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

“I stand where I have always stood,” I said. “I live in the house my parents left me. The biggest expense I ever had was bringing the Jag over from England. The opportunities have been there, as they will be for you”—as they were right now, today—“but that’s not who I am. I don’t belong to anybody.”

She stared out at the vast ocean with no particular expression. After a while, a pretty hostess brought us scrambled eggs and coffee. Dehan ate hungrily while I sipped the strong black brew.

When she’d finished, she sat back and drained her cup.

“Is that why you never married?”

I smiled at her. “Mind your own goddamn business.”

We sat in companionable silence for a while, and I leafed through a magazine. Without looking at her, I asked, “How about you?”

“Same answer.”

We touched down at eight twenty. It was just an airfield. It was in the middle of a huge plain that was, in turn, surrounded by flat lands that seemed to go on forever. We taxied to a hangar where we were met by a young guy in Bermuda shorts and a shirt that would have been more at home in Miami. His face would have been more at home in Naples, but that didn’t stop him from wearing a Texan hat. He took our bags and led us over to a Jeep Cherokee. He didn’t say much, but he was chewing gum and driving at the same time, so maybe he wasn’t good at multitasking.

We took a roundabout route across an endless landscape of flat fields to a town called Placedo, where we turned north and drove for about twelve miles in a perfectly straight line until we came to what at first looked like a small town but turned out to be a ranch called Las Salinas. It had a twelve-foot electrified fence, CCTV, and a remote-controlled gate. Our driver stuck his face out the window so they could see it was him, and the gate rolled back.

We followed a driveway for a couple of minutes. On the right I could see eucalyptus groves and palm trees surrounding a tennis court and a swimming pool, a short walk from a large, three-story Spanish villa surrounded by lawns and gardens and shaded by trees.

We pulled up in front of the house next to a Bentley and a Ferrari. A guy in an Italian suit came trotting down the stairs to greet us as we climbed out and slammed the doors.

“Detectives Stone and Dehan. I am Vito.” He gave a little bow to Dehan that was supposed to render her defenseless and make her knees turn to Jell-O. Instead she indicated the house with her head and said, “The witness protection program paying for this?”

His smile became frigid. “Morry is out back, by the pool. Would you like to follow me?”

I said, “I’d love to.”

Pro was very tall and very thin and had very big hands. He was sitting at a white table under a parasol by a second smaller pool that was built into the terrace at the back of the house. This one was only two hundred and fifty square feet. The other one was the big one. He was wearing floral Bermudas and a shirt with parrots on it. His face was hidden by big black Wayfarers, and he was drinking something large, colorful, and complicated. The thing here was obviously to pretend that instead of hiding in Texas, you were living large in Miami. He didn’t get up to greet us because that would have been demeaning to his dignity, but he did smile in a way you could describe as expansive, and gestured to a couple of chairs at his table. When he spoke, his voice was deep and slow.

“Stone, I don’t think we ever met. And Detective Dehan, the NYPD is getting easier to look at every day. Sit down. What will you drink? Coffee? This is my morning health drink. It helps to keep my liver clean. It is important to remain healthy.” He laughed as we sat. “God knows there are enough people out there who want me dead, without me giving them a hand, huh? What do you say, Stone?”

I smiled and nodded. “Coffee would be great, thanks, Pro. And thank you for seeing us. I know it’s not the norm.”

“Fuck the norm. We’re here to do business, right? Vito, bring some coffee.”

Vito left. “Are we?” I said.

“You better believe it, Stone.”

I sensed Dehan was about to speak and silenced her with my eyes. I turned back to Pro and said, “Just so there is no misunderstanding and we don’t get our wires crossed, let’s do it this way. I tell you what I want, then you tell me what you want in exchange.”

He stared at me for an uncomfortably long time. Then he said, “You telling me how it goes?”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I waited a moment, then sighed. “Pro, I’ve been here a minute and I’m already getting bored. Let’s be clear. If I am here it’s because you want something from me. So right now I’m worth more to you alive than dead. Second, if you think I am stupid enough to come down here without covering my ass, you’ve been living too long among gorillas. If we’re not back in New York by tonight, you and your friend Harrison are going to be stitching postal sacks for the next twenty years. So quit trying to intimidate me, and let’s get down to business.”

Pro chuckled. “It’s habit. I can’t help it.” He turned to Dehan. “I like to see what a man is made of.”

She didn’t answer him, but I saw something in her look and made a note to keep an eye on her when she was under pressure. She