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

knew something real bad had happened. After a month, I knew she was dead.” She reached out and covered Dehan’s hand with her own. “When you called I knew you were coming to tell me you had found her. She is with God, and with the angels, my little Angel.”

Suddenly she was sobbing violently, with her eyes closed and the handkerchief pressed over her mouth. She didn’t say anything, just made wrenching, visceral noises while she sat, stiff and erect, weeping into her neatly folded handkerchief. Dehan pulled her chair over and sat with her arm around her shoulder, not saying anything, just holding her gently. I wondered for a moment what Mo and the guys at the station would make of it: Carmen Dehan, the cop nobody wanted to work with because she had such a bad attitude.

After a while, the sobbing subsided and Elisa began to take deep, shaky breaths. She opened her eyes and put her hand over Dehan’s again. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m OK now. The Lord sends these trials to test us, but I know my Angela is with him, in Heaven.” She braced herself and said, “You had better tell me what happened.”

Dehan answered. “She was murdered, Mrs. Fernandez. I am so sorry…”

She shook her head. “I knew she would be. I told her not to go to New York. She was an innocent. I gave her my mother’s cross to protect her. But it was no good. Please, don’t tell me the details. I don’t want to know. Just tell me, was it quick?”

I nodded and told a small, white lie. I said, “It was quick, Mrs. Fernandez, and she was unconscious.”

“Thank the Lord for his mercy.”

“Why was she in New York?”

She stared at the white tablecloth, at the place mat on which her glass was standing. For a moment I wondered if she had heard my question. Then she said, “She went to live with her boyfriend. I advised her not to. Father Byrne advised her not to also. But she said they were going to get married, just not yet. She told me not to worry, that everything was going to be OK.”

Dehan took out her notebook and her pen. “What was her boyfriend’s name, Mrs. Fernandez?”

“He was a local boy, Irish. Good boy, I liked him. Michael.” She gave a small laugh. “The Irish have so many beautiful names, but they only ever use four! Sean, Patrick, Michael and James.” Her eyes drifted to the window. “Michael Shine. He was so in love with her. Every man who met her fell in love with her. She was so beautiful, and good and kind.”

Dehan asked, “So Michael moved to New York?”

“He worked for a bank, here in Berwick. I can’t remember which one. But he applied for a better job in New York, with a big bank, maybe HSBC, I can’t remember. It wasn’t a magnificent job, but for his age, you know, it was good. So he moved to New York.”

I asked, “How long ago was this?”

“It was the beginning of March, 2016. And on April second she went to join him.”

Dehan was frowning at her pad. “So let me be sure I have this right. Angela went to live with Michael in New York on April second, 2016?”

“That’s correct.” She nodded.

I scratched my head. “Is Michael still there?”

“Yes, he still writes to me, old fashioned letters because I don’t use a computer. At Christmas he comes to see me, too.”

“Could you give us his address? We are going to need to talk to him.”

“935 C, Castle Hill Avenue. He has the top floor of one of those big red brick houses. She was very excited because it was next door to the public library, and she loved to read.” She took a deep breath. “I am sorry, Detectives. This is very difficult for me. The thing is, she didn’t stay with Michael. That is, she stayed with him for only about three weeks.”

I was surprised and my face said so. “Oh?”

“Apparently she met somebody else. I am ashamed to admit it. It was certainly not the behavior I would have expected from her, and I am at a loss to explain it, but that is what happened. She moved out of Michael’s apartment and moved in with this new man.”

“Who was this new man, Mrs. Fernandez?”

“I have no idea.”

I leaned forward, with my elbows on the table. “I want you to think very carefully, because this could be of vital importance. Is it possible that Michael was mistreating Angela? Was he hurting her? Is that why she moved out?”

“Oh, Lord no! Not at all. She said she felt very bad for him because he had been such a saint and a gentleman, but she had met another man and she had fallen head over heels in love with him. And he with her. And it would be wrong to stay with Michael when she felt that way about this other man…”

“A name, Mrs. Fernandez, she must have mentioned a name.”

“She did, just a first name. She said she would write me with more details of her new address, and they would come and see me, but I never heard from her again.”

Dehan said, “The name?”

She stared out the window for a long time. I was about to ask again, but she took another deep breath and looked down at the table, biting her lip. “I’ll never forget the name as long as I live, but it makes me sick to my stomach to say it. Jimmy. The man who killed my daughter is called Jimmy.”

TEN

We left her a little while later. She had called friends who were going to come over and spend the evening with her. Dehan rested her ass on the hood