Continued from Part Seventeen

Jirel sat at the writing desk in his quarters. A voice came from the HV window behind him. “Meet me at the Wild Acres Casino in Vegas in forty-five. I’ll be out front in a Coke Delivery van.”

“McGraw? Is that you?”

“Quiet, fool. If you care about Snyder, meet me in forty-five. No questions.”

Jirel stood. “I’m on my way.”

 

~~~ 

Jirel ducked into a red Coke van. The burly driver had a beard and mustache.

“I got business we need to take care of,” McGraw said behind his fake whiskers.

“Business?”

“Yeah, with that Greywolf woman. Do you know who she is?”

“She’s fornicating with Snyder.”

McGraw laughed. “Believe me, if that were all, I’d be back on the ranch helping those kids.”

“How do you even know about her?”

“I get a weekly intelligence report on everyone I care about, including Snyder. I started noticing the long hours worked in Emergency Ops and trips to Vegas where he stayed in Greywolf’s hotel room. Next I found her making big gambling wins up and down the strip. Snyder’s better than I thought. Cheating machines built to cheat the customer is a tall order. So I became curious about who this lady is. It’s not pretty.”

Jirel’s nose could tell him that. “What did you find?”

“Her record begins seventeen years ago. At sixteen, she got emancipated and obtained a judge’s order to terminate her parents. She married the judge at seventeen. Six months after the wedding, he had an accident and she had him termed. Next, it was off to West Point on the recommendation of her Congressman. That’s when it started.”

“What?”

McGraw handed Jirel a stack of photographs. Jirel sifted through them; pictures of six young Native American cadets.

“All killed in accidents during her time at the academy.” McGraw pulled out a manila envelope. “Another fifteen in here, including two more she’d married. Dig deep enough, and what do you find? Most of these guys got promoted by her before their demise, in many cases right after some unfortunate accident occurred to the person whose job they took.”

Jirel swallowed. “So, Snyder’s in that casino with a serial killer.”

Continued…Next Thursday

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