Chapter XV
he city slept. As he drove slowly up main street, then out to Hwy 1 northbound, he kept adding pieces. Several were "aha" moments and he wondered how stupid one could be as to wander around in the dark with sources of light on every hand, and not take advantage of them.
If he lived through this showdown, he would take note of this whole scenario and he would become a better investigator, more refined, more calculating and more deadly. He was through with taking unnecessary risks with peoples lives just to make sure he was "politically correct."
He despised that term. Never again would he bow to its demands and restraints. He would do his job or he would retire. He had been wealthy enough to retire at the age of twenty eight, but could not bring himself to just sit and lax away the potential. Besides, he loved making things better for others, even if it was at his own expense.
Within three hours after making his transition to Hwy 101 he could see the lights of the Boardwalk reflecting off the waters of the bay. He'd deliberately come in from the back side of Monterey just to get a feel of the area in which he was about to do battle. Hopefully, it would not be a gunfight, but, he meant business. To acquire help from the Santa Cruz Police Department meant going through channels which meant delays he wasn't willing to negotiate at the moment.
If the situation turned out to be too much for him, then he would back off and alert authorities. As it were, no one was the wiser and so no slip of the tongue could alert the opposition, in this case, an operator known as Slayton. He was well connected and had eyes and ears everywhere.
On the way up he'd mused over the thoughts of how Amanda had learned of Slayton and what all she knew. And, the information was in his report, and he was positive Lane had perused the report. So, why had Lane not picked up on it?
Slayter Bradshire was the thought that entered his mind when Chief Williams had uttered it. But Slayter was dead, killed by a jealous husband. Or so, that was the story. There was evidence that Mary had actually done the deed and somehow fingered Alex, her husband for it. But that wasn't who Chief Williams was referring to. But she had definitely said "Slayton."
In the course of the Reaper Meets Kingpin, a brief mention had arisen of an arms dealer in the coastal areas of California, namely, Monterey that was shipping several categories of contraband. First and foremost on the list were firearms. These were a little .380 and since there was no connection to the case at hand, it was shelved.
That is, until Chief Williams was hoodwinked into turning over the codes and the weapons to a CIA agent. Those items were promptly stolen less than twelve hours later. The man who was the liaison for the local distributor of those little .380's was Danny. Just a day or so prior, they learned that Danny was not the one who'd wound up in the bottom of the mine. It was the man who posed as the CIA agent.
The whole deal was properly executed in popular CIA style. An email, a telephone call, an embossed hand signed CIA document was handed over upon retrieval of the codes discs and the weapons, an armored truck carried the safe away and a receipt was handed Chief Williams.
Chief Williams had done a little checking through a contact she knew of the CIA, and the man told her to comply with the order and drop it. So, she did as instructed even though she smelled a rat. Victor was in Sacramento, Lane was in Texas, William and Len were out on assignments, so she complied after placing the calls to Lane and Victor.
Both had given responses they would contact her immediately upon their first chance. Within two hours, both had returned her calls, but the deed had already taken place. She'd stalled as long as she could. No one blamed her. But a follow-up investigation on her behalf had netted the name Slayton, and that his right hand man in the area was a low lifer in her very vicinity. That man was Danny.
Danny, she was learning, was not the low-lifer he portrayed. He just played the part to stay off the radar. He'd had relations with his mom, actually, his step mom, both her daughters and was married to one of them. Plus, he had girls all over the city with whom he frolicked on a constant basis.
And he was turning out to be as elusive as he was a ladies man. But he'd run up against a foe whom he would not be able to shake.
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