Dead Cold Mystery Box Set 4

by Blake Banner

  “I am not the monster you are making me out to be!”

  I sounded the voice of reason. “Let’s get back on task. Did you warn Am that Jose might cut him out?”

  “Yes.”

  Dehan snarled, “Betrayal comes really easy to you, doesn’t it, Costas?”

  “It wasn’t betrayal! He had been treating me like shit!”

  Again he saw it too late. Clamped his mouth shut and screwed up his eyes. I gave him a moment to realize he was sunk. Then I asked, “In what way was he treating you like shit?”

  He didn’t open his eyes, just shook his head. “He was being the way he was sometimes.”

  “Can you be a little more precise?”

  He opened his eyes and sagged. “He was taunting me. He had this thing: he was attracted to people who were more powerful than him. He would start a new relationship by being very submissive, giving himself completely, until he found a weakness in the other person, and then he would start to attack that weakness, until he had that person completely enslaved. It was compulsive, and he would move from one relationship to another, leaving a trail of broken people in his wake. My weakness, he soon discovered, was my wife and children.” He looked at Dehan. “Whatever you 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 looked back at him. “How did you meet Yeltsin, Costas? He hasn’t been prosecuted in New York.”

  “I wouldn’t be stupid enough to use someone I had prosecuted, Stone. He was a friend of Am’s, from the shooting range.”

  I smiled. “Better and better.”

  We took a walk to the coffee machine and got two paper cups of nasty black liquid. She leaned against the wall and we stared at each other for a bit. Finally she shook her head.

  “Whichever way I look at it, it’s bullshit, Stone.”

  “I think what he said about Agnes is true. It makes sense of a lot of things we didn’t understand. It is also very interesting.”

  She shrugged. “It doesn’t change anything.”

  I nodded a few times. “Maybe. Whatever Yeltsin tells us will be key.”

  We went in. His wrists had been manacled to the table. He was six foot, but strongly built, lean and muscular. His face was alert and his expression predatory. He didn’t look worried, just slightly mad. His right hand was bandaged and two of the fingers were in splints.

  We sat. I said, “You’ve been read your rights. Do you want an attorney
present, or are you willing to talk to us?”

  “I want deal. You give me deal, I don’t need lawyer. You don’t give me deal, you can fuck off.”

  “What kind of deal?”

  “I tell you everything. I give you DA. I walk.”

  I laughed, not a lot, but enough to let him know I thought he was ridiculous. “You tried to assassinate me and my wife last night. You think I’m going to let you walk?”

  He nodded. “Yuh.”

  “Not going to happen, Peter. You’re wanted in California, Arizona and Texas, and here you are charged with conspiracy to murder two officers of the law. You are doing time. We can talk about how much time, but you are doing time.”

  He muttered something in Russian. His eyes were very pale and looked amused. “He tell me not hurt you. He say, ‘oh! You are good people! Friend! No hurt them. Just scare a little.’” He sneered and said something that sounded like, “Mudack! There is no conspiracy to kill police officers. Only scare. But I have other information. More interesting. About pussy boy Am. You want to know, we talk deal.”

  “Yeah? You’d better give me more than that, Yeltsin. Right now I can nail you both just on forensic evidence.”

  He grunted a laugh. “You can nail shit. My lawyer make you look like asshole in court. Your DA kills pussy boy Am. I can prove, conclusive, and more. He is fucking killer. Not just pussy boy, also professor at university, Dr. Robles, and other professor, Dr. Shine. He kill all of them. I can prove conclusive, but I need deal. No deal, no proof.”

  Dehan leaned forward. “You are telling us that Assistant District Attorney Costas Varufakis murdered Dr. Jose Robles, Dr. Agnes Shine and Dr. Robles’ student, Americano Nielsen?”

  “That is what I just tell you, sooka. I tell you nothing more until I have deal from DA.”

  I sighed noisily, leaned back in my chair and laughed quietly. “I hear a lot of talk.” I looked up and held his eye. “I hear a lot of talk from a sissy who got his ass kicked last night by my wife.” I looked at Dehan and we both laughed. “But words are cheap. Especially the ones I am hearing right now. Anyone can make accusations, Yeltsin. Let me see some substance. Like I told you, on forensic evidence alone, you and Varufakis are going down. If you have something Earth shattering, let’s have a glimpse. Let me see some of it.”

  He wasn’t drawn by the taunts. He glanced at Dehan a moment, then turned back to me. “I tell you where and how the DA drowns Am. I tell you why. I tell you how he is put him in the river. I tell you how he is kill Dr. Shine so no leave no sign off blood. I tell you where body is put in water. I tell you how he organize Dr. Robles’ death and I tell you why. I tell you everything you are need know, every detail. If I no give you every detail of all three murder, no deal for me. You can write it like that. I sign. But deal is, no charge. I tell you, I go free.”

  I rubbed my chin and looked at Dehan. She gave a small nod. I said, “We need to discuss this with the DA.”

  We left him in the room and made our way to the Deputy Inspector’s office. I knocked and he barked, “Come!”

  When we pushed in, the DA was there with him. The inspector stood. “John, Carmen, you know Denise Davis, the District Attorney…”

  We shook and muttered greetings, which I cut short and said, “I’m going to cut right to the chase. Yeltsin is offering us Varufakis on a plate. He says he can prove that Varufakis killed Dr. Robles, Dr. Shine and Am Nielsen. He claims he can tell us where Dr. Shine’s body was dumped in the river and he can prove it all.”

  The DA frowned. “Do you believe him?”

  I gave half a shrug. “In a sense, that’s irrelevant, ma’am. He’s willing to accept a deal that specifies that if he cannot provide satisfactory proof, there is no deal.”

  The inspector pointed at a couple of chairs. “Sit down, detectives. Let’s take this a step at a time. First of all, in a nutshell, what is the theory right now? Because I confess this case has me confused!”

  I gestured at Dehan. “Detective Dehan proposed the current theory, and it seems Yeltsin may be about to confirm it. Perhaps she had better outline it.”

  “Sir, ma’am, this case is all about Dr. Jose Robles’ compulsive need for dominant, sadomasochistic relationships.”

  Davis’ eyebrows shot up and she said, “Oh!”

  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 pr
oves 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 gonna prosecute me. You can undo this, no?”

  I showed him an expressionless face. “Talk. Let’s see what you’ve got. Right now, you’re the punk who tried to shoot my wife last night. Show me I’m wrong and I’ll take the cuffs off.”