Read Online Death in Her Eyes (A Mac Everett Mystery Book 1) by Nick Vellis - Free Book Online Page B

get me anything he could on my new client, Ashton Hunt. My last call was to Sgt. Stan Lee at the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Metro Division. Stan and I were together in the sandbox they called Iraq. We worked together a long time and he saved my ass more than once. The day he drove over the IED that killed his driver I pulled him from his burning Humvee, held on to him in the medevac chopper and nearly got myself court martialed for threatening some Medical Corps Major who wouldn’t look at the man bleeding in my arms. Stan went home, recovered from his wounds and rejoined the sheriff’s office. I was stuck in the sandbox, then the UAE, then Germany for two more years. The Army needed trained Intel people, so they said, but as time went on, they didn’t listen to what their Intel people had to say. Politics were more important. When I finally got out, Stan helped me get a job at the Sheriff’s Office, but while he moved up the ladder, I couldn’t take their BS. I had a couple run ins with the brass, got myself arrested, and quit before I was fired. Stan and I hadn’t stayed in touch. He’d gone out on a limb for me and I flopped as a deputy sheriff.
    “Mac Everett,” Stan said when he answered the phone. “It’s been a while. How’s it going?” Stan’s voice was neutral, none of the animosity I’d expected. At least he didn’t hang up on me.
    “I’m doing good Stan, how about you?” It was good to hear his voice. I hadn’t spoken to him in forever. I hated that the way I left the Sheriff’s Office had come between us. Maybe enough water had passed under that bridge.
    “So to what do I owe the honor, Mac?” The hint of suspicion in his voice put me on guard. “You need something I guess and you have the balls to call me?”
    “No foreplay any more Stan? Your wife must love that,” I chuckled.
    Stan didn’t laugh.
    “No. I don’t need anything, well not right away,” I said. “I’ve been hired to look over the Hunt homicide. I heard you’re in the Criminal Investigation Division now so I thought I’d call. You know, find out who I need to give the heads up to.”
    “That would be me. My detectives made that case. You’re not working for that shyster Barber, are you?” Stan was never one to mince words.
    “Naw, the sister hired me. She thinks you’ve made up your mind and done it too quick,” I said. I wanted to be honest with my friend, but I knew he’d be annoyed. There was a long silence and then what he said next surprised me.
    “I’ve talked to her. She seems like a good person,” Stan observed. He was a good judge of character so I was feeling a little better about being involved. “She believes in her brother, but we have a strong motive, plenty of evidence and a bucket full of inconsistencies in his statements. It’s circumstantial, but … our commanding officer in Homicide is your old buddy.”
    “Not Raven! Don’t tell me they didn’t fire him.”
    “No they didn’t fire him. He got off with a reprimand, suspension and a reassignment to records. He was there a year. Guess they consider him rehabilitated because they promoted him and now he’s here. He’s still an asshole though and I have to work with him. Try not to piss him off, will ya.”
    “Maybe it would be better to steer clear of him all together. Can I get a case summary and a witness list, Stan? I’ll check things out for myself. I’ll give you anything I find,” I said, “so long as I don’t have to go through Raven, that is.”
    The silence on the line was uncomfortable and I wondered if I’d overstepped my bounds.
    “Come on Stan. We’re looking for the truth after all.”
    “I thought you didn’t want anything,” he complained.
    I didn’t say anything. Either he’d help me or he wouldn’t.
    After what seemed a year he said, “You need to make a records request through channels, Mac. I can’t help you.”
    “You sure about that, Stan?”
    “I’m grateful for what you did for me