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

may think, I love them and I would never do anything to hurt them. I had never been with a man until…” He gave a bitter laugh. “Until Jose discovered my latent weakness. I was fascinated by him.”

Dehan’s voice was quieter now. “So when he started to change…”

“I resented him. I saw that he was drawing Am in, and that he planned to steal his research and his ideas, so I arranged to meet him, to warn him.”

I frowned. “So, I am not clear, did you and Am Nielsen become lovers?”

“No! I am not gay! It was just Jose! It was something weird that happened to me with him! I can’t explain it!”

I smiled, not unkindly, guy to guy again, “And when he started threatening your wife and kids, that soon cured you of whatever it was.”

“You can say that again!”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “I had a similar experience last night.”

“Look, I…”

“Having your wife threatened will focus your mind. It strikes at our most primal instincts. I understand how you must have felt.”

“I’d do anything for my family. But, Stone, I did not plan to hurt you or Carmen. I consider you friends. I just needed you to back off.”

“I understand. I figure most people would have done something similar.”

“My wife, my kids…”

“So when Jose threatened that, you arranged with Am to kill him and frame Agnes.”

He stared at me wide-eyed. “No!”

“Give me a single reason why I should believe you.”

He licked his lips. He looked at Dehan but found no sympathy there, then looked back at me. “Come on, Stone! You have to believe me! I could not murder anybody! And not Agnes! Jesus! I was really fond of Agnes! I would never hurt her!”

I raised an eyebrow and Dehan gave a short, dry laugh. She said, “You were fond of Agnes?”

“Of course I was! She was a beautiful person! Jesus! She was quiet and shy, but she was also very smart and kind and gentle. She was the only person he respected.”

I leaned forward. “What?”

“He adored her.”

I shook my head. “How do you know this?”

He looked very confused. “We hung out together. Me and Agnes were close…”

There was a knock on the door. Gomez poked her head in. “You got a moment, Detective?”

I stood and stepped out. The door closed behind me. “We got Yeltsin, sir. He’s being processed downstairs. His partner, Boris, is in hospital. Seems you got him.”

SEVENTEEN

I stepped back into the interrogation room and leaned against the wall by the door. Dehan restarted the recording and said, “Detective Stone has reentered the room.”

Costas stared at me and I held his eye. “They just brought Yeltsin in. He’s being processed downstairs.”

He dropped his eyes and stared at his hands on the table in front of him. “I swear I did not hire him to kill you, Stone. I would never do that.”

“Be smart, Costas. You know what this means. When we start talking to him, he is going to sell you down the river. When the jury hear his testimony, and then hear from your own mouth that you hired him…” I shook my head. “You need to get real. Start telling the truth.”

“For God’s sake, Stone. I am telling you the truth.”

I sighed noisily and sat. Dehan said: “You want us to believe that Agnes, who was desperately in love with Robles, was also your close pal; that you had some kind of ménage a trois going on, in which she never got to sleep with lover boy, but you did, and she was down with that?”

He screwed up his face. “What?” Then he laughed. “She was just his beard! She had no interest in him that way! They were friends! She was probably the only real friend he had, because he couldn’t get to her.”

I suppressed a smile. Dehan leaned across the table, frowning, curious. “Are you telling me that Robles and Shine were just friends?”

“Yes! That was the whole point of ‘Jose and Agnes’! Anyone who was close to them knew that. He saw her as…” He shrugged, searching for the word, “I suppose almost like a mother figure. She was so tolerant! My God! He would say and do the most outrageous things, and she would just kind of smile, this long suffering smile and make some dry, witty comment to me, and we would laugh. I adore her. She was the sweetest, kindest woman you could imagine. But she was so painfully shy, few people ever got to know her as she really was.”

“Was?”

He groaned and sighed. “Come on, Carmen! You know that’s bullshit! It’s called reported speech! You’re telling a story, you put it in the past tense. I haven’t heard from her in a couple of weeks!”

I said, “Where did you send her?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You and Am decided to kill Robles. With the same elastic morality you displayed toward your wife and family, you decided to frame her and make her disappear. He had access to the weapons, you had access to the people who could give her a new identity.”

“That is absurd! Can you hear yourself? She has a career, for Christ’s sake! A house! A life! Friends!”

There was a knock on the door and Gomez put her head in again.

“You asked me to let you know when the suspect was in the interrogation room. He has been formally charged.”

I grunted, thanked her and stood. “You are not doing yourself any favors, Costas. If you were the DA in this case, what would you be thinking right now?” I turned to Dehan. “Come on, let’s let Mr. Varufakis think for a while. We’ll go and have a chat with Mr. Yeltsin.”

At the door, I stopped and