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

to investigate your murder. I want to put him away before that happens. I want to help you. That’s why I am giving you a choice.”

She nodded.

Suddenly the room was full of paramedics bustling and pushing, and Joe was at the door with Dehan, calling me. I stood and spoke to the paramedic who was inspecting Angela’s wound. “If you’re taking her to hospital, I have to talk to her before she goes.” I turned to Joe. “You need to take samples of the blood, it may not all be hers. You also need to print her neck and face. I can’t remember if he was wearing gloves. I don’t think he was.”

One of the CSI guys came in and hunkered down next to the paramedic. I stepped over to Joe. “She was attacked while she was sleeping in the bedroom upstairs. There’s quite a bit of blood. Either she has another wound or he has. I don’t see it all coming from that gash on her head. Check her fingernails, too.”

Dehan nodded. “He bolted like he had a jalapeño pepper up his ass. I think he got more than he expected.”

I smiled at her. “Graphic.”

She grinned. “That’s Latinas, Stone, but what would you know?”

She stepped away, back to Angela. I frowned, aware I had been told something but not quite sure what it was. Joe raised an eyebrow at me. “What would you know? I am going to have a look at the crime scene. Catch you later.”

I went back to Angela. The chief paramedic was talking to Dehan. He looked at me as I approached. “Detective, I was just explaining to your partner. Angela needs to be seen by a doctor at the hospital. She is in shock and she may have other injuries that we can’t detect here. If you want to take a statement from her, you’ll have to do that at the hospital.”

I nodded. “OK. We’ll be right behind you.”

They took Angela out and we left the house to Joe and his team. Outside, under the early June sun, I climbed behind the wheel of my old Jaguar, while Dehan got in the other side and we watched the ambulance pull away. For some reason, I kept hearing Dehan’s words repeated in my head. “It didn’t work out how we expected, but I learned something about my partner, and about myself. He’s a good man that I can trust with my life…”

For some reason I couldn’t explain, those made me feel a vague sense of loss. I frowned at her and opened my mouth to ask her. But she was on the phone.

“This is Detective Dehan, I need you to trace a license plate and put out an APB…”

I closed my mouth again, pulled away after the ambulance, and told myself to get a grip and focus on the job in hand.

On what was important.

Thirteen

She was sitting in bed. A large square of sunlight lay warped across the blanket. She had a large sticking plaster on her forehead, over her right eye, and the bruising on her face and her neck was beginning to come out. She was a pretty girl, but right then she looked a mess. However, she looked calm, and she was able to talk to us.

Dehan sat on the far side of the bed, with the sunlight making a halo around her black hair. I sat on the near side, with my back to the door, watching Angela while she spoke.

“I share the house with my boyfriend, Moses. Moses Johnson. We live together, like we were married. We are married, we just don’t believe in the church, or the state.” She looked at us both in turn, like we might disapprove. “We believe in each other. He’s a good man, brave and strong. We want to have kids, raise a family, do what we can to improve the barrio. But it’s hard here.”

Dehan nodded her agreement. “Where is Moses now?”

Angela bit her lip, stared down at her hands.

“Angela?”

“He’s away.”

I scratched my chin, then smiled. “That’s telling us where he’s not. But we need to know where he is. And also, what made him go there.”

“He got into some trouble with some people in the neighborhood.”

Dehan frowned. “What kind of trouble, Angela?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me. He said it was best if I didn’t know.”

“You think he might have borrowed money, or got involved in trafficking? Is he moving drugs right now?”

Angela was shaking her head, staring at Dehan. “No! No! Absolutely not! Never! He would never do that! He would rather die than get involved in drugs. He is passionate about that. You don’t know him.”

I said, “We’d like to. Hunts Point needs people like Moses. Like both of you. Where is he?”

Again the silence, and a big sigh. This was hard for her. “He won’t tell me where he is. He said it’s for my own good. He’s looking for a way so we can both leave.”

Dehan nodded like she understood. “But you must be in touch. You must have some way to communicate.”

“We call each other, on the phone.”

“You have to call him, Angela, and tell him that for your safety, and his, we need to see him. We need to meet with him, very soon.”

“I will, I’ll call him. I’ll let you know what he says.”

Dehan sat forward, with her elbows on her knees. “So you think this guy who attacked you was after Moses?”

“I know he was.” She looked Dehan in the eye. “He was trying to make me tell him where he was. He said he’d kill me if I didn’t.”

“OK, I’ve asked you this before, but I am going to ask you again, and it is absolutely imperative, Angela, that you tell me the