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

left out. See, you are not such a badass, you don’t really think of her as your bitch, and your bro—well, you were actually thinking of leaving the Angels because you felt you had finally found that family you never had as a kid. Now, I have got to be honest…” I sat back in my chair and looked at Dehan. “My partner thinks you’re a scumbag who beats up on women. I don’t. The more I learn about you, the more I see you as a basically stand-up guy who was badly lost but had the balls to find his way.”

He gave me a look that told me I could stick my opinion of him where the sun don’t shine. “Gee, thanks, Officer Stone.”

I ignored him. Dehan stepped in. “Thing is, Hank, even if you are the stand-up guy my partner thinks you are, this new, gentler image of you has exactly the opposite effect from what it should have. Because it gives you one hell of a motive for killing her.”

His face and neck flushed red. He half stood and his chair fell back. “I have just about had enough!”

Dehan was on her feet. “Sit down!”

“I left Lynda at that goddamn rally with that motherfucking asshole, Zak!”

I got to my feet. He watched me walk behind him and pick up the chair. I said quietly, “Sit down, Hank.”

He sat. I sat and Dehan sat.

“Zak tells me he was only trying to help you realize that you can’t trust women,” I said.

“That’s bullshit.”

“You didn’t tell me he was into Crowley.”

He heaved a huge sigh and made a helpless gesture with his hands. “I don’t know. I figured you’d find out. You know? You’re coming at me from every fucking angle. You think Lynda is dead? When you came to my shop, you said I cut off her fucking arms and put them in Pete’s fucking lockup. Now you’re saying you think I killed her. What the fuck, man?”

He had tears in his eyes. I felt bad for him, but I ignored my feelings. “How much were you involved in the whole ritual magic thing?”

“Not.” He said it emphatically. “I got into the Angels for the bikes, and because it was the closest I ever had to a family. Zak was crazy about the whole Crowley thing. A lot of the bros were. They used to snort and have crazy rituals. They used to talk a lot of shit about going beyond the limits.” He gave a humorless laugh and shrugged. He glanced at Dehan. “Sorry, but a chick has three holes you can fuck. So how far past the limits are you gonna go? You gonna fuck her in the ear? Sorry, I got no time for that shit. Snort. Fuck. You don’t need to prance around in stupid robes and invoke the fuckin’ devil.”

Dehan asked him, “Is that all they did?”

“I don’t know.” He stared down at his hands between his legs. He looked unhappy. “It seems like yesterday sometimes. Lynda was a sweet kid. I really liked her. She was just a bit wild, but she didn’t mean no harm. I know what that is. Maybe I should have just picked her up and carried her away. I think of her involved in all that stuff and it kills me.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He looked her in the eye. “I don’t know because I never went to one of his stupid rituals. But I heard they sacrificed chickens and drank their blood. I never believed it, but maybe it was true. Those guys were crazy enough to do it.”

I watched him a moment. “Could they have progressed to people?”

He blinked a few times. They were odd, soft blinks. A tear spilled from his eye, and when he spoke he sounded like he had a cold. “I sure hope not.”

“Were you aware of any girls going missing during that time?”

He wiped his nose and his eyes on the back of his sleeve. “I don’t know, Detective. I’m sorry. Most of the time we were drunk or stoned. Chicks came and went. All I can say is I wasn’t aware of that, but it is possible. If you’re asking me were Zak and his coven crazy enough to make a human sacrifice, I have to say yes. I think they were crazy enough. They did a lot of coke”— he made a gesture with his hand like he was showing me something on the table—“because they said it helped them to go beyond the limits. So if they went on a snort-fest and got into a crazy ritual, yeah. They could.”

“What day did you leave the rally?”

“It was Sunday late afternoon, early evening.”

Dehan said, “The Sabbath.”

“Where did you go?” I asked.

“I went home. Called a friend in L.A., told him I needed to get away from things.”

“An Angel?” Dehan asked.

He shook his head. “Told me to go over. So I did. Ended up staying a while, then went to Arizona, worked with a mechanic there for a bit, till I got her out of my system. Then came back and set up my business.”

“By bike, obviously.” He looked at me and frowned. “You left the rally, went home and then to L.A., by bike.”

“Yeah, of course.” He stared at me a while, then at Dehan. “Do you even know she’s dead?”

I shook my head.

“This is all because of those damned arms?”

I nodded.

He pulled a face. “You’re on the wrong track. If Zak killed her, and I can’t see why he would, but if he did, he wouldn’t cut her arms off and put them in a fuckin’ lockup. Zak was all about sex and humiliation. All he ever wanted to do was get the biggest fuckin’ hard-on drugs could give him, and fuck and humiliate