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

could see his huge bulk on a mattress in the corner behind the glass partition. They had fixed a sheet across the outside window to try to nullify the daylight but he was still clear as day inside the office, and they could hear him snoring.

Rico had a shower then they picked up a set of gate keys and the two men walked out looking for breakfast. It was a good distance across the yard to the first gate, which they opened and closed and repeated for the second. Then they were out in the street looking around.

Not much to see. To their left the road curved around, with warehouses and industrial units, a tyre garage just along from where they were standing. To their right were some smaller units, which all looked closed and a short run down to a crossroads so they walked there and looked both ways along the wide main street and saw a faded, grubby hotel on the left, so decided to head there, not a lot of choice. As they neared it, they spotted a small semi-circular mall facing them across the street, so they dodged the traffic and headed over.

‘Fuck it, Golden Arches again,’ Sal said, looking up at the McDonald’s sign high above. There wasn’t a lot else, a small Starbucks, a bar and a pizza place.

Rico shrugged, he was hungry.

They sat inside to eat, Sal fidgeted around and then leaned forward seriously.

‘Look Rico, I never got a chance to say nothing before, and I may be really fucking up. I sure as shit hope not. But I trust you. Maybe I shouldn’t, but right now you’re the nearest thing I got to a buddy.’

‘What is it?’ Rico asked, surprised.

‘Listen, I am going way outside here.’

‘Sal, fucking hell we are buddies. You sure as hell are the only person I trust. Whatever you say, I ain’t never gonna repeat it.’

Sal nodded.

‘OK. You know I checked the car after we had to dump it, you know, that asshole Weiss situation?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So … I found the silencer like I told Yann. But I also found this.’

Sal looked around and then carefully put something heavy in Rico’s lap under the table. Rico moved back and looked down. It was an old Glock 17. He checked it over; fully loaded. It had seen some action. He passed it back nervously.

‘Fuck! It was in the car?’

‘Yeah, under the passenger seat. And it weren’t there before. We the only fucking guys who ever drive, and Yann doles out the guns right? It sure ain’t mine, and I never seen you with nothing, not ever.’

Rico shook his head.

‘I never seen it before.’

‘Look, things have been going to shit, right? So I figure, let’s keep this quiet, and keep it close. It’s under my mattress, fucking Yann ain’t never going up those stairs, and we put the new guys below us, move it if we have to but we both know where it is. That sound good to you?’

Rico looked at him, suddenly very grateful. He had been feeling alone and isolated for some time. He liked Sal ok, but he didn’t really know him. This was good for both of them, a shared precaution. He held up his fist and Sal bumped it.

‘It’s very OK man. I don’t know what the fuck is going to happen next, but I have sure been wishing I was someplace else. This is what we need brother. Under your mattress, sounds good to me.’

***

Warner didn’t like to hang around, so it was just under two hours later when they passed the iconic ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign as they approached from the south.

They had discussed how to proceed on the journey, and had decided to find officer Kirsty Casiano first, to get the lowdown on Madeline and hopefully some more intel on Deanna, Warner was confident he or Judy could get access to their apartment so they could take a look around. Maybe officer Casiano would be able to do some digging for them, find out if there had been any problems with Hayter in one of the casinos.

Then they would go on to the Mile High Club, and find out as much as they could about Deanna, see if she met with anyone else regularly. After that, up north to the motel Hayter used to stay at, and then The Stratosphere to see if they could add anything.

Then the drive back, it was going to be a long, long day.

They entered the bottom end of the strip, John saw the Mandalay Bay hotel and the Acropolis opposite, which brought back memories. Warner turned right at the next junction, as ever he seemed to know exactly where he was going. They travelled along for a distance, then he turned left and pulled up in front of a plain brown building with Las Vegas Police Department across the doors.

John checked his watch, just gone eleven. He gently woke Judy.

The walked into the police station and up to the counter, then asked to speak to officer Casiano.

The desk clerk looked closely at Judy’s ID then tapped on her computer keyboard.

‘Officer Kirsty Casiano isn’t due on shift until 2pm today. Do you want me to call her in?’

Warner went to speak but Judy cut across him.

‘No, that’s fine. We’ll be back at two, thank you.’

They walked out, Warner looking quizzically at Judy.

‘Why didn’t you just get her in? We need to be moving on this,’ he asked grumpily.

Judy turned to look at him.

‘I don’t know how this works with the CIA, but we get all sorts of crap from local PD when we demand to get their guys in off shift. Seriously. They get shit off the unions, and the whole thing gets real messy. Look, we don’t even know if she can tell us anything right? I’m already way, way out on a limb here. I don’t need any more heat than I already got.’

‘It’s OK,’ John said as they reached the car. ‘We don’t need