Chapters (46)
- COVER PAGE
- PRAISE
- DEDICATION
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- SNEAK PEEK: EXIT .45
Locke worked on that for a while longer. Then he said, ‘June 2017, he shot a couple of Highway Patrol officers, up in Salinas. Shotgunned them through the side window of their car. FBI in Dallas got a tip-off from a CI it was Gutierrez. Brought him in for a talk but didn’t get anywhere. Whole situation was just blood and hearsay, really. Nothing concrete. I think they had him in the room for nineteen, twenty hours. In the end he walked out of there.’
‘And now he’s your hobby.’
Locke shook his head. ‘Nothing enjoyable about that man, I assure you. But yes. I’m putting a lot of effort into curtailing his liberties.’
‘How’d you know he’s in Santa Barbara?’
‘I didn’t, actually.’ He touched his tie knot, appeared to find it adequately taut. ‘Normally I’m down in LA. Got seconded up here on task-force duty. CRU.’
‘And what’s that?’
Locke said, ‘Cartel Response Unit. Though we’re not just interested in cartels. Violent crime with multiple victims, we tend to stick our nose in.’ He picked some lint off his trousers, linked his fingers on his knee. ‘Hoped it might just be six weeks of palm trees and sunshine.’ Smiling a little now, but flatly—nothing in his eyes. ‘Anyway. Hard being away from the family, but I’m getting pretty good with my Skype sessions.’
He took off his glasses and tilted them in the light and slipped them on again. ‘How’d you get into this? Bodyguarding, I mean.’
Vincent said, ‘I was in the military. This seemed like a nice retirement option. Didn’t think I’d have to kill anyone.’
Locke said, ‘Yeah …’ He studied the ceiling for a moment, gaze going corner to corner like there was something interesting up there. ‘One of those things, can take a long time to get your head around.’ Looking at him again. ‘We can refer you to someone, talk about it if you want.’
Vincent said, ‘I’ll be all right.’ Knowing as he said it that it came out too cool.
Locke said, ‘No big deal, huh?’
He looked away, not wanting a heart-to-heart with the guy, but for some reason not wanting to leave the wrong impression, make him think he was indifferent to it all. Because it was a big deal. He’d thought he could live gun-free. But it wasn’t as if the dead guys were innocent.