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

made you run!” He opened his mouth, but then shut it again. “You weren’t even man enough to make her talk. She screamed and fought back like a wildcat, and you ran.”

She came around the table and stood looking down at his face. It was expressionless, but it radiated contempt. He watched her with half-closed eyes. She pushed some more.

“I guess you lost a lot of sleep over how small, how weak and pathetic they both made you look, huh, Akachukwu? Till one night you couldn’t handle it anymore and you went over there. You told your girlfriends to start without you. Got them to lie for you. I guess you get that a lot, huh? Girls lying for you, so you can save face. ‘Oh, you’re amazing, Ak. Oh you’re a real man, Ak! Oh, Ak, you’re such an animal!’” She snorted. “You waited outside Angela’s house, trying to build up enough courage to go in and face her again. Then the car pulled up, and like the coward that you are, you got out, went over, and shot through the window, without even checking to see who it was inside.”

There was a long moment of heavy silence while he gazed at his manacles. Finally, he shook his head and smiled. It was a thin, sickly smile, with something oddly terrifying about it. “That is a fascinating story, Detective Dehan.” He raised his eyes to look at her. “Carmen, in spite of all the insults and the abuse, and the attempts to intimidate me and force a false confession out of me. But I can tell you that it is all a fabrication, an intellectual construct of your own, and none of it is true. On that night that you are alluding to, I was in bed with my three favorite girlfriends, and they will corroborate that in court, as you well know.”

He turned his eyes on me. “I may have been at the house on Hunt Avenue, I do not remember very clearly, and I may have gone to visit Angela, in the spirit of a good neighbor, to see if she was OK, but I did not kill Jack O’Brien. I cannot explain how that blood got on my boots. And I was not at Angela’s house on the night that those boys were so tragically killed.” He shrugged again and smiled. “My house was full of people. I am a very generous friend and neighbor, I can produce many witnesses if necessary, to vouch for my whereabouts on that night.”

I nodded. “No doubt, Mr. Oni, but your boots place you firmly at Jack O’Brien’s house, killing him and stealing his cannabis. Tell me something, did you use a samurai sword or a machete?”

“I have no comment to make on that score at the present time.”

I studied his face carefully. “I have acquired a search warrant for your house and there is a CSI team on their way there now. What do you think they’ll find?”

His eyes glazed and his lids lowered.

I went on. “Will they find the cannabis plants, with Jack O’Brien’s prints on the pots? Will they find a machete?” I gave a small laugh. “You didn’t reckon on the boot prints, did you? You didn’t realize they could be as distinctive as fingerprints.”

“I have cooperated with you, Detectives, and all I have got in return is abuse and insults, and your latent racial denigration. I will cooperate no more. I think it is time for me to have my attorney now.”

I nodded and stood. “I think you are probably right, Mr. Oni. You’d better give him a call.”

Dehan stood, too, and leaned across the table at him again. “And my advice, Ak, start thinking about really cooperating, for real, because the jury is not going to like you. I can guarantee that.”

We stepped out of the room and told the uniforms outside to take him back to his cell. As we watched him led away, Dehan cussed under her breath. “He’s as cool as he is stupid.”

I smiled and nodded. “Fortunately for us, Little Grasshopper, he is one of those people who thinks the more elaborately they talk, the more their IQ score goes up. He really believes he’s smart.” I glanced at her. She looked the way I felt, a little pasty and green around the edges. “How are you holding up?”

“OK. I could use some more coffee.”

I nodded. Coffee sounded good, but before I could suggest it, my phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket.

“Yeah, Stone.”

“Detective Stone, this is Dr. Delgado at the Jacobi. Luis Irizarry has regained consciousness. He is able to talk to you for a short while, but I must insist that you do not tax him or upset him. He is still very weak.”

“You got it, Doc. We’re on our way.” I hung up.

Dehan shrugged and made a question with her face.

I said, “Luis. He’s conscious. Let’s go!”

* * *

He was sitting up. His skin was sallow and his eyes were yellow where they should have been white. He was connected to a drip, and a heart monitor was bleeping quietly in the background. Mary was sitting on the far side of the bed in an armchair, holding his hand, gazing at him. Ed was on a straight-backed chair next to her, scowling at me and Dehan.

The door swung closed behind us. Ed stood. The last time I’d seen him he’d been trembling. He was still trembling now. I wondered absently if he’d been trembling the whole time in between.

“What are you doing here?”

“The doctor called us. We’d like to ask Luis a couple of questions. We’ll keep it short and sweet.”

“Out of the question! How dare you…!”

Mary and Luis spoke almost in unison. “Dad…”

“Eduardo…”

He looked at them both in turn. Luis said, “Can you please just