Soldier Down by Neil S. Plakcy

Author:Neil S. Plakcy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gaymystery, hawaii, gayfiction, bookstagram, mahu, policeprocedural, gaykindlebooks, gayebooks, mysterybooks, audiobooks, gayaudio, gaymysteries, hawaiitravel, visithonolulu, hula, surfer, surfingdetective, comingout, lgbt, island
Publisher: Samwise Books
Published: 2020-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

16: Anything Useful

“DO YOU THINK WE LEARNED anything useful from your aunt?” Doug asked as we drove down toward Honomu, where he had booked our rooms.

I shrugged. “We knew that Connor O’Brien grew up around a bar. So it seems logical that he’d look for a taste of home.”

“A gay bar? But he was married.”

I looked over at Doug, and he blushed. “You know what I mean. Pull out the first letter he wrote to his wife, and read it out.”

He turned on the overhead light and read. Now that I had primed his pump, so to speak, he paused every time O’Brien commented on a handsome fellow soldier.

“It sounds innocent enough,” he said when he finished. “But now that you had me looking, I can see where you got the idea. Is that what they call gaydar?”

“I suppose. It’s like any closed society, I guess. Once you know what to look for, you find it.”

“You think he went to a gay bar and got in trouble?”

“No idea. It’s just a line of inquiry.”

He laughed. “You’ve got that cop speak down pat.”

“Sixteen years at it by now,” I said. “You’ll pick it up.”

“It’s a struggle,” he said. “I majored in criminal justice in college, and I applied to the FBI Academy as soon as I graduated. The guy I interviewed with said I needed some seasoning, so I should consider working for a local force or another agency before switching over to the Bureau.”

“Did you?”

He shook his head. “No offense, but I didn’t want to be a patrol cop. So I took a different approach. I got my MBA in finance.”

“Ah. I can see why that would help.”

“You can? Oh, right, you were on assignment with the Bureau for a while. My folks, they were baffled. My dad wanted me to join the Army, become an MP. My mom thought I should go for CSI. Neither of them could make the connection between finance and economic crimes.”

“Where did you go to business school?”

“American University in DC,” he said. “I figured if I stayed close to Quantico I might make some contacts. One of my professors did some consulting for the Bureau, and he got me a summer internship with a forensic accounting firm, and then when I graduated I applied to Quantico again. He put in a good word for me, and this time I got in.”

“You’re a smart guy.”

He laughed. “That’s not the way you thought of me when we met.”

“Well, you were kind of a dick then.”

“You mean I’m not anymore?”

“Let’s call you an acquired taste.” The road widened, and I leaned back in my seat. “So here you are, investigating a suspicious death. Can you see any economic implications?”

“That’s why I asked your aunt about liquor inspectors. Just thinking out loud here, but suppose O’Brien stumbled on somebody in the military getting a kickback from a bar owner, a pimp, even a souvenir store. If he tried to report it, that might put him on someone’s radar.”

“People will do a lot to protect their source of income,” I said.

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