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

The inspector sat back in his chair and said, “Indeed…?”

Dehan ignored them and plowed on. “Since he has been at the university, he has engaged in several of these relationships, which he starts in the passive role of a masochist, and then, having identified his partner’s weakness, he switches so that he becomes the dominant sadist.

“It is key to the case that he did not have this kind of relationship with Dr. Shine, though they both allowed everybody to believe they had.

“Recently, ADA Varufakis met Dr. Robles and they became lovers. Initially, the ADA was the dominant partner, but pretty soon Robles realized that Varufakis was devoted to his wife and children. This was his weakness and Robles exploited it, threatening to reveal their relationship to the media and destroy his family. Right there is his motive for killing Robles.

“Now, meantime, Robles had another lover, a student and research assistant by the name of Americano Nielsen. Am was very brilliant, particularly in Robles’ own field of lithium ion generated electricity. They worked closely together on research to develop a battery, and a motor, that could basically make petrol obsolete. Obviously this research—or at least as much of it as was conducted by Robles—belonged to the university. But, unbeknown to them, the LightYear Corporation approached Robles and made him an offer to let them have the research, and they would make him very rich.

“And that right there is where Varufakis saw his means. He told Am about the offer, and told him that Robles planned to cut him out. Between them, they plotted to kill him and frame Agnes, whom they also killed and dumped in one of the rivers somewhere.

“When Costas saw that we were going to unearth his relationship with Robles, he killed Am and faked his confession. When Stone didn’t buy the confession, he panicked and hired Yeltsin to, so he says, scare us. I think that’s probably true. It may be that Yeltsin was the hit man who killed Am. We’ll have to wait and see.”

She stopped talking and they were both quiet for a while. Then the inspector nodded and cleared his throat. “Very clear and succinct, Carmen, thank you. John, your opinion?”

“So far, the only concrete evidence we have is a few statements and the forensic evidence showing that Yeltsin shot at us and that Robles and Agnes did not drink from their glasses of wine. Practically nothing. The case as Detective Dehan has set it out hinges on Yeltsin’s testimony, or Varufakis’ confession. He, incidentally, admits trying to scare us but denies vehemently that he was involved in the murders.” I turned to the DA. “The bottom line is, ma’am, whether you are prepared to offer him immunity from prosecution.”

She looked at Dehan. “What’s your advice, Detective Dehan?”

“On balance, I think it’s worth it. If his testimony is as probative as he says, we need Varufakis put away for the rest of his life. If it’s a crock, we’ll find out and Yeltsin goes down. We may be able to take Varufakis down too, but on lesser charges.”

Davis turned to me. “Stone?”

“My advice would be to offer him the deal, but make it watertight.”

She sighed and nodded. “It’s hard to believe. Costas was a good man. Just shows, you never really know anybody, do you? I’ll call the office and have them draft the document.”

She stood and left the room. I stood and looked at the inspector. “We’ll go and give the boys the good news.”

Outside, as I closed the door, I said: “Let’s go and see Costas first.”

He looked up as we came in. His eyes and nose were swollen, like he’d been crying. Dehan stayed by the door and I sat opposite him.

“I’ve just spoken to the DA. She’s just agreed a deal with Yeltsin. He’s going to provide testimony that proves you killed Robles, Agnes and Am. In exchange he gets immunity from prosecution. Is there anything you want to tell me, Costas?”

His eyes were wide. He leaned forward, shaking his head. “This is insane! He can’t! He can’t do that because I didn’t kill them! For crying out loud, John! I wanted this case investigated! I panicked when I thought you were going to expose my relationship with Jose! I did something very stupid in trying to scare you! I own to that! But you can’t put me away for the rest of my life for murders I didn’t commit!”

“You won’t confess?”

“No!”

“Then get a lawyer, Costas. A good one.”

I called the sergeant and told her to take him down to the cells and let him call his attorney. After that, Dehan and I went back to the coffee machine and got more dirty black water, and stood in silence not drinking. After five minutes, Denise Davis appeared with a folder. She handed it to me and stared into my eyes. “Here goes nothing.”

I nodded.

Yeltsin was sitting, looking smug. He raised an eyebrow as Dehan closed the door and we moved to the table. “You got a deal for me?”

Dehan sat and started recording. When she’d finished the preliminaries, I showed him the folder. “This is the deal, Peter, on exactly the terms you proposed, as stated on the previous recording. You give us proof of Costas Varufakis’ guilt in the murder of Jose Robles, Agnes Shine and Americano Nielsen, and you get immunity from prosecution.”

“Yeah,” he said and leered at Dehan. “I tell you whole story. Give me, I sign.”

I pulled out the document and slid it across the desk to him. It was short and concise. He read through it carefully, pursed his lips and nodded. He held out his manacled hand without looking up. “Give me pen, I sign.”

I handed him my pen. “Now, start talking.”

EIGHTEEN

He held his manacled wrists toward me. “You no