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

I offered him a sour look back. “It eases me. I need easing.” I sat.

“Well, Stone—John, if I may—shall we get down to business? You have the box?”

“What’s your hurry?”

“My hurry? There is surely no need to prolong things. In view of what has happened, I am naturally eager to leave the country…”

I smiled. “I bet you are. Just answer me a few questions.”

He sighed. “Is this necessary? I have not time to waste.”

“It’s necessary. There are things I don’t understand. Last night you were going to take my fingers off with a pair of pliers. Today you can indulge me. Have a drink with me and answer my questions. Alternatively, you can get the fuck out of my house.”

I put the bottle and a glass on the table. He looked at it with distaste.

“Whiskey…”

“I have no vodka. Drink.”

He poured himself a shot, sipped, winced, and put the glass down.

“You work for the Vatican.”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“In what manner of speaking?”

He shifted his ass and looked uncomfortable. “It is a semi-official office, based near Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, in the castle of Soto Maior. I am the personal assistant of Cardinal Guzman, and our mission is to acquire unique treasures for the Holy Mother Church.”

“At whatever cost… to the people letting those treasures go.”

He made a ‘who gives a shit?’ face and said, “When an item belongs properly to the Church, I feel any means are justified.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d said that, and I thought about it for a moment.

“So Hugh Duffy had this… box. And in your opinion, it belonged properly to the Church. So you set about looking for a sexy young woman…”

He expostulated, “Please! Give me credit for being a little more subtle than a mule!”

“Of course. You did your homework, you found out about his fiancée…”

“And I set about seeking the perfect actress to play the part of his fiancée.” He looked pleased with himself. “And I have to say, she was brilliant. Quite captivating. She could have been a star, Detective. She had a quality about her that just made you love her.”

“So that’s what you hired her for. To make Duffy fall in love with her.”

“And when she had won his trust, then to take the box.”

“Did she know what was in the box?”

The complacent smile slipped from his face. “Not to begin with, but that fool Duffy told her what it was.”

I snarled, “Isn’t that what you wanted, for him to trust her? And once she knew what it was, she realized you were paying her a fraction of a fraction of what it was worth. She realized she could get several thousand times what you were paying her on a specialized market.”

He studied my face a moment. “So, I have answered your questions. Shall we do business?”

I nodded, reached in my pocket, and tossed him over a sheet of paper with the details of a numbered account Dehan and I had opened that morning in Belize. On a sudden impulse, I said, “But the price went up.”

He glared at me, then surprised me by asking, “How much?” As I had suspected, I was still well within his budget.

“Fifteen.”

He wrenched open his attaché case, and I saw it had a laptop built into it. He tapped furiously while muttering, “Do not push me too far, Stone. This far and no further.” He turned the computer toward me, like he was trying to wrench it off his lap, and showed me the screen. There were fifteen million dollars poised to be transferred into my account. “Now,” he said, “Show me the box.”

I smiled at him. “I wonder just how far I could push you.”

“No further!”

I reached down beside my chair and pulled up the wooden box that Emma had given me. I placed it on the table.

He narrowed his eyes at it. “Let me see. I don’t trust you.” Then he shifted his gaze to me. “You haven’t looked inside? I find that hard to believe…”

I shrugged. “What difference does it make? I am not an expert. As far as I know, it could be anything. I’ve got my money. That’s all I care about. At a cool fifteen percent, I am in clover, dos Santos.”

“Let me see it,” he grunted.

“What is that, two and a quarter million a year? I figure I could be happy living on that.”

I was playing for time, and he was beginning to sense it. He sat forward. “Why won’t you let me see it?”

“I am not stopping you, dos Santos. I am just wondering if you really do want to see what’s in this box.”

His face flushed. “Of course I do! Stop playing games, Stone! I am warning you! I have not transferred the money yet!”

“I am aware of that. But you will, don’t worry. Wait, I think I hear somebody coming…”

He turned and stared at the door. There were footsteps approaching from the sidewalk; they sounded like a woman’s high heels. They climbed the steps to the door, and the doorbell rang. He turned back and glared at me.

“What is this, Stone? You are going too far! I am warning you!”

I smiled, picked up the box, and rose to open the door.

Twenty-Six

She stepped through the doorway and immediately put her arms around my neck and kissed me. Maybe she sensed I was not really responsive. She pulled back and held my face in her hands, frowning, examining the swelling and the bruising.

“Oh, you poor darling. What did they do to you?”

“I’ll survive, which is more than can be said for Ronaldo.”

She frowned. “Are you very cross with me?” As she spoke, she noticed the box in my hand. “What