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

“Yup. It makes no sense his sending us on this investigation unless he knows something he isn’t telling us.”

“Something about Jose? About Agnes? Or about the research?”

I sat chewing my lip for a while as we cruised through Plandome Heights, with its genteel manor houses concealed behind a discreet overabundance of foliage. “Something,” I said, “about who Mohamed is, and how Dr. Jose Robles met Am.”

She knitted her brows under her soft wool hat. “Seriously? You think he knows about that?”

“I’d be very surprised if he didn’t.”

Ten minutes later, we pulled into Patricia Meigh’s driveway and parked beside a Jaguar that was fifty-four years younger than mine, and had a tenth of the style and the class. Dehan looked at my expression, then at the car, and laughed a pretty laugh with a red nose and red cheeks. “These upstarts,” she said, and climbed out.

Dr. Meigh opened the door herself. Behind her we could hear voices: a small group of people laughing and chatting. She offered us the smile that good form required of her, but left us in no doubt that we were intruding, and not welcome.

“Detectives, please come in.” We stepped into a spacious, elegant hall. She didn’t offer to take our coats, but turned and started walking away, past the door to the drawing room, where the voices were coming from, and speaking over her shoulder as she went. “I have put you in the dining room. We shan’t be using it until this evening. I imagine you’ll be finished by then?”

We followed her down a dark, wood-paneled corridor to a large, wood-paneled dining room. There was, in the middle of the floor, a highly polished mahogany dining table with twelve chairs about it, and above it a crystal chandelier. Two tall sash windows allowed dull, gray light in from the gardens and the driveway outside. A dull amber light was added to that when she snapped on a switch by the door.

On the table there were two cardboard boxes. She closed the door and moved to them.

“This is what there is. Most of it is equations which, unless one of you is an accomplished physicist or mathematician, will not mean much to you. However, quite a lot of it is, as I said to you on the phone, his theories and explanations of the equations. From them you will at least get an idea of what he was doing, though I am honestly not sure how that will help you.”

I held her eye a moment. “Dr. Meigh, you said when we spoke to you in your office that Dr. Robles and Dr. Shine were involved. I believe your exact words were that they were not so much involved with each other as in each other.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“Detective Gutierrez’s assumption, and ours to begin with, was that this involvement provided the motive for the murder.”

“That would seem to make sense.”

I nodded and paused. “But actually, the deeper we dig, the less evidence we find that they were in any kind of relationship. They seem to have been little more than close friends.”

She looked surprised. “Well, of course, I didn’t know them socially…”

Dehan had pulled off her hat and gloves and the static from the wool was making some of her hairs stand up and wave around again. She started to remove her coat and said, “In fact, the person he seems to have had a closer, sexual relationship with is Dr. Cobos.”

She arched a withering eyebrow. “Really? Well, as I say, there is no accounting for taste.”

I smiled. “You don’t approve?”

She shook her head. “It is hardly for me to approve or disapprove. They are probably ideal for each other. They can celebrate their great nation together.” I drew breath, but she interrupted me. “They have produced world class painters and musicians, but never a world class scientist or a world class philosopher. That tells you something about their culture, I suppose.”

I forced myself to hold the smile. “Are you able to enlighten us any more on their relationship, Dr. Meigh?”

“I’m afraid not. It was generally accepted among the staff that Jose and Agnes were, so to speak, an item. People spoke of ‘Jose and Agnes’ as a unit. People used to ask, ‘What does she see in him?’ So you see, they were perceived as a couple. What actually went on with them in private…” She shrugged.

“Sure.” I nodded a couple of times and pursed my lips at the floor. As she was about to leave, I said, “What can you tell me about Am Nielsen?”

She stopped dead. “Am Nielsen? Nothing. Who is he?”

“One of Dr. Robles’ students.”

She shook her head again. “I’m sorry, I don’t know him, and I really must get back to my family; we have a luncheon and then we are busy packing.” A little warmth trickled back into her face. “We always spend Christmas in Maine. If you would like tea or coffee, just ring the bell and somebody will come.” She hesitated, and the frost returned to her eyes. “You can let yourselves out when you are finished. I trust you not to remove any of the notes.”

“That’s very kind of you, Dr. Meigh.”

She gave a smile that matched her eyes and left, closing the door behind her. Dehan opened the boxes and looked inside. “We have been quarantined, in case we infect her family with vulgarity and commonness.”

I rang the bell, took off my coat and dragged one of the boxes to the end of the table. There I pulled everything out and sat to examine it. It was mainly spiral bound notebooks, though there were a few documents consisting of typewritten sheets of A4, stapled together, and the odd slip of paper with handwritten scrawls on it.

The door opened and a young woman in