Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #4: Books 13-16 (A Dead Cold Box Set) by Blake Banner (best ereader for academics .txt) 📕

course, that must have been it. The other question I have is a little more complicated.” She was frowning uncertainly at me, as was Dehan.

I said, “How long have you known Mary Browne?”

Nineteen

She sank back in her chair. Her face had gone very pale.

“What makes you think I know anyone called Mary Browne?”

“Do you?”

“It’s an extremely common name.”

“Not the way she spells it.” She didn’t answer, so I pressed her. “Are you telling me, Sandy, that if I get a court order to search your computer, I won’t find any emails from Mary?”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “I must say, your timing, Detective… I have known Mary for many years, more than I can remember. Since we were small children.”

“She bought the house on the corner.”

“Yes.”

“We found milk, eggs, basic necessities in the fridge. The electricity is on…”

“I look after the place for her. I sometimes… It’s convenient…”

“Because she bought it at the time you moved here, isn’t that right?”

“Yes, I helped negotiate the purchase.”

“Did it seem like an odd purchase to you at the time?”

She didn’t answer straight away but unraveled the handkerchief and screwed it up into a ball again. “Why would you say that?”

“Well, it’s the house where Sue was killed.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

“Who chose the house, Sandy, her or you?”

“I’m…” She shook her head several times. “I’m not sure. It was a long time ago. Maybe I did.”

“That’s a hell of a coincidence, isn’t it?”

“Not really. I mean, her brother had lived in this neighborhood. He mentioned it to her. When I came, I naturally…”

“You naturally chose a house across the street from Giorgio.”

“I really don’t know what you’re driving at. I have just had the most appalling shock. I really need to rest.”

“Of course. We’ll leave you in peace. There is just one other question I would like to ask you before we go.”

She sighed loudly and seemed to slump. “What is it, Detective?”

“Are you related to Mary, or are you just friends?”

She swallowed hard and looked down at the floor. “These questions. I have tried hard to be civil and polite. I know you’re just doing your job, but I have to say I am finding these questions very intrusive.”

“She was kind enough to give me a piece of thread that she had just sucked in order to put it through a needle. There was enough saliva there to get a DNA profile.”

She stared hard at the floor, shook her head a couple of times. “No, no, this is wrong.”

“We know that whoever killed Sue was closely related to Mary.”

Again she shook her head but refused to look at me. “No.”

“Did you kill Fernando, Sandy?”

“I don’t like these questions. Please leave me alone.”

“I called a friend at the Bureau, asked him to check if you had a firearms license. I know you’re a very good shot. I don’t think many people realize just how good. But the way you shoot? That comes down to being really cold-blooded as much as anything else, doesn’t it? What throws most people’s aim in a critical moment is the emotions, their fear. But you don’t have that problem. You don’t feel that kind of emotion anymore, do you?”

“I don’t want to answer these questions. Please go away.”

“If I go away, I will have to take you with me.” I waited a moment. She didn’t say anything. I went on, “I understand that this was all about revenge. What I am not really clear about is whom you were avenging.” Her eyes shifted to meet mine. “I mean,” I said, “killing Fernando and Giorgio suggests that you were avenging Sue, but then, why did you kill Sue? If you killed her, what was to avenge?”

Again she didn’t answer. The room was quiet for a moment, with only the crackle of the fire.

“But then I realized, you weren’t avenging Sue at all, were you? You were punishing her.” I paused a moment and said, “What happened to your ear?”

Her left hand went automatically to the large, blue enamel flower she had over her left earlobe. We looked at each other for a long moment. Then I said, “Yes, that ear.” Still she didn’t speak. “Fernando pulled out your earring, didn’t he, when you stabbed him?”

She gave a couple of short nods.

“Why did you gut him?”

She spoke quietly, almost a whisper. “He deserved to be gutted, like a fish. He was so full of his own masculinity, always talking about how women loved his body. So full of his own sex, though he was actually bisexual. I wanted to cut it out of him and destroy it forever.”

“The same as Giorgio.”

“But Giorgio was worse. His big cock all over the place, making women love him, lying to them, lying with them, stealing their womanhood, lying on them, lying under them, lying inside them. He was the king of thieves. The king of liars.”

“I thought you loved him.”

“Not me.”

“And Sue?”

She looked at my hands. Then her eyes traveled slowly up to my face and I knew she was thinking about killing me too. “She stole him.”

“Everybody’s stealing.”

“Everybody is stealing from me.”

“Do you know who you are?”

“That’s a kind of crazy question.”

“DNA, you know, can be virtually identical with identical twins.”

“I know that.”

“But fingerprints…”

Her gaze drifted. “Oh…”

“Fingerprints are different, even with identical twins.” I waited a moment. “So do you know who you are?”

“I’m…” She took a very deep breath. “I feel very sleepy.”

“I gave you a pen, remember?”

“Yes.”

“And a card. You handled them both.”

“Yes.”

“I sent them to have the prints compared with the prints on Sue’s throat. Sue was raped by a man.