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

Warner and Judy explained all they had found out about Deanna, and Keane went through David Mays and Captain Bryant’s statements.

‘So, what can you tell us about Captain Bryant?’ John asked.

Reed opened another folder.

‘Ah, well I know more about him. Forty-three. Career soldier, and a good one by all accounts. He’s served all over, and been in action. The word is he would be further along the chain by now, but he wanted to be where the bullets are. Anyway, he got injured in Afghanistan, lost a big chunk of his left leg. He wanted to carry on so they made him a Captain and set him up in supply, probably to see how well he heals. My guess is he will be moved somewhere else in time. I have spent some time with him, he’s a good guy. Liked by everyone tell the truth.’

‘His statement says he’s a gambler,’ Keane said.

‘Yeah, but that’s not uncommon. Everybody seems to have laptops, tablets and whatever these days, lot of them get online; blackjack, poker, etc., it’s kind of frowned upon I guess but nobody has said anything about outlawing it. Captain Bryant is real open about it, makes jokes about doing it. He never said anything about Major Hayter to me, but they worked together, so I believe that’s how they became buddies. Turns out it was down to online poker. The officer who runs supply at Indigo is XO operations Colonel William Carter, Bill to his friends. I spoke to him this morning and I found out something interesting that I didn’t know. He was also at West point with General Morgan and was there later doing some training and met Major Hayter, in fact it was him not Morgan that got Hayter the posting at Indigo.’

‘How in the hell is that interesting?’ Keane grumbled.

‘Forgive him, he’s been in a shitty mood all day,’ Judy told Reed, waving her hand at Keane.

‘Well,’ Reed continued, ‘it’s interesting because I never once saw Colonel Carter and Major Hayter together. Not ever, and they were often in the officer’s club or the mess at the same time. Colonel Carter seemed very sorry about what happened to Major Hayter, genuinely upset about it, but he was also bothered about himself. I know this sounds like bullshit, but he was saying he needs protection. I couldn’t get any more information, he was going on and on, not making a whole lot of sense. I got one of my guys to get a statement, but I’m not holding out much hope. Of course, it’s possible they were stealing a fortune from the stores together but I don’t think so. Whole thing was weird from start to finish. And one more thing, I went over to supply, that place is huge. Anyways I spoke to the sergeants there, if you want facts, go to those guys. They know everything. And nobody had a problem with Major Hayter, but nobody really liked him neither. In fact it seems to me that nobody really knew him, and he was there all those years. The joke was he was the office boy; clock on, shuffle papers, eat lunch, shuffle more papers, clock off, leave. He was in charge of the rota, and he never worked a weekend, and even when there was some big inventory inspection on he would still just work the same hours. So, they all kind of laughed behind his back, but it was no big deal. The one thing they all said they were done loaning him money, and that all fits with what we already heard. I don’t know if this is any help, but there you are.’

‘So you’re on the team now then?’ Judy asked him with a smile.

Reed grinned back.

‘Yeah. I spoke to my CO this morning, who went straight to the top. Things like this don’t happen very often, thank God. I think Major Hayter’s room getting spun was the last straw, so they asked me to stick with you guys for a couple of days, try to help. It happened real fast, and I never seen that before. I got back and within an hour or so ordered to pack some civvies and set up with you guys. As long as it takes.’

‘What they really want, is to know first what, if anything, we find,’ John said drily.

‘Of course. Always out in front. But it suits me, makes a change from dragging AWOL guys back from the bus station. I checked in here, on the army’s dollar. I got the room at the end.’

‘It’s good to have you here,’ Judy told him.

‘Sure. So, where are we?’

‘We think that Deanna is the key, that she was the actual target. Maybe she was supposed to be carrying something which wasn’t there, so next one down the line would be her husband,’ Warner replied.

‘OK, but target for what?’ Reed asked.

‘We have no idea, not a fucking clue,’ Keane said, staring out the window again.

‘It could be anything. Cash maybe, drugs, guns, bearer bonds, hell, literally anything,’ Warner said.

‘Well one thing I can say is that the stores at Indigo are one hundred percent. There ain’t nothing serious missing, no weapons or ammo, no equipment. I checked on that too,’ Reed told them.

‘The problem is, we don’t know anything about Deanna, other than she seems to have hunted Hayter down but they weren’t living together,’ John said morosely.

‘Bryant said they had a honeymoon; two nights in the MGM Grand,’ Keane interjected.

‘Busman’s holiday,’ John said.

‘What?’ Keane asked.

‘It’s just an expression. They spent all their time in Vegas, her stripping and him at the tables then they go on holiday there.’

‘Yeah, I wouldn’t have been sold on that,’ Judy told them. ‘I went to Mauritius.’

‘Hawaii for me,’ Warner said.

‘Alright, alright, Jesus! Let’s stop with the who had the best wedding bullshit and try and box this thing off. What do we do next?’ Keane