Dying For LA by Ian Jones (top fiction books of all time .txt) 📕

expect. This is the army after all. But in truth, there ain’t much else to report.’

John opened it and looked inside. Half a dozen photocopied sheets, top one with a photograph. He scanned through the contents, then looked up at Reed.

‘No active service?’ he asked.

‘No. Never been in combat. He was fifty-one and the word is he made major because he was at West Point back in the day with General Morgan. Always been in supply, and slow to climb the ladder. He made first Lieutenant, it took him a while, then finally Captain. He was finished at Major, wasn’t going anyplace upward.’

John continued reading then shuffled the sheets back together and passed the folder around to Judy.

‘OK, thanks, but there’s not a lot in there really Captain.’

‘Please, call me Tom.’

‘OK, Tom. Not a lot there, and I understand that. As you say, you’re the army. But what’s the real story?’

Reed smiled.

‘Ok, so, like I said, I didn’t know him. So I’ve been sniffing around. His father was a big noise Lieutenant General, highly decorated, Korea, Vietnam. A lifer. And Major Hayter followed in his footsteps, got into West Point and I guess that was just because of who his dad was. Graduated second lieutenant and posted to Fort Alice down in Alabama. Started working in supply and that was his career. He found his place and it suited him I guess. He was good friends with General Morgan, and served at a few bases with him. He’s been at Indigo seventeen years. General Morgan was there a while back and then returned five years ago after Afghanistan, and made CO. He’s at the Pentagon now.’

‘General Morgan? I’m sure I know that name,’ commented Warner.

‘It’s possible, he’s a high flyer. Indigo is infantry, and he is seen as a star tactician in it. To be frank, I’m sure that was true more than ten years ago but I believe him to be a liability. I was with him in Afghanistan. Dangerous. Making decisions without good reason. But that’s my opinion. He glanced at Gonzalez who shot him a warning look in return.

‘I’m just saying, is all,’ Reed finished lamely.

‘But what about the man himself?’

‘OK, well the word is he’s a loner and always has been. He got married just three weeks ago. Bachelor up to then, lived in the barracks. Officer’s quarters. Had a few friends around the base it seems, but not as many as seventeen years would normally make.’

‘Yeah, you heard about his wife?’

‘I did. Sergeant Gonzalez here broke the news to him.’

‘How did that go?’ Judy asked her.

Gonzalez spoke for the first time. ‘Speaking plainly, as we seem to be, it was strange. He didn’t really react. Just looked at me and started making coffee. They weren’t living together neither. I went to see him at the barracks, soon as we got the news. He was just up, but no sign of anyone else living there, man or woman. I think he seemed real surprised she was in LA.’

They all looked at each other, digesting the information.

‘They married in Vegas,’ Judy said, as if thinking aloud.

Reed nodded.

‘They did, and he had been spending a lot of time there. In like, maybe the last few months, he was up there pretty much every week.’

‘That would make sense if he met Deanna, right?’ Judy said.

‘OK, so there’s more. I spoke to the couple of guys said to be his buddies. They never met Deanna, knew very little about her. Hayter told them they met at the casino in The Bellagio a few weeks ago.’

Keane shrugged. ‘So?’

‘His buddies went up there with him a couple of times, they were real surprised to hear about The Bellagio, he stayed in a motel on East St. Louis Avenue and hung out at The Stratosphere when they were with him. Never went south at all. They said the motel was a dump, they stayed in the hotel. And it seems that he really met his wife a few weeks before he said he did. Seems she hit on him, but he wasn’t interested. Word is she kept showing up at the hotel. Captain Bryant knew and told them about it, but Major Hayter gave them a different story.’

John had worked in Vegas a couple of years before, and spent a lot of his time there walking around. The Stratosphere is a long way north of the strip, nearly halfway to Freemont, which is old Vegas.

‘Deanna was a stripper in a club just off East Tropicana, down in the south; long way from the Stratosphere. She wouldn’t go wandering in there after her shift,’ Judy told them.

‘Well, she was in there looking for him. That’s what Tom’s telling us, no question,’ Warner ventured.

‘When was the last time these guys were up in Vegas with him?’ John asked.

‘Well, that’s a good question. Not for a while, a couple of months ago they said. But I got the feeling they weren’t real tight with Major Hayter. His only real buddy was with him last night, Captain Bryant.’

‘We got him with us right now, we’re talking to him,’ Keane said.

‘Right, well he is close, or was, to Hayter, is what I hear. He should be able to tell you more. But there is one thing that’s come out of all this. He owed money all around, ten, twenty bucks here and there, a couple of hundred to one guy.’

‘Gambling?’ Warner surmised.

‘Yeah I guess so. Vegas and all.’ Reed shook his head.

‘Can we get financial records for Major Hayter?’ Keane asked. ‘Will the army allow it? I’m getting them for his wife right now.’

‘I can ask. I don’t see why not. He died in a public bar, right?’ Reed looked at Gonzalez who produced a notebook and started writing.

‘So, what do we really know about Deanna Hayter?’ Warner asked.

Judy dug out a file.

‘OK, right, thirty-three years old, nee Clark. Born in Henderson, Nevada. Married Donald Hayter at the Happy Chapel on South Las Vegas Boulevard just over three