Mustang Sally (A Dead Cold Mystery Book 20) by Blake Banner

Author:Blake Banner [Banner, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-08T23:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

I pulled up a chair next to Dehan’s and sat.

“Thanks for the advice. Now, are you prepared to answer some questions or not?”

He offered me his reptilian smile and licked his thin lips with the tip of his tongue. “Well, that kind of depends on the question, Detective Stone.”

“Where are the other members of the Council?”

“I am not in a position to answer that question.”

Dehan cut in, “So perhaps you can tell us who the members of the Council are.”

A small laugh. “I am so sorry, Detective. I am not in a position to give you that information. It is strictly confidential.”

I gave a single nod. “Tell me, does the Council still convene for Hearings of Sentence of Death and Decrees of Execution?”

The smile faded. The tip of his tongue darted across the slit of his mouth. “Where did you hear about that?”

“Answer the question please, Mr. Rose.”

“I am not in a position…” He faltered. “Who told you…? Where…?”

“It is a matter of public record that the Brotherhood never abolished either. But equally it was understood that they de facto stopped convening for hearings on both matters. It is understood that the Council has not issued a death sentence or a Decree of Execution for well over a century, perhaps two. Now I am asking you if that is correct, or whether the Council have continued to issue and execute death sentences, or indeed started to do so again in the recent past.”

He hesitated for a second. “I cannot answer that question.”

Dehan snapped, “What is preventing you from answering that question?”

“The affairs of the Council of the Sacred Brotherhood of Christ are strictly confidential.”

“There is no confidentiality where murder is concerned. If the Council of the Brotherhood are issuing sentences of death and orders of execution, then that is murder under federal law, and aiding, abetting and conspiring in that murder is itself murder. Now quit stalling and answer the damned question! Is the Council of the Sacred Brotherhood of Christ issuing sentences of death and orders to execute those sentences? Yes or no?”

His reaction was violent and startling. His face flushed. He slammed the palm of his hand down hard on the table. The noise was loud and echoed around the chamber. Then his voice came like the shrill scream of a parrot. “You have no jurisdiction here! This is the house of Christ!”

I let the echo die, then spoke quietly. “Answer here, now. Or you can answer in an interrogation room, here or in New York. You choose. Either way, you will answer.”

He leaned forward. His eyes narrowed and again his small tongue darted out and flicked over his lips. “The Council no longer convenes for Hearings of Sentence of Death, nor Decrees of Execution. It hasn’t done so for over a hundred years.”

It was practically verbatim what Captain Ewan Jones had said, and it now sounded rehearsed, like a stock reply.

“But they were never abolished.”

He sat back, his eyes narrowed, his mouth no more than a scar on his face.

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