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

“I need to get this couple back to the lab, but on the face of it, John, these two were killed by the same man who killed Sebastian and shot Luis. I’ll ask Joe to do me a favor and put a rush on the ballistics, but you and I both know what we’re going to find.”

He stared at me a moment, then turned and went back to Angela. Outside, I heard a gurney being rattled up the steps. The door opened and a young man and a girl with a ponytail maneuvered the trolley through the door and across the floor toward Angela.

Dehan said, “They were sitting on the sofa. Somebody called at the door. They both stood. Angela stayed there, where they’d been sitting. Moses came to see who it was. Whoever it was came in. The lock isn’t forced, so maybe Moses let him in? Whatever the case, once in, he shot Moses to get him out of the way, then shot Angela. His rage was against Angela, not Moses. She was the intended victim.”

I turned and went out to D’Adamo. I spoke to him while I inspected the door. “Was the lock picked?”

“Uh-uh. Looks like they let the killer in.”

“Moses.”

“Yup.”

Dehan came out. I stood. “Moses opened the door to the killer while Angela stayed inside. But Moses is halfway across the floor. So he went in ahead. The killer followed. At this point, Moses does not feel threatened. But he stops and turns. Now he detects a threat. The killer shoots him twice, almost point blank, Moses falls, and his last act before death is to reach for his wife. The killer then closes in and empties the last five rounds into Angela.”

D’Angelo nodded. “Sounds about right. I guess it’s your case. We’re canvassing the neighbors in case anybody saw or heard anything. We’ll get statements from anyone who did and send them over to you.”

I nodded. “Sure, I appreciate that.”

He went down the stairs and talked to the sergeant, then got in his car and left. Behind us the door opened and the girl with the ponytail backed out ass-first. We were in the way, so I touched Dehan’s arm and we walked down, back to my car. I sat on the hood and she stood with her arms crossed, looking at me. Her expression said she didn’t think I was very funny.

“Devil’s advocate aside, Stone, there is only one person who could have done this—who could have any motive at all to do this.”

“I agree.” I studied her face a moment. “What motive?”

She spread her hands and shrugged her shoulders like I was being stupid. “He lied, Stone! I’m willing to bet it wasn’t the first time in his life that he lied. I knew her, remember? Not intimately, not as well as my mom did, but I knew her. She was a nice, smart woman.” She was shaking her head as she spoke. “Frankly, I can’t see a woman like that falling in love with a piece of… shit like him!”

I made a doubtful gesture with my head. “She wouldn’t have been the first nice, intelligent woman to fall in love with an odious son of a bitch.”

She smiled. “An odious son of a bitch? You have a way with words, Stone.”

“I’m serious. Nice men like me are constantly astonished at the way nice women like her fall in love with…”

I gestured with my hand and she filled in the blank. “Odious sons of bitches like him. OK, I grant you it happens. But in this case, it makes a lot more sense that she didn’t. He became obsessed with her. I’m willing to bet it all played out pretty much the way he described it, Stone, except that he fantasized her love and her agreement. And when he’d finished his case, he went ’round to her house and she blew him off. He…” She shook her head, lost for a moment for words. “He’s like a spoiled four-year-old, who flies into a tantrum when he can’t have what he wants. She tells him to get lost and he goes crazy. He rapes her. She fights him and he either kills her during the rape, or he kills her afterwards when she tells him she is going to report him to the cops.”

I made a face and crossed my own arms. “It’s a very credible scenario, Dehan. But it leaves a couple of things unanswered…”

“Such as?”

“Well, for one, why did he kill Sebastian and nearly kill his own son?”

She walked away from me and stood staring at a giant pine tree that was casting a dark pool of shade on the blacktop. She repeated my question, as though she knew there was a wise old owl hiding in the tree who was going to give her the answer.

“Because his obsession with Rosario was transferred onto her daughter. He believed that Angela and Sebastian were having an affair and his jealousy…”

She trailed off.

I thought about it. “It’s not as crazy as it sounds, Dehan, but have you any evidence for it?”

“Not a shred.”

“The problem is, Little Grasshopper, that nobody has a motive to kill Sebastian. Nobody has a motive to kill either of the boys. Somebody had a motive to kill Angela, and by the looks of it a very strong motive. That motive was rage and hatred…”

She was nodding lots before I had finished. “And the one person who is full of that kind of rage and hatred is Ed! OK, not toward Angela maybe, but toward her mother—very possibly! Is it so hard to believe that over the years he has found some crazy-ass reason for transferring that rage onto Angela?”

“No.” I had to admit it wasn’t.

“Come on, Stone. You have to grant me this