Read Online War Lord by David Rollins - Free Book Online

to pick him up after work.’
    ‘Have you met Morrow?’ I asked her.
    ‘We haven’t been formally introduced, but I know what he looks like.’
    I looked at Alabama hard. She was undoubtedly hot, but she also seemed pretty clingy. Was she too clingy? Was it possible Randy had had enough and posted the hand himself to throw his needy girlfriend off the scent? Maybe Randy was just across town, living it up, now free to sleep with women who had cellulite, cankles or less than perfect breasts. ‘Is it possible,’ I asked her, ‘Randy staged his own disappearance?’
    ‘What? No! Why would he do that?’
    ‘People do,’ I said. ‘It’s not uncommon.’ Was I being unnecessarily cruel putting this thought in Alabama’s head, that maybe she was into Randy more than he was into her? Perhaps, but it did seem to me that two and two were adding up to three and a half here. I ran through the factors in my head:
    1.    It obviously wasn’t Randy’s hand.
    2.    Someone had quite possibly managed to get hold of Randy’s ring.
    3.    Randy was supposedly flying a plane to Australia, which, last time I looked, was a long way from the FedEx box’s origin in Rio de Janeiro.
    3.5. Randy’s ring was placed on Thing’s finger and, just in case anyone had any doubts about his health prospects, a ransom note had been included.
    My problem was that I had plenty of doubts. This business had the whiff of a hoax about it. If so, was Alabama in on it? And if she was, why? ‘Do you know whether Randy has an insurance policy?’ I asked her, probing this notion.
    ‘He’s a flyer, so I’d say he would.’
    ‘You haven’t seen it?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘He hasn’t discussed it with you?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Who might the beneficiaries be?’
    ‘No idea.’ Alabama seemed agitated. Maybe our conversation wasn’t heading in the direction she’d hoped. ‘You really think something else is going on here, don’t you? And you think it has something to do with me.’
    Alabama was quite possibly on the level about what she did and didn’t know. And her concern could easily be genuine fear for her missing lover’s safety, rather than the fact that I was rubbing her the wrong way. Nevertheless, I still had a test I wanted to put her through. ‘Did Randy tell you that he was running drugs back in Afghanistan?’
    She froze, but recovered quickly and looked me dead in the eye. ‘He wasn’t. That was a lie. I thought you said he was one of the good guys, that you were his friend.’ She gathered her things.
    I’d told her that I’d met him. I hadn’t said we’d graduated to friend status. ‘He was court-martialed,’ I continued. ‘The charges were serious.’
    ‘And they were dismissed,’ she said.
    ‘The Air Force still kicked him out.’
    ‘Okay, I think we’re done here.’ Alabama began to get up. ‘I’ll send you a check for your expenses.’
    Alabama was a dancer, not an actress, so I was prepared to believe that she believed Randy was innocent of drug running. ‘Relax,’ I said. ‘Sit down.’
    ‘Stick it where the sun don’t shine, buddy.’
    ‘The story is loaded with inconsistencies. I just wanted to assure myself that . . .’
    ‘That I’m not one of your inconsistencies.’
    I shrugged. ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Call me when you’re sure,’ she said.
    ‘As far as I can see, no crime has been committed here,’ I said as she turned to go.
    That stopped her. ‘What?’
    ‘Okay, it might be illegal to courier amputated limbs around the country without a permit or some such, but, aside from that, where’s the crime?’
    She stared at me, confused.
    ‘Look at it this way: the hand – it isn’t Randy’s, so we can reasonably conclude that he still probably has both of his. Also, there’s no concrete proof that the ring is his – even the engraving could be copied, and as far as we know he’s safely cruising along at thirty thousand somewhere over the Pacific. Bottom line, how do we know beyond any