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

you. So, how did it go? Katie started investigating the ties between Islam and Marxism in this country, and she hooked up with Sadiq, seduced him and persuaded him to introduce her to the man who was running him, Hastings. She and Hastings got it on and I am guessing Sadiq got jealous and told her he was Jewish, not realizing she wouldn’t give a damn. How am I doing?”

“You’re doing very well. Men like Sadiq have a kind of radar. Some SS officers developed the same kind of instinct during the Third Reich. I have no racial objection to Jews. I am not racist in any way. I am quite objective about the whole thing. It is their dangerous, unstable thinking that troubles me, and their control of the banks.”

“That’s objective?”

“Very, I assure you.”

“So Katie made the mistake of getting sweet on Hastings. There is no accounting for taste. And Hastings alerted you to the fact that she was on your trail and was gathering evidence…”

“Oh, it was much worse than that. She was very clever indeed. With her father’s help and connections, and her own talent for investigation, she had put together irrefutable paper trails showing…” He stopped and shook his head.

“Showing what? C’mon, Caulfield! You really think I believe you are going to let us live? We are as dead as though you’d already pulled the trigger. Showing what? That you and your buddies…”

“Enough, Stone. What she managed to prove will never be known, because her research, and this whole warehouse, will go up in smoke before morning.”

“Al-Fakiha.”

He frowned at me. “I beg your pardon?”

“What does it mean? You have it plastered all over these boxes.”

He laughed. “Oh, it means the fruit. The fruit of our labors, the fruit of our struggle, the fruit of our submission to God. That is what Islam means, you know? Submission. Submission brings God’s grace. The fruit.”

“That’s beautiful. I guess men like me who refuse to get on our knees, we don’t stand a chance, huh?”

He shook his head.

I shrugged. “So, when Hastings revealed the extent of Katie’s research, you decided she had to die and you ordered Hastings to do it…”

“He volunteered. He really is a very peculiar young man. He was a barrister for many years, you know? Very clever. But a little unbalanced. As you know, he was involved with the Butcher case all those years ago, and it affected him deeply, especially when he met Simon Clarence.”

I nodded. “That makes sense. The Home Office were keeping an eye on Johnson, so as assistant to the Shadow Home Secretary, he got to hear that Johnson was back, and that gave him the idea. He arranged to go and visit Simon and get the details of the killings. That way he could stage it as the return of the Butcher, knowing that the file was sealed and nobody could ever open it up as long as Clarence lived. If he’d just got the spelling of whiskey right, he might have got away with it.”

He shrugged. “Too bad for him, really.” He frowned at Harry and checked his watch. “What’s happening with that negotiating team, Green?”

“First they’ll have to assemble it, then there’ll be a briefing. You can be sure they’re scrambling, sir. Scotland Yard will be shitting bricks. We’ve asked for the help of a New York copper and now he’s a hostage, and being flown to fucking Saudi!”

Caulfield gazed at me. “If he’s lucky.”

“So what now, Caulfield? Your life’s dream is ashes. What will you do? Go and live in a cave in Afghanistan? Your SAS boys will hunt you down, you know? There is nowhere for you to hide.”

He smiled and it was frightening how complacent he was. “Don’t worry about me, Stone. I’ll survive, and, like Arny, I’ll be back. Britain has a destiny. It will be Marxist, and more than that, it will be Muslim, and it will submit to Sharia Law.”

I shrugged. “You may be right, Caulfield, but you know what? Your pal Marx once said that history repeats itself, and when I look at the history of Britain, I see a tough, smart people who have a lot of common sense, who are slow to anger, but fearsome when roused. And I see a people who over and over again have taken their tyrants and their despots and kicked their asses. I don’t see their destiny as one of submission. I think these crazy, island people are going to take your vision of destiny and they are going to shove it right up your ass. What do you think, Dehan?”

I had seen her step out from behind the crate with her small, black dress and her sinfully long legs, her hair tied in a knot behind her neck and the AK-47 in her hands. Let me tell you, it was one of the most indecent sights I have ever seen, and I doubt I will ever be lucky enough to see anything like it again, except in my recurring dreams.

Caulfield frowned. To distract him, I looked over at the door. He followed my line of sight, still frowning, wondering where Dehan was. Her voice came from behind him, low and steady and calm. “I think that’s exactly what they’re going to do, but by the time I’ve finished with him they may have to tear him a new…”

Before she could finish, he was spinning, panicking. He turned to face her with the automatic held out in front of him. In that same moment, I roared and charged at him, head first. It wasn’t smart, but I wasn’t going to let him shoot a woman who looked that good holding an AK-47. In that same moment, the doors burst open behind us and Harry’s Alpha Two team came storming in, bellowing and wielding bits of broken wooden pallet over