Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #1: Books 1-4 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [classic children's novels txt] 📗

trace him, and he is going to drive, not fly, to Mexico. Drive because that way he will be untraceable.”

“Okay…”

“As the crow flies, it is one thousand five hundred, maybe two thousand miles by road to the Mexican border. It’s going to take him four days at least to get there. How long do you think he lasted before he got drunk? Now, like I said, it’s a long shot, but it has to be at least a fifty-fifty chance that if we run his prints, which are on file, through IAFIS, we might get a hit somewhere.”

She pulled a face. “Like you say. It’s a long shot. It makes a lot of assumptions: he got drunk, he got into a brawl, he got arrested, they uploaded his prints but didn’t look for a match.” She nodded. “It’s a long shot, but what have we got to lose? It’s feasible. I can see it happening.”

I woke up at six thirty with a headache. I was not in bed. I was on the sofa. There was half a bottle of bourbon on the coffee table and an empty packet of Camel cigarettes. I vaguely remembered buying both on the way home, after dropping Dehan at her place. We had not got drunk. I had. Alone. At home.

My cell rang while I was in the shower. I got out, got some aspirin from the cabinet, took two, and called back.

“Detective Stone?”

I recognized the voice. It was José.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I gotta make this quick. Carlitos has a deal going down tonight, ’bout two o’clock. Down by the Fulton Fish Market, by the river. You go down past the household waste drop-off site, and there’s some wasteland down there, by the water. That’s where he does his business. He’s takin’ delivery of twenty kilos of coke. You take him down, you can make him tell you where my sister is, right?”

I felt sick, and it wasn’t the hangover. I said, “Okay, José, that’s good. You did good. This is very helpful. But now I want you to stay out of this, you hear me? I do not want you or your mom to get involved. When we get Maria back, I want you both safe and sound for her. You understand me?”

“Yeah, okay. But that’s good, right? You can use that to make him talk?”

“You bet. Now stay safe.”

He hung up.

I called Dehan. She answered with a pillow voice.

“What?” It sounded reproachful.

“You up?”

“No! Go away. What time is it?”

“Seven. Get up. I’ll be there in twenty. We have Carlitos.”

I heard a grunt. “Good. Okay. I’m up.”

She was in the doorway when I arrived, and crossed the road carefully to get in the car. She glanced at me as she closed the door. She looked hungover. She said, “You look awful. How do we have Carlitos?”

I told her about José’s call and then explained as I drove.

“We take them down tonight. We separate them. Don’t let them talk to each other. We keep it about the drugs bust. Make each one thinks the other is ratting him out. At the right time, when they’re getting tired and stressed, we hit them with the murder of Nelson and his compadres. They think they’re facing drugs charges. When they suddenly see themselves facing murder one, times five, somebody’s going to crack and start talking.”

She sighed and managed a smile. “Maybe… maybe a break at last.”

I needed the captain to authorize the raid and the backup, but when we got there she hadn’t arrived yet. So I went to my computer to check if we’d got a hit from IAFIS. We had.

I stared at the screen and sat slowly in my chair.

A minute later, Dehan came in and placed a cup of coffee in front of me. She saw my face and asked, “We got a hit?”

I nodded. “Texas. Drunk and disorderly. Town called Shamrock in Wheeler County. He couldn’t resist it, could he?”

She sat. “We have to play this very carefully.”

I nodded again.

“At least we now know that Mick was not killed at his house. We can assume Maria wasn’t either. Did she go with him to Texas?” I sat back and thought for a while. “We don’t touch this for now. First we see what Carlitos and his pals give us in the interrogation. Then we decide what we say to the captain about Shamrock.”

She agreed.

The captain came in at nine. We gave her a minute and then went up after her. She looked surprised to see us, glancing from one to the other.

“What can I do for you, Detectives?”

She didn’t invite us to sit down. I said, “We have a tip-off about a drugs deal tonight. Twenty kilos of coke. That’s a street value of four hundred K. We need authorization to…”

She didn’t let me finish.

“I’m sorry, John, back up there a minute, would you? I thought I had made it clear that you were working the cold cases.”

I heard Dehan sniff and sensed her staring down at her boots. I said, “Yes, Captain, this is a cold case. The deal relates directly to our investigation.”

“You want to explain that to me, John?”

I smiled. She didn’t. Dehan bit her lip and stared at the wall. I said, “We’re investigating the Nelson Hernandez murder. It’s a ten-year-old case.”

“Nelson Hernandez…? I thought that case had been closed.”

I frowned. “No. It couldn’t be closed. It was unresolved.”

“I thought Sam had attributed it…”

“It’s still open, Captain. But we are pretty sure that the guy who is doing the deal tonight was responsible for the murder.”

She looked at me sharply, and her answer was a little too quick. “Really?”

“Yeah. If we bust them tonight and play the interrogation right, we can probably get a conviction