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

individuals. We, this primitive human species, are also part of a much vaster society that may well deal with us in the same way.”

May spoke suddenly. “Imagine, Detective Dehan, the astonishment of the game keepers if one day one of those gazelle suddenly spoke and asked, ‘Why are you doing this to us?’”

I looked at Dehan. She had an eyebrow arched while she listened, then said, “Thanks for the insight, honey.”

May’s face flushed and she looked away.

I smiled to myself and asked Don, “So what did this latest message say?”

He was quiet for a long time. Eventually, he said, “It was very similar to that message, all those years ago. It said that we, the group as a whole, had been chosen as… as messengers. That certain individuals within the group had specific jobs or functions. It said that we were being given a second chance, that last time we had failed, but that this time we could do it better.”

Dehan said, “And it specified that Jane was to be a part of the group?”

He nodded. “Yes, it was quite specific about that.”

I smiled and shook my head. “You had failed, all of you, collectively, because Danny didn’t go to the glade…”

“No! Because I forbade it! And Danny and Jasmine obeyed me!” He glared at me. There was something fanatical in his face. “Remember! They stated that I was the rock upon which they would build! Yet when the time came, I lacked faith! I lacked belief!”

“You talk about them as though they were gods…”

“Aren’t they? Are we not as gods to the animals of the jungle and the savannah?”

I shook my head. “Take it easy, Don. In the first place, animals are not stupid enough to elevate people to the status of gods. For that kind of stupid, you need to be human. In the second place, whatever we may appear to be to a buffalo, what we are is people, plain and simple. We are not insects and we are not gods.”

He waved a hand at me, dismissing what I was saying. “Whatever the case may be! The fact is that they entrusted a mission to me and I failed them, and the result was that Danny died, and now Jane…”

“I already told you that Jane was murdered by a human being. She was not murdered by an alien.”

“So you say…”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “So I say? You know something I don’t?”

“Of course not, except that they are here…”

“What do you mean, they are here? Here among us. In this room?”

“In a sense, yes.”

“Where?”

He sighed. “Stop, Detective. It is not that simple. They are here, believe me.”

The kitchen door opened and Jasmine stood for a moment, watching us. “The dinner is ready, if you will sit down.”

Donald sat at the head. The rest of us took our places at random around the table, and Jasmine served us with plates of smoked pink salmon garnished only with lemon and parsley. She also brought small baskets of dry toast and water biscuits, while Donald poured chilled glasses of Gewurztraminer.

We ate solemnly and in silence. Occasionally, I would catch Dehan’s eye and she would give me a look that asked what the hell was going on. I would give her a smile that told her that was what we were there to find out, and she would sigh and turn back to the salmon, which was in fact very good and very fresh.

In fact, when the colonel eventually broke the silence, it was to look at Don and exclaim, “The salmon is superb…”

“It’s fresh. We smoked it ourselves, with wood from the forest…”

He said it not with the pride of a man who has done something unique or admirable, but as though he was revealing some kind of tragedy. I wiped my mouth with my napkin and studied him a moment as he stared down at his plate.

“What is it, Don? What is it you are not telling us? You, out of nearly eight thousand million people have been chosen to host these alien beings. You are to be the ‘rock’ upon which they build. And yet…”

He stared at me.

I went on, “And yet, here we are: two dead, two decades gone by, the world in an even worse state than it was during the Cold War and your ‘Visitors’, in order to spread their message, in order to build upon their ‘rock’, arrange a meeting in the Adirondacks, with smoked salmon and German wine, and murder a TV production assistant from NBC. It all makes perfect sense. I can see clearly how this will all lead to…” I trailed off and frowned. “Actually, Don, that’s a point, what will this all lead to? What is it, exactly, they are building upon the rock that is you?”

He didn’t look at me. Jasmine got up and started clearing away the plates.

He shook his head. “I don’t know, Stone. And your sarcasm is frankly out of place. You are a guest in my house, you might at least have the courtesy to be respectful of our beliefs.”

I nodded. “I am respectful of all beliefs, Don, when they don’t lead to homicide. But when people start getting killed, then I become a little less respectful.”

“What are you implying,” he asked with sudden heat, “That I killed Danny, waited twenty years, and then killed Jane? For what imaginable purpose?”

I looked around the table. Everybody still looked embarrassed.

I said, “I don’t know. But I guess the same applies to your Visitors. If you, who knew these people, who had close relationships with them, if you have no motive, then what possible motive could a visitor from another solar system have?” I turned and looked at Paul, who was staring fixedly down at the table in front of him.