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

“I brought you some coffee, just in case.”

Dr. Cobos peered into the cup and offered Dehan a thin smile. “Thank you, but this is not coffee.” She turned to me. “I teach Spanish at the university, and I make it part of my program to introduce Americans to good coffee, good food and good wine. Is part of Spanish culture.”

She laughed like she’d said something outrageous, reached across the table and touched my hand. “I am afraid America has terrible food, and horrible wine!”

I smiled sweetly at her. “It must have been a comfort for you to have Jose at the university, somebody who shared your cultural background.”

She made a face and shrugged. “I have many friends. I am friends with everybody.”

“Sure, I can imagine…” I paused a moment so she could read whatever she wanted into the comment, then asked, “How close were you and Jose?”

“We was friends. Good friends, but nothing more. Go out, come in, have some drinks with friends, no more.”

I leaned forward, confidentially, like we were allies. “I’ll be honest with you, Dr. Cobos, we believe that Agnes was in love with Jose…”

She did a thing where she tucked her chin into her neck, made her eyes big and flapped her hands like she was shooing me away, and at the same time emitted a long “Oooooh!” I took this to mean she agreed with me, a lot. “She was crazy! Crazy for him, and crazy. Point!”

“Point?”

Dehan gave a small sigh. “Period.”

Cobos ignored us both and stormed on. “She was with him all the time! But all the time! Never! Never you see him alone! Where you go, you see him with her, at the breakfast, at the lunch, when he is going home, if we going out for the dinner, always she is with him. I say to him, ‘Tio!’ We say this in Spanish, is like ‘Guy!’ I say, ‘Tio! You take her with you everywhere? You take her to the toilet? She is like your dog!’ He say to me, ‘She is my mascot. She bring me lucky.’”

She emitted a scream of laughter. Dehan nodded and said, with no particular inflection, “That’s funny. We’ve heard that he was a bit machista. Would you say that was true?”

She did the thing with the hand again and nodded, pursing her lips, “But a lot! But, he say it in a way that make you laugh. He use to tell me, ‘What you doing in the university? Taking a job from a man. You should be at home, cooking, making the cleaning. You are antisocial!’” She laughed. “He is joking, but he is serious.” She nodded and suddenly she was sad. “I miss him. He was a…” She searched the walls and the ceiling for the word, then fumbled, “…personage…”

Dehan said, “A character. He was a character.”

“Yes, a character.”

“Was he in love with you, Dr. Cobos?”

She flopped back in her chair, took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks. “I don’t know. Jose was in love with one person.” She held up a finger to indicate one person. “He was in love with Jose Robles, himself. He was a…” Again she hesitated, looking for the world. “Narcisista.”

“Narcissist.”

“Yes, but…” She hunched her shoulders, spread her hands and nodded slowly several times. “We have a thing, you know? We laugh a lot, we have good compenetration. He like me, and I like him.”

Dehan asked, “So, he never said anything to you about his feelings.”

“No.”

“Did you ever spend the night together, without Agnes?”

Her cheeks colored. “We… Twice, he stay at my apartment. Agnes went home in a taxi.”

I said, “She was upset, obviously.”

She shrugged elaborately. “Is impossible to tell with Agnes.”

Dehan sighed and I scratched my chin. “How did that happen? I’m interested in the scene. Did she say she was going? How did it come about?”

“We went to dinner in a restaurant. Me, Jose, Agnes, Donald, some more people. Donald was another one always with Jose. Him and Agnes was crazy. Good, so, after the dinner we having a few drinks, then Jose say, come on, we go dancing!” She screwed up her face, presumably imitating Agnes. “No! No! We go home! We godda work! Tomorrow is Wednesday!” She rolled her eyes. “Americans! So boring! So Donald go home, Chen go home, others go home, but Agnes stay. What we are going to do? Go dancing? Me and Jose and Agnes? Like the three amigos? I think no. So Jose say to Agnes, ‘Agnes, go home.’”

Dehan grunted. “Just like that?”

“Yes. He call a taxi, give the address, ‘I see you in the morning.’ Finish.” We were all quiet for a moment, then she spoke suddenly. “And second time was similar. But he say to her, ‘I gonna spend the night with Ali, you go home now.’ She go, get a taxi and go home.”

I nodded. “That was pretty cruel. He must have known she was in love with him.”

She shrugged. “Is her problem.”

Dehan smiled. “As it turned out, it was his problem too.”

I drummed my fingers on the table for a second, feeling oddly frustrated. “Dr. Cobos, we are nearly done. I just have a couple more questions for you. We are trying to establish how Agnes came to get hold of a gun. Did either Jose or Agnes at any time mention a gun to you?”

The look of horror on her face was so extreme it was almost comical. “No!” she said. “Never! Jose hate guns! Always he was criticizing American gun law. He says to his colleagues all the time, ‘You have highest murder rate in the world, and you let everybody have guns by mail-order! Maybe put two and two together, it makes four!’”

Dehan smiled, but left her eyes on hold. “Yeah,