Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #4: Books 13-16 (A Dead Cold Box Set), Blake Banner [story read aloud .txt] 📗

started moving toward me. I showed him my badge and he frowned. “Anything I can help with?”

I shook my head. “Not right now. I need to talk to the CBP officers.”

I kept moving as I spoke, scanning the lines moving past each desk. And then, three desks down, the fifth man in the line made me look twice. It wasn’t him, he had a mustache, a tweed cap and heavy glasses. But something in the way he was moving: he was too tense, looking too fixedly ahead, the rise and fall of his chest was just a little too rapid. I pushed through the next line, making toward him, mentally removing the cap, the glasses and the moustache. He must have seen me coming, he couldn’t have missed me, I was fifteen feet away and closing, but he just stared hard at the floor ahead. I shouted, “Lenny!” I raised my badge over my head, pushed through the next line and shouted again, “Lenny!”

Everyone was staring except him. The guys on the passport desks were looking over. The security guard was coming up behind me, talking on his radio. I pushed through the next line and he was just six feet away and I knew it was him. He turned to face me, removed the phony glasses and as he did it, he pulled his piece from his holster and pointed it at me. His hand was steady and his voice was calm.

“Don’t come any closer, Stone.”

At first, nobody reacted. Then a woman saw the gun and screamed. It only takes one to seed panic. Next thing, everybody was shouting and screaming and running, but Lenny had collared the young man in front of him and had him in an arm lock, with his automatic at the back of his blond head. The guy’s eyes were wide with terror. His skin was sickly pale. The CBP officers were on their feet with their weapons trained on Lenny, as was the guy who had been following me.

I put my hands up. I still had my badge in my left. I spoke loudly so the security guards and passport control could hear me. “NYPD! This man is also a police officer. He is wanted for questioning. Hold your fire.”

Lenny shook his head. “I’m not coming with you, Stone. I’m walking out of here with this hostage.”

The hostage made an inarticulate noise.

I said: “Come on, Lenny! You’re a cop. You know how it works. There are only two ways this can end. You leave here with me, or you leave in a body bag. Let the man go. Put your gun down. Let me cuff you and take you back to your family.”

He had started backing up toward the exit doors. He was nodding. “Sure! Sure! Back to my family. Like that is ever going to happen! You think I don’t know what’s waiting for me?”

There was the tramp of running boots. Armed cops were approaching from both directions with hand guns and automatic rifles. Lenny shouted:

“Back off! Back off! I don’t want to see a single armed cop! I don’t want to see a Home Guard! I don’t want to see any security personnel! I don’t want to see a single damned gun in this damned airport! Or this man gets it in the head! Understood?”

There was a muffled scream from the hostage. The radios were crackling and somewhere I heard somebody shout, “Who the hell is in charge here? Get the head of security down here, for Christ’s sake!” I ignored them and kept pace with Lenny as he backed slowly toward the exit.

“Lenny, I just came from your house. Your wife is out of her mind with worry.”

He pointed the gun at me. “You! Come closer. Come right up close. Keep pace with me. We’re going out of here.” His face suddenly flushed and he screamed at the airport cops. “I’m gonna count to three! If on three I see one damned uniform, I’m putting this cop down! Now back up!”

Behind me, I heard a voice snap, “Fall back!”

I walked toward him as he had instructed me. With my hands up, at a steady, slow pace, talking quietly all the while. “What are your kids going to think, Lenny? You think they’ll see this on the news?”

“One!”

“Is this how you want them to remember you?”

“Two!”

“You want them to be ashamed of you for the rest of their lives?”

“Three!”

I braced myself. I knew he would do it. I saw the muzzle of the gun point at my chest. Then there was a roar, like the roar of a lion, only it was a woman’s voice bellowing, “Back up! Now! On the double! Fall back! Who is in charge here?”

I smiled and thanked whatever gods choose cops’ partners for giving me Dehan. I saw Lenny swallow and we continued to back toward the exit. “You stay close, Stone, and if you try anything, I swear to God I will kill this man and I’ll kill you too. You know I’ll do it…”

We were twelve feet from the automatic doors. Outside, in the rain, I could see antiterrorist troops in fatigues taking up positions. I wondered if Dehan was liaising with the head of airport security yet. I kept talking. “It’s not too late, Lenny. You’re in trouble. You’re in pretty big trouble. But if you stop now, it’s not too late. Your wife really loves you. Your kids love you. You don’t need to lose all that.”

He was shaking his head. “Shut up, Stone. You want to pin Celeste’s murder on me, and that ain’t gonna happen. I ain’t taking the fall for that.”

“You got it wrong, Lenny. We just need to talk to you, find out what happened.”

He glanced over his shoulder and saw the troops. Cop cars were arriving with their lights