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

sense to me at the moment is the castration. If we are dealing with jealousy or a scorned lover, castration makes sense. But decapitation, cutting off the feet, UFOs…” I sighed. “But I’ll tell you what my main problem with it is. This homicide went down one of two ways: either it is genuinely what it appears to be, and we simply don’t understand the motivation and thinking of the killer because he, she, it, or they are literally alien; or it was very carefully planned and executed. Now, if what Jane has told us is accurate, Paul simply did not have the time to plan and execute the murder. So the only person we know of with a motive, did not have the means.”

She grunted. Overhead, a pigeon landed clumsily in the tree, beating its wings noisily against the canopy. A couple of uniforms stood in the sunshine across the road, talking and laughing. One went inside, the other walked toward a car, fitting on his hat with both hands. It was all very normal, very mundane.

“Unless,” Dehan said abruptly, “Jane was as oblivious to Paul’s thoughts and feelings as she thought he was to hers.”

I frowned. “Talk me through.”

“Think about it. He is fixated on her and Danny. He doesn’t want to lose either of them. So he is paying attention to both of them. He is very aware of both of them. But Jane is fixated on Danny, not Paul. So she is super aware of everything Danny says, everything he does. She is paying attention. However, she is not paying attention to what Paul is saying or doing—or feeling! She told us. She said he was boring her. All she could think about is Danny…”

“OK, I get it, but what’s your point?”

“My point is, she told us that Paul didn’t notice that she was falling for Danny, but she was wrong. What happened was that she didn’t notice that he had noticed. Because she wasn’t paying attention to him. But Paul did notice, and at some point he began to get jealous. He began to get mad. And then—” She jabbed a finger on my shoulder. “He started to plan. He started to plan how he was going to eliminate Danny from the picture and get his revenge.”

I looked at her for a moment, then pointed at her the way she had pointed at me. “That, Detective Dehan, is the seedling of a theory. That begins to ring true. Now we just have to answer the question, how does a two hundred and twenty pound man arrange to carry the remains of his friend into the park without leaving prints and…and…” I wagged a finger at her. “…remember, the rain was not something he would necessarily have predicted. Not in June. In fact, all of the events that apparently led up to the murder were not predictable.”

She stood, pursed her lips, and shoved her hands in her back pockets. Then she walked in a slow semi circle around me and back again, stopped, and shook her head. “No. You are still thinking along the lines that the events of that night were the motive for the killing. But like you said in the beginning, let’s home in closer and dissect this a little more. Think of it this way, that the events of that night were just symptomatic of the motive to kill. Like I said before, this was something that had been building up for some time. He’s been aware, maybe since the beginning, that the man Jane really wants is Danny. His jealousy and his hatred have been building over time. The plan was already laid—all but ready.

“Now, if that is true, Stone, that takes us back into March, maybe even earlier. And if that is true, the planning would have had to take into account the likelihood of rain, and include some way of crossing muddy terrain without leaving prints. Jane’s attack of jealousy against Jasmine and her flirtation with Danny may have been the trigger, but the round was already loaded and the hammer was cocked.”

“A nicely rounded metaphor, Dehan.”

“Thank you. And Jasmine’s trance was probably something that was going to happen sooner or later anyway. As it was, when it happened, it set off the whole series of events that followed, and drove Paul to execute the plan he had been developing for several months.”

I thought about it. “It’s good. It’s coherent. It’s motive.” I looked at her. “But the question remains, how did he do it? And it raises another question, too. Where?”

She became suddenly very serious, stepped close to me, and placed her hand on my chest.

“Where? Right there in the park. What if…” She paused. “What if Paul gets home, his rage is out of control. He’s had enough. He calls Danny and says he wants to meet him. They both live near by. Paul suggests the park. It isn’t raining yet. Paul brings along his sword. He decapitates Danny. Death would be instant. He would not bleed a lot. He cuts off the feet and the genitals, not just relieving his rage but making it look like one of the mutilations Don has just told them about. Then he drags the body over to the location, sets it up and leaves…”

“What about…?”

“Wait! He goes to his car, which he has parked nearby, and he brings with him his remote controlled UFO—part of the plan he had already developed. He douses the body in petrol, then sets off the UFO to attract viewers and press. The UFO starts flashing its lights. Now, here’s the clever part. He has rigged a small, battery powered ignition device and linked it to the remote control, to spark when the UFO starts firing its lasers, and ignite the petrol. The body is burned and, later, it starts to rain and the small amount of blood left