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

unique mark into his heel. This kind of wear and tear can make a shoeprint as unique as a fingerprint.”

Dehan had approached us from the door. She frowned. “You can tell all that from the prints in the dust?”

He smiled. “No, but you should have a look down there. A lot of dirt was spilled around the area where he had the plants under the lamps. He left some very clear prints, and we can work them up at the lab. I’ll send you the pictures ASAP.” As an afterthought, he added, “The guy you have in custody, send me his boots and I’ll run a comparison on my own time.”

“I’ll have them sent over to you now. Thanks, Joe. I appreciate that.”

I went outside, sat on the hood of one of the patrol cars, and made the call. When I was done, I crossed my arms and stared at Dehan. She had her hands in her front pockets, she was chewing her lip and kept standing on tip-toes.

I said, “He told us he’d been warned. You remember that?”

She nodded.

I jerked my head at the house. “Somebody is trying to make a reputation for himself. I’ve never seen that before, disemboweling somebody like that for growing weed. That’s new.”

“I agree. It also makes clear that our initial theory is a total washout, which narrows our suspects down to Akachukwu and Ed Irizarry.” She sighed and gave her head a little sideways twist, like I’d asked her a question and she didn’t know how to answer. “We have a lot of reasons to be thinking about Akachukwu right now, and his alibi, as far as I am concerned, isn’t worth a drunken promise…”

“A drunken promise, Dehan? That’s very poetic.”

She ignored me. “But then again, as for Ed, that has one big plus for me.”

“It ties in to Rosario’s murder. Somehow. We don’t know how.”

She was nodding as I spoke. “Plus, Stone, the only motive Akachukwu has for killing the boys is if he’s sweet on Angela, and frankly we have zero evidence to support that notion. All we know is that he was looking for Moses because he has some kind of grudge. But there is zilch connecting him to Sebastian or Luis.”

I thought about that for a while, then shrugged. “I agree with you, but the case against Ed Irizarry, if it can be dignified with that name, is almost as weak. We have no motive for him at all. All we have is a series of bizarre coincidences.”

She made a face. “But he has made it clear that he had some kind of grudge against Sebastian.”

I had to admit that was true. “Did you manage to look into Rosario’s case, by the way?”

“Yeah.” She started to pace slowly up and down the sidewalk, three steps one way, then three the other and back again, examining each step as she went. “Forensic evidence was collected, obviously by the CSI team. She was raped and they found semen. A DNA profile of the rapist was produced, but they got no matches on the database. Also, she was bludgeoned with a heavy, blunt object and then strangled. So they used RTX to get prints from her neck and throat. But the prints were poor quality.”

She stopped pacing and turned to face me.

“Aside from running the DNA profile, Harragan made no attempt to match the sample with anybody else. He didn’t take any swabs from anybody, and claimed he had no suspects. He said it was a random home invasion.”

“OK, that’s good. I think with Sue’s testimony and Pauli’s corroboration we have enough to get a DNA sample from Ed. We’ll ask nicely, but if he says no, we can get a warrant. That will at least tie him to Rosario’s murder. But what we are still lacking is a concrete connection with Sebastian.” I shook my head. “It just isn’t enough that he feels he is holding Luis back.” I spread my hands. “We know, from Frank, that Luis was doing well. His career was not in jeopardy, Sebastian was not a risk to Luis. Ed had no reason to kill him. At least, no reason that we are aware of as yet.”

She gave it some thought, then made a face. “OK, so let’s pull him in, scare the bejaysus out of him with the DNA sample, and see if he’ll tell us what that connection with Sebastian is.”

“Yeah, let’s do that. But Dehan, we are still missing something: something key and something obvious.”

She smiled. “Come on, Sensei, let’s go scare Ed.”

I stood and we started to walk back toward my car in the next street. “What’s the word on Akachukwu’s alibi, by the way?”

She rolled her eyes. “He has about five women living there. They all confirm he was at home that night, and three of them say they shared his bed.”

I snorted. “What a dawg.”

“Yeah, that’s what I call a real man. Not afraid to commit.”

I raised an eyebrow she did not see because she was looking away. “Why, Dehan, is that bitterness I hear?”

“Me? What have I got to be bitter about?”

Seventeen

Eduardo Irizarry was not a happy man. He threatened us with everything from phone calls to the mayor, who, he implied, was a good friend of his golfing buddy’s brother’s cousin, to law suits against the city and us, individually; as well as appeals to friends who were, he suggested, in a position to make our lives very uncomfortable. And he really did mean, uncomfortable. He assured us of that.

We sat opposite him in interview room number three and waited for his tirade to subside.

“I am an influential man, not without connections in this city!”

I tried to look chastened and asked, “What is it, exactly, Mr. Irizarry, that you object to in our