White Ghost Ridge by Carol Coffey

Author:Carol Coffey [Coffey, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ireland, Police, South Dakota, American, Detective, thriller, mystery, Crime, Kindle unlimited, Lee Carter, US Army
ISBN: 9781781997765
Publisher: Poolbeg Press
Published: 2019-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Thirty-five minutes after Locklear entered the office of Sergeant Major Walsh, he exited, looking exhausted. Mendoza stood and followed him down the corridor. Together they got into the elevator where the two privates had once again taken up guard and made their way to the ground floor. Mendoza opened the door for Locklear who had still not spoken one word. She walked with him onto the main road and hailed a cab to their hotel.

“You going to tell me what happened?” she asked.

“I’m starving, Mendoza. Can we just go get something to eat and then we’ll talk.”

“Sure.”

As they settled into a booth in Bert’s Diner, Mendoza slurped on a coke while Locklear drank two strong coffees. She thought she noticed a slight tremor in his hands as he lifted the heavy mug to his dry lips.

“I guess seeing Walsh was pretty hard on you,” she began.

Locklear nodded.

“Well, at least she didn’t think you were my father. That’s a plus, right?” she said as she tried to coax her boss out of the dark mood he appeared to have descended into.

He didn’t respond.

“What did you find out about Walsh’s involvement in the whole artefacts thing?” she asked.

Locklear lifted the burger from his plate and took a huge bite. Mendoza waited while he chewed on the rubbery meal which she had discarded minutes earlier in favour of the diner’s home-made apple pie. He swallowed and took another gulp of his coffee.

“Walsh isn’t involved,” he said. “I never thought she was. She said the army’s legal department asked Torres to sign a disclaimer, saying she’d accept a full pension in exchange for withdrawing her claim that the army was involved in the illegal transportation and sale of artefacts from Iraq.”

“But Torres refused the deal.”

“Yes. Walsh said she phoned her personally but Torres wasn’t backing down.”

“I bet the army didn’t put any of this in writing?”

“Bet not,” Locklear replied.

“Smart.”

“And Whitefeather? Did she have any involvement with him?”

Locklear shook his head. “Albert was flown home long before Walsh left Iraq. Susan said she never heard from him again. She never handled any paperwork for him, said she didn’t even know he was dead.”

“Do you believe her? Lewis said Whitefeather wrote to Walsh.”

“I don’t have any reason not to. Torres wrote to Walsh asking for her dishonourable discharge to be retracted but the army refused. Walsh brought the case up as far as she could but she came up against a brick wall. She wrote to Torres and said there was nothing she could do. She never heard from Torres again.”

“I guess that’s when Torres gave up and hit the bottle,” Mendoza replied. “Does she know anything about this Rosenberg guy or that Braff had been working in the university with him?”

“She said she never had any contact with Braff after he left the army. Said she’d no idea where he was or what he was doing.”

“What about our ‘weird ghost’ dude?”

Locklear shook his head. “Susan was upset for most of the time I was in there.

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