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

all. Neither Hayter or Bryant had mentioned anything, he didn’t know why they had met in that particular bar, Mays believed he had never been there before; it had been Hayter’s suggestion.

Captain Bryant stated he had known Hayter for about six years, ever since he had been posted to Indigo. His position with the military was also supply, but in requisition, dealing mostly with ammunition. His previous posting was in Alabama, and prior to that Germany. Bryant had seen active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was thirty-nine, and been in the army sixteen years, moving into supply from infantry when posted to Indigo.

He backed up Mays’ version of events, also stating they had been in the bar for about an hour but saying he had no idea why they had met up there, Hayter had just told him that’s where he would be. He arrived about five minutes before Mays, and drove straight there from the base. Hayter said nothing to him at all about Deanna’s death, but he seemed very quiet. He didn’t know if Hayter had been anywhere else before the bar. The two men had not seen much of each other in the past week, but when he was pressed Hayter had said that he was fine. Mays had been talking about a debt, which was the reason for the meeting. Hayter had been worried, he asked Bryant to come along, it had been arranged the week before.

Bryant had become friendly with Hayter only really about three years before, as they both had an interest in online poker. He had been to Vegas with him on a couple of occasions, and had in fact been there when Deanna first appeared. She had made a beeline for him, Bryant said. They had been at a table in the Stratosphere, but both losing; Hayter by some margin. Deanna had appeared and made a ‘serious play’, but Hayter had shunned her. This was probably six weeks or so ago. Maybe more. The two men had returned a couple of weeks later and she had made the same move, to be knocked back again. After that Bryant didn’t go to Vegas for a while, his wife had not long ago had a baby and he was needed at home, he had been busy at the base and neither man had really spoken for some time. Then out of the blue Hayter had told him that he was married, but initially said the same as he had told the others, he had just met Deanna. Bryant had gone to Vegas with him just two weeks ago and saw Deanna. He recognised her immediately and asked Hayter, who brushed it off. He knew she wasn’t living on the base, which was odd, but Hayter told him they were looking at houses so he had never pursued it. He did think it was strange his friend refused to confirm that he had met Deanna previously. Then Bryant said something interesting, that Deanna always had a friend with her, dark haired, quite pretty but real unfriendly.

Bryant also told them that on many occasions he had loaned Hayter money, but had stopped when he had to be persistent to be repaid and it had got awkward. Lately, Hayter had boasted that he had some cash, which Bryant believed must have come from gambling. Presumably he would be paying what he owed to a lot of people, including Mays.

They all read the statements and looked at each other.

‘It’ll be interesting to see what Tom says about this,’ John said, ‘There isn’t really much to go on.’

Keane wandered across to the window and looked out into the street.

‘I know a few people who are in with Mays, I’ll check in with them, see what they say,’ Keane told them without looking round, still staring outside.

Warner stood up.

‘Any chance we can speak to this Captain Bryant?’ he asked Keane, who shrugged.

‘Maybe. I’ll have to check in with Hollywood PD.’

Reed arrived, immediately filling the small room. He was on his own this time and carrying a couple of folders, and looked pleased to be there.

They all said hello, and Judy offered to go out and get coffee. After all, she reasoned, she was a mum. John suggested they all go back over to the diner, there was nowhere in the room for them all to sit anyway so they walked across the street, and made themselves comfortable in the same corner they had been in earlier.

Reed put the folders down on the table.

‘So, Major Hayter’s billet was ransacked, somebody was looking for something. This is strange as they would have known we searched it earlier, so anything incriminating or even interesting we found would have been taken away.’

He opened a folder and spread out some photographs, they all showed a small room in disarray. Narrow bed, wardrobe, chest of drawers, footlocker and a small table and chair. All overturned, belongings everywhere.

‘We believe it was rushed. These rooms are real basic, there’s no place to hide anything, no floorboards or hollow walls and of course we checked all the usual places.’

‘So, a waste of time then?’ Warner asked.

‘That’s what we think. We wouldn’t have missed anything, there was nothing there. Not even any porn.’

‘So not a whole real point in you tearing back there then?’ Keane pointed out.

Reed shrugged and continued.

‘We know there were no visitors for Major Hayter over this weekend, in fact he hasn’t had any on base at all in over a year. I can go back further but I’d guess it’s the same story.’

‘Is that normal?’ John asked.

‘Well, yes and no. It’s common for serving soldiers to not bother having guests, they want to get off base, but not so much for officers, especially of Major Hayter’s age. Then we would expect to see family, but it turns out that he doesn’t have any really, just a brother he has no contact with. But guests on an army base aren’t exactly free to come and go