Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (A Dead Cold Box Set) by Blake Banner (types of ebook readers txt) 📕

held her eye and told her, “Ms. Mackenzie, I have some very bad news. I’m afraid your son was shot and killed last night.”

For a moment, she went rigid. Her face flushed red, then went dead white. She put her hands to her mouth and screamed. It was loud, shrill, and startling. She stood and Dehan stood with her. Then she screamed again, three times, covering her face with her hands, trying to articulate the word ‘No’, but making only a horrific, screeching sound of horror and panic.

Dehan tried to take hold of her. Sue turned to face her with huge, staring eyes, pupils reduced to pinpricks. She tottered two steps back, faltered, and collapsed with a horrible, jarring thud on the floor.

I picked her up in my arms with some difficulty. She was heavier than she looked. I laid her out on the sofa and Dehan went to the kitchen for a glass of water. I heard her rummaging in a couple of cupboards and she came back with the drink and a spoonful of honey. She touched the honey to her lips and after a moment Sue opened her eyes. Her pupils were dilated. She stared at me a moment, and as the realization of what had happened dawned on her anew, her face screwed up, she curled into the fetal position and started to wail, repeating his name over and over.

Eventually, the crying subsided into convulsive sobbing, and after another minute or so, she lay still and quiet. Dehan stayed sitting with her, her hand on her arm, and after a while she asked her, “Do you want us to call your doctor?” Sue shook her head. Dehan went on, “A friend? Somebody who can be with you?”

She looked up at Dehan, seeming to see her for the first time. The she stared at me and sat up. She said, “Peggy.” She pointed at the bookcase, by the photograph and the bourbon. “My phone. Tell her to come please, I need her. She’s a homeopath.”

Dehan stood, took the phone and walked into the kitchen, scrolling through the address book. Sue curled herself into the corner of the sofa, staring at an empty space in front of her face for a while. Then she moved her head and stared at a different empty space, like she was seeing something different in each empty space she looked at.

“Ms. Mackenzie.” She blinked and looked at me now. “It’s important that we get on the trail of whoever did this as quickly as possible. Do you feel up to answering a few questions?”

She stared for a moment. “Like what?”

The question surprised me. I frowned. “When we arrived, you seemed to know that it was about Sebastian…”

“He didn’t come home last night. I was worried.”

“You thought he might have done something.”

“Luis. Luis was a bad influence on Sebastian. Sebastian worked so hard, he was doing so well. Luis was always taking him to parties to meet girls. It was probably his fault that this happened…”

Her lower lip curled in and she started to cry again. I could hear Dehan talking quietly in the kitchen. I pressed on. “Can you think why Sebastian would have been at Hunts Point last night?”

She didn’t answer for a long moment. I was about to repeat the question when she shook her head. “No, of course not.”

Dehan returned and sat beside Sue. “Peggy is on her way. She’ll be here in about ten minutes.”

Sue looked at her but said nothing.

I said, “Ms Mackenzie, we are almost done, and we really do appreciate your help. Can you think of anyone, however far-fetched, who might have wanted to hurt your son?”

She shook her head. “He was the nicest, sweetest, kindest…” Again she covered her face with her hands and started to cry. I glanced at Dehan. She put her arm around her and stroked her back and shoulders.

“What about friends, colleagues at the hospital, is there anyone we can talk to?”

Mary had my handkerchief. I stood and went to the kitchen, found a roll of paper and brought it back. I handed it to Sue. She took it and blew her nose, then wiped her eyes. “Elizabeth,” she said. “Elizabeth Kelly. An intern he was seeing at the hospital. They weren’t that serious. I haven’t got a number. What happened? How did it happen? What was he doing in Hunts Point?”

“That is something we are trying to find out. They had parked on Bryant Avenue…” I paused to see if she would react. She just stared at me so I went on. “An unknown person approached the car and shot them.”

Her face clenched in on itself. Her lip curled in. She curled in, tucking her elbows into her belly, silently swaying from side to side. The howl of pain didn’t come for maybe fifteen or twenty seconds. And then it was an awful sound. The doorbell rang and I rose gratefully to open it.

There was a middle-aged woman in sensible clothes, holding a bag and looking at me as though she was ready to blame me for something, anything, most things. I said, “Are you Peggy?”

“Yes, I am. Where is she?”

I stood back. “On the sofa.”

She bustled through, opening her bag as she went.

“All right, you can leave now. There will be no questions and no answers today! You have caused quite enough upset as it is, thank you!”

I looked at Dehan and sighed. “Peggy, this is a murder inquiry. We will have to come back and ask Ms. Mackenzie some questions. Will you please let us know when she is able to see us?”

She looked at me, pointed at the door, and said, “Please close it on your way out, Detective.”

I took a card out of my wallet and put it on the coffee table and we left.