Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #3: Books 9-12 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [reading in the dark TXT] 📗

“Oh!” She waved a hand at me. “That boy! He should have been Italian. The pink lips, permed hair and those appalling suits. He even wore slip-on shoes without socks! Can you imagine? I don’t think there was a drop of testosterone in his body. And men’s perfume! I ask you! Surely that is an oxymoron! Men do not use perfume! Men smell of men!”

Dehan screwed up her face and hugged Fi’s arm. I had never seen her do that before. I gave a small laugh and continued with my question. “I’m inclined to agree, Fi, but my question was: she was briefly involved with Sadiq Hassan, but that didn’t last and he claims that she was involved with a Jewish man. Have you any idea who that might have been?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Honestly, those three religions. You know, Taoists, Buddhists, Shinto… unless they are monks and dressed in some peculiar get up, you just don’t know when you’ve met one, do you? But these Judeo-Christians, they are forever telling you about their version of God. It’s like the whole gay thing. They are forever telling you, and, I mean, I really don’t care whom you enjoy sex with or whom you pray to. I have no idea which of my friends are Christian or Jewish, or anything else for that matter. I suspect some of the more interesting ones may be into witchcraft.”

I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to laugh or not. I drew breath, but Dehan cut me short. “Let me rephrase the question, Fi. Were you aware that Katie was involved with anyone other than Sadiq or Mark?”

She thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Yes. It’s possible. We never pried, you understand. But certain comments she made, I got the impression that she was involved with a man and that she was somewhat ambivalent about him.”

“I’m curious,” I said, “as to how she indicated she was ambivalent about this man, if she didn’t tell you she was involved.”

She raised a withering eyebrow at me. “Are you cross-examining me, Mr. Stone?”

I offered her my blandest smile. “Only a little, Fi.”

She turned to Dehan. “Isn’t he naughty? I see why you like him.” She took a sip. “She would speak in generalities and abstractions. ‘Do you think it’s possible, Mama, to love a man who has no principles?’ ‘Mama, if you were to fall in love with a man whom you knew to be no good for you, what would you do?’”

I nodded. “I get the idea. And are these actual questions she asked you?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“How long ago?”

“We last saw her just over two weeks ago.”

Dehan sucked her teeth and sat forward, with her elbows on her knees. “Those questions could easily have been about Sadiq.”

“Oh, good heavens no! She couldn’t stand him. Vile little man, that’s how she described him. Couldn’t bear him!” Dehan and I exchanged a glance and she caught it. “What? Why the secret glance?”

Dehan answered. “He told us they were intimate…”

“He was lying. She was unequivocal about it. She found everything about him repulsive. She described him as a nasty, revolting bully. He was forever trying to get intimate and she was forever putting him off.”

I stared at her. “Forgive me for being blunt, Fi, but this could be very important. Are you absolutely certain you are not…” I searched for a polite way of saying it.

She helped me. “Kidding myself? Absolutely not. Katie has been with inappropriate boys a few times in the past and I have just had to live with it. And she has never lied to me. She was adamant about Sadiq. She was stringing him along and, in her words, would not sleep with him if he were the last man on Earth. She actually shuddered when she said it.”

I held Dehan’s eye.

Fi said, “What are you not telling me?”

The door opened and Chiddester stepped in. “My sincerest apologies. I had some, um, ah, unavoidable business to attend to…” He trailed off. His eye flicked from Dehan’s face to his wife’s and then mine. “I am afraid I have interrupted something.”

Fi held out her hand to him. “Not at all Chiddie, darling. Come and sit down. We were just discussing Katie and that nasty little man Sadiq. I think Stone and Carmen may have something to tell us.”

There was something severe in his expression. He raised an eyebrow at me. “Really? Something that didn’t come up before?”

He crossed the room and sat, ignoring his wife’s hand. I nodded a couple of times.

“When you told us that Katie had not had intimate relations with Sadiq, I’m afraid we both dismissed it as a daughter not sharing intimate details with her parents, and a parent not wanting to see a disagreeable truth. We took this view for a very particular reason.”

Dehan took over. “Sadiq was adamant that he and Katie had been intimate. That of itself doesn’t mean anything, but when we told him we were testing her sheets, and the whole apartment, for fingerprints and DNA, he became terrified. He told us that we would find his DNA at her apartment, but he swore it was there because they had been intimate. But now, from what you are telling us, that isn’t true. So it raises the question, why is his DNA there?”

Her face went like stone and she looked at her husband. “So, Chiddie, it was him, then.”

“I hope,” I said, looking into my glass, “that you are not intending to do anything rash. Personally, I think your daughter’s assessment of Sadiq Hassan was accurate, and I am pretty sure Dehan would agree. But if you make a rash mistake now, you could cause irreparable damage to what your