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

was not very happy. He still believed he could get it done. I didn’t know he was coming until very late, there was nothing I could do about it.’

He moved even closer, and spoke in a whisper.

‘Do not trust him. He is a dangerous man.’

Then he pushed himself back, and stood up. He looked closely at the two men, tapped a meaty forefinger against the side of his nose then went back into his office, pushing the chair in front of him.

‘Fuck,’ Sal said quietly, and silently, Rico agreed.

***

John and Tom Reed sat in the bar in the Luxor. They had enjoyed a good dinner at Hakkasan, then made their way back. Now they had a table at the edge next to the busy casino. John was enjoying working with Reed, the big man was genuine, and dependable. He didn’t get fazed. They had discussed what they now knew for sure, along with what they suspected. It felt like there was something tangible, at last.

‘How fucking tall are you anyway?’ John asked him, eyeing his ridiculous frame.

‘Why? How tall are you?’ Reed replied, grinning.

‘Six foot. Boring. I wish I was you.’

Reed shook his head.

‘It’s not all good. At thirteen years old I was over six-two. Try explaining that in the yard. I had a bad memory as a kid, real bad. My mom tells everybody I just forgot to stop growing. I’m six-seven, as you asked.’

‘Six-seven!!! That’s stupid, you must be a cartoon.’

‘Yeah, I know it. I got a brother, he’s six-five so also big. And the really weird shit is my mom and my dad are just regular and so is everyone else in the family. Funny thing is I had a buddy at school, boy call Artie Hill, he was even taller. I ain’t joking. Stands best part of seven feet now, plays for the Heat down in Miami. Not me, I was shit at basketball. I missed my calling I guess.’

‘Yeah, but you’re not just tall, you’re the size of a house!’

Reed shrugged diffidently.

‘Always have been.’

John cast his eye around the casino, he felt pretty secure. They hadn’t stayed in one place anywhere for any time the whole day; dinner was probably the longest, and he was confident nobody was following them. They had paid cash for the rooms, and there were dozens of hotels right on their doorstep. He leaned forward.

‘So, we let’s confirm what we know, some of which we had already kind of worked out.’

Tom also moved toward him.

‘Yeah, this guy Pinsky was setting up Deanna; she was being paid to get close to Major Hayter. Right now we got no idea why. But it wasn’t going well, and it looks like she must have offered him some cash to marry her. Probably desperate because she knew the Russian guy, this Pinsky, was getting pissed at the lack of movement, and everybody seems terrified of that guy, plus we know Major Hayter was always short of cash down to the gambling and owed money all over.’

John nodded.

‘Right. And we know that originally Madeline was lined up, but she had already met Pinsky and didn’t want to touch it, even for forty grand. Plus, she didn’t trust that arsehole Scott and who can blame her.’

‘Ok. And we know that Madeline and Deanna had been to LA before, so there was maybe nothing special about this trip, but other than a couple of nights at the MGM Grand it doesn’t look like she spent any time with Major Hayter, of course the whole honeymoon thing could be bullshit anyway.’

John took a drink of beer.

‘So what we need, is to find Pinsky. That’s the key. Just who in the hell is he? Does it mean something that he’s Russian? I can’t work out his involvement in the Metro shooting, and if I’m honest, that was a bit ragged really. No way should I have been able to just pick up the AK. But we need to find him. He is the name now, got to be central in this.’

‘Well, I’m not sure there is much more for Kyle and Judy to find out at The Stratosphere. Even if this Aiden Connelly knew him, the most he could say right now is maybe he was trying to help Deanna? But even that, it doesn’t seem very relevant.’

John shook his head.

‘I don’t think that’s it, but you’re right. I think we’ve pieced it together, as much as we are going to anyway. We should probably call Kirsty when we set off tomorrow, let her know everything. See what can be done to track down Pinsky.’

Reed tapped his glass against John’s.

‘I’ve learned a lot today. I’m not really, well what you would call an investigator. I’m an army cop. We have people that do more of that stuff, but not me.’

‘You did good. You dealt with Scott perfectly, I probably wouldn’t have got that much out of him. I could have hurt him, but that doesn’t always get what you need.’

Reed nodded.

‘Well, we’ll be able to break it down for Judy and Kyle tomorrow, it’ll be something to talk about on the drive back.’

‘Yeah we got a lot to do. And finding Pinsky is at the very top.’

***

Ryan Gallagher walked into The Mirage through the front door.

He had already spent some of the money, he was wearing a nice new pair of trainers for a start. And a sweat shirt, and jacket. He had been able to take a shower and had slicked back his hair.

He was confident that nobody would immediately recognise him but was careful not to meet anyone’s eye.

He wasn’t so confident on what he was doing. He had gone out to the gun store that afternoon, and bought thirty rounds on an automatic, then stood in front of a target plugging away while someone watched to make sure he didn’t do himself or anyone else some harm. The Russian was right; it was easy, laughably so. He hadn’t been very accurate, but he reasoned that he