Night Owl: A Trasker Thriller by Andrew Mayne

Author:Andrew Mayne [Mayne, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2023-12-01T04:00:00+00:00

FAST LANE

Janice Gallar, the widow of Doug Gallar, is seated across from me in the living room of their Malibu hillside mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean. She’s in her early fifties and has gray hair and piercing blue eyes that convey both gravitas and warmth.

“Kylie sends her regards,” I say as I take a seat on a sofa that probably cost more than my SUV.

“She said some very kind words about Doug at the celebration of life,” she replies.

I’m still not on board with calling a memorial service a “celebration of life.” I’ve seen a lot of death in my life; glossing over it doesn’t give it the solemn respect it deserves. It sounds as though someone didn’t want to take the elevator down through all five stages of grief and got off on the bargaining floor: If I call it a celebration, I’m still acknowledging that they’re dead without having to think about it too much . . .

I don’t look forward to the gut punch when a coffin lowers into the ground, but I can tell the difference when I’ve had that moment and when I haven’t. My philosophies surrounding loss don’t matter, but I’m curious how it goes in Doug and Kylie’s world.

Did everyone accept and forget? Do people ask questions?

This is important. You can hide great evil in the shadow of avoidance.

If we’d paid more attention to the number of journalists disappearing in countries run by “allies,” we might have stopped authoritarian monsters on the rise before it was too late.

If Doug’s death was part of this—and there is a “this”—maybe his friends and family saw more than they realized?

“When Doug died, what happened to his investments?” I ask.

“They became part of the family trust. I’m the administrator for that,” she tells me.

Janice is an investment banker and an obvious choice to take over.

“What about partnerships?”

“Doug had a clause that I could take over any board seats that he held. I know, looks suspicious.” She laughs.

She knows why I’m here and doesn’t dance around the issue. I appreciate that.

“Right now, I’m sorting through them and deciding which investments we hold on to. What we sell and in some cases what we increase our stake in. One of them is Kylie’s company,” she explains.

“It’s none of my business to ask how you’re feeling about that,” I reply.

“But you can. I have a good feeling about her. She’s smart. The accident doesn’t faze me.”

We’ll see how she feels about that when Morena does her due diligence and explains everything that’s going on. Janice may still have faith in Kylie, maybe not so much the future of Wind Aerospace.

“Is there any reason someone might want to have killed Doug?” I ask bluntly.

“Whoa. You’re more direct than I am. I’ll admit that when I was first dealing with Doug’s death, part of me started to wonder. He liked to drive fast, but he wasn’t the kind to do drugs or get drunk and race around like an asshole. The only surprise about the death of those kind of guys is how long it takes before it finally happens.

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