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

of the Jag and pulled out her cell while I unlocked the door. She dialed and waited, squinting in the afternoon sun. After a moment she said, “Hey, Teddy, it’s Detective Dehan, remember me?” She waited, sucking her teeth and looking up at the sky. “Yeah, OK, listen, Teddy…” He obviously kept talking because she paused, then repeated, “Teddy, listen to me. We really need that information. It has become a matter of extreme urgency, you understand me? I need to know Jimmy’s last known address by tonight… Good, that’s what I wanted to hear. You’re a good man, Teddy. Bye.”

I smiled as she opened the door and climbed in. “He was real busy,” she said. Then she eyed me up and down. “It’s looking like Jimmy, Sensei.”

I turned the key and the engine roared into life. “It always did, Little Grasshopper. It always did.” As we pulled away I said, “You want to call Shine and ask him to come in tomorrow? Early as he can. I want to talk to him before the DA arranges a deal for Wayne.”

“You still think Wayne is our guy…”

“I don’t think anything, Dehan. There are things about Wayne and his testimony that don’t make sense.” I smiled at her without rancor and added, “And honestly, I think the inspector, the DA and you are jumping at the easy solution. There are things here that don’t make sense, and I want them explained.”

“Like the place where he says he was lying…”

“Amongst others. I’d also like to know why these girls kept falling in love and giving themselves body and soul to a guy who was, and I quote, ‘not the sort of guy you’d notice’.” I glanced at her. “That from Pam and Teddy. Well, so far, this guy you wouldn’t look twice at has got three attractive young ladies to A, fall out with her best friend so she could see him at the bar and then arrange to meet him Saturday instead of going home to Mom; B, spend a naughty weekend with him in the belief he could get her a job and C, leave her boyfriend so she could move in with him because it was love at first sight. Now, I want you to tell me something, and I want you to be really honest.”

“Oh God, what?”

“Wayne Harris, is he sexually fascinating?”

“No.”

“Be honest, Dehan. I am not asking you, personally, if you find him attractive. I am talking in general. Has he got sexual magnetism?”

She sighed. “OK, Stone, I guess to some women that kind of uninhibited, predatory bad boy stuff might be a turn on.”

“And he is intelligent enough to put himself across as a misunderstood good guy.”

“Yes. But it still does not explain, A, why he would implicate himself and B, as I keep telling you, he has no record of this kind of crime. You are fixating on him, Stone. What is it? Do you feel jealous or threatened by him?”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “Should I?”

“Good Lord, Stone! No!”

“Then I don’t.” I frowned. “Hey, we’re investigating. We’re following the leads where they take us. Have I done anything unprofessional at any stage?”

“No. No you haven’t, not at all. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“What was the last thing I asked you to do?”

She sighed. “Call Shine.”

“And what is the first thing I am going to ask him?”

She was beginning to look pissed. “I don’t know Stone, what?”

“Seriously? What would you ask?”

“Where can we find Jimmy?”

“And that is what I am going to ask him. And as soon as we get the information from Teddy, we are going to see if they are in fact one and the same Jimmy. Is there anything irrational, negligent or unprofessional about that plan?”

“No, Stone! OK! You made your point!”

“So call.”

She stared at me. I ignored her and after a moment she found the number and made the call. He agreed to come into the station first thing in the morning and she hung up. She stared out the window for ten minutes at the passing countryside, then said, “Stone, don’t get mad at me. We don’t get mad at each other.”

I smiled at her. She smiled back. “I’m not mad at you, Dehan. Forget about us for a minute, be as objective as you can be, as a detective, an investigator, OK?” She nodded. “What made you ask me if I felt jealous or threatened?”

“C’mon, Stone! Let it go!”

“Be objective. You’re not my… whatever you are. Just stand back and examine it. What made you ask that?”

She sighed and after a while she shook her head. “I don’t know. It was a stupid question.”

“You’re still thinking like Carmen Dehan in love with the enigmatic and irresistible Detective John Stone.”

“Yeah? Am I?”

“What made you ask it was that, unconsciously, you were acknowledging that he is a very magnetic, sexual animal that is capable of seducing women and making men feel threatened. Something in which he is the polar opposite of Jimmy the barman.”

I glanced at her. She was staring fixedly at the dashboard. After a while she nodded several times with her lips pursed. “Yup. You’re right.” She looked at me. “You can do that, can’t you?”

“What?”

“Disconnect like that. Ignore your emotions. Be objective.”

“Yes.”

She thought about it, then said, “But I still think you’re wrong. He’s a scumbag, but he is not our guy. Maybe there are two Jimmies and the second one is irresistible. But Wayne is not the guy.”

“Let’s see where the evidence leads us, Carmensita.”

And we drove on, into the gathering dusk.

* * *

Michael Shine was small and thin, with floppy blond hair and an agreeable face, and heels that tapped energetically when he walked. He wore a suit that was