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

to find out where he is. Please, do whatever you can with these guys and let me and Tom deal with it. And not here. We have to act, and quick. No disrespect to anyone, but Bortado is way too comfortable here. He can play the system, he knows it inside out. It’s too easy for him. But we can open him up, and we really don’t know how long we have.’

‘That’s not going to happen,’ the lieutenant’s smile hadn’t returned.

John looked carefully at Judy, who returned his gaze.

She nodded.

‘Can I talk to you lieutenant?’ she asked.

Unhappily the lieutenant stood up and they left the room.

‘This is bullshit, we can break this guy,’ Reed said, annoyed.

‘You can Tom. He’ll cave once you start, that’s for sure. I’ve seen these guys over and over.’

‘Yeah, me too.’

‘Tough guys when they know nobody is going to break any rules.’

‘For sure. And you’re right John, we got to get on with this.’

‘This is only gonna get worse if we don’t. There’s only one answer to all this, but not in here. Not now.’

They waited impatiently, then the door opened, and Judy walked in without making eye contact with either man, followed by the now sheepish looking lieutenant and also a captain who looked at the two men sitting in his viewing room appraisingly.

‘This is an unusual request, even from the FBI,’ he opened with. ‘I’m Captain Day.’

‘Hello Captain, I’m John Smith, this is Tom Reed. So, you know all about Kyle Warner, and you also know we are facing a race against time now. People are getting killed. We need the Russian.’

Day looked confused and looked at the lieutenant.

‘Who is this Russian?’

‘Leonid Pinsky. We started hearing about a Russian just yesterday and John and Tom found out who he is. He’s driving this, he got Bortado to find a shooter. Ryan Gallagher won first prize,’ Judy explained.

The captain looked around again.

‘And you want to do what with Bortado?’

Reed stood up, and immediately both police officers stepped back without thinking about it.

‘We need to frighten him. He’ll talk. He’ll never say nothing to you guys,’ he said simply.

The lieutenant shook his head, but the captain looked up at Reed.

‘So, tell me about Pinsky.’

‘He’s involved in the LA Metro shootings, and also the death of an army major,’ Reed replied.

‘And Kyle Warner,’ Judy added defensively.

‘We’re getting close. They tried to stop us even getting here to Vegas in the first place. And there will be even more killing, and very soon if we don’t find him. This guy thinks he can do whatever he wants from what we’ve heard,’ John said.

The captain mulled it over while the lieutenant started telling everyone loudly about procedure.

‘Look, Judy …OK, I never met the lady before, but she’s FBI. You two I don’t know. I got an MP and a, well I got no idea at all asking me, no telling me, they want to remove a detained prisoner from the precinct so they can question him about some Russian. Because apparently, we can’t do that ourselves,’ the captain sounded more puzzled than annoyed.

John and Reed looked at each other, well aware of how it sounded.

‘We are asking Captain, not telling. But we are fighting time here, and losing, we need answers. If we get Bortado out his comfort zone he’ll buckle. Listen, we’ve both seen this before.’ Reed said.

The captain said nothing, just looked into the empty room next door. Suddenly, where they were all standing got very quiet.

‘You got two hours. Not a minute longer. Lieutenant, get Bortado ready, he stays in handcuffs and I want two officers right behind them, wherever they go,’ the captain announced suddenly.

‘Thank you, Captain. We need a car,’ John asked him.

The captain stiffened, then nodded.

The lieutenant started to speak, but stopped abruptly when Reed walked over and bent down.

‘You owe us thirty bucks. Now, you got somebody in maintenance around here?’ he asked brightly.

***

Sammy was feeling the screw tighten.

Moran had got on her case as soon as she had stepped into the office that morning. ABC news had interviewed a Metro worker who claimed to be at the scene, although the name didn’t appear on any witness list that Sammy had seen and the police had made no mention of at all. But true or false it was news, and Moran was blaming her, saying that they were back where they started. She should have made contact with this guy, she wasn’t focussed.

Even Simon was starting to lose faith, she could feel it.

In the end, out of desperation, she called Blanic.

She knew she shouldn’t be doing it, this would just lead her to getting into even more problems with Moran but she had the information on Santa Monica now, and wanted to follow it up. Without support from the station it just wouldn’t happen, and she would be back reporting on liquor store robberies and whoever was upset with City Hall this week. She couldn’t let this go.

Blanic answered, and was surprised to hear from Sammy.

She spoke confidently, but carefully, not mentioning Moran or anyone else, just that she had information the British guy; John Smith, was currently in a hotel in Santa Monica. She just wanted to get down there for a day or two, stay one night and work the hotels, try and find him.

There was nothing that nobody else at the station couldn’t handle while she was out the picture for forty-eight hours, and if it didn’t work out, then at least she had tried. Better than nothing. And it probably wouldn’t be that long.

Blanic listened, but said nothing.

She felt herself talking for talking’s sake, and willed herself to stop.

There was silence on the end of the phone.

‘Put Frank on,’ Blanic told her eventually.

She stood up and shakily walked across to Moran’s office, and handed the phone over. He stared at it in her hand.

‘It’s Costas,’ she told him.

He grabbed the phone and covered the microphone.

‘Oh, you fucking bitch,’ he hissed, then closed the door on her.

She walked back