagine what he would have done to me in court? I was so weak, so exhausted, so tired…” Again she shook her head. “I just couldn’t face it. It was easier to pretend it had never happened.”

I said, “It must have been hard to see Mary after that.”

“I didn’t. I never saw her again. They moved a couple of months later.”

She fell silent. I said absently, “But the boys stayed in touch…”

She nodded at the blanket. “Social media at first. Then when Luis got older, he used to come and visit… Always against his father’s wishes. I believe most of the time, he didn’t know where his son was. Later, they deliberately chose to study medicine together.”

There were a couple of questions burning in my mind, but something told me to wait. I glanced at Dehan, wondering if she was thinking the same. My gut told me she was. She looked at me. I gave a small nod and she said, “I think we’re done for today, Sue. You want me to call Peggy for you, tell her you’re awake?”

She shook her head. “I’ll call her. Thanks.” Then she looked up at Dehan. “Detective… Carmen. May I call you Carmen? I remember you. You were older than the other kids, but I remember you.” She frowned and for a moment I thought she was going to start crying again. “I’ve never told anybody what happened that day. It has been a real relief to get it out. Thank you.”

She reached up and took Dehan’s hand. Dehan gave it a squeeze. “Sure. If you need anything, you know where to find us. Just give us a call.”

We let ourselves out. The sky was still bright, but you could feel the summer evening creeping in at the edges. I felt suddenly weary and leaned on the roof of the car.

Dehan leaned opposite, with the key in her hand. “Quite a day, huh?”

I nodded and glanced at my watch. “It’s almost six o’clock. We’ve been on the go since before three. What do you say we let Angela sleep, head back to my place, and have an early supper?”

She opened the car door. “I’ll drive you back, but I won’t stay.” She climbed in and I climbed in after her. She fired up the engine and pulled away. “It’s been a real long day, I could use some sleep.”

“Sure. Me, too.”

We drove in a silence that started to become awkward. Eventually, I said, “So did you notice anything absent from Sue’s narrative?”

She frowned. “Like what?”

“Same thing that was absent from Ed’s narrative.” I looked at her.

She glanced back and gave her head a quick shake. “What?”

I gave a small shrug. “Rosario.”

Her frown deepened. After a moment, she said, “Huh!” and then, “I guess you’re right.”

“She was part of the gang. So much so that your mother stopped hanging out with her. Yet nobody talks about her. The only person who mentioned her was Mary, and that was to say that she was dead, after we had mentioned her. If you didn’t know already that Rosario was part of that crowd, to hear them talk, you would never guess.” I shrugged