Page 39 of A Deeper Darkness
“He hasn’t been in quite some time. One of the stipulations in his contract, actually. Eddie’s mandate was personal protection for our visiting dignitaries. He traveled extensively in North America, Europe sometimes, but not back to the Arabian Peninsula. The colonel told me once that it was a deal breaker for Eddie. Of course, we wanted his skill set, so we were willing to make concessions. And when we weren’t entertaining, so to speak, he had other duties. Mainly because of his medical background, he was working on several of our global health initiatives. We’re not just defense anymore. Raptor has a broad outreach into Africa and other developing countries to provide both medicines and security forMédecins Sans Frontières,and other organizations.”
“I saw that in the literature. Who’s the colonel?”
“Our CEO. Allan Culpepper. He’s retired now, of course, but that rank has a tendency to stick. He’s the one who brought Eddie to us in the first place. They are, were, very good friends.”
“May I speak with him?”
“Unfortunately, no. He’s been in Fallujah for the past two weeks, overseeing a new CLS contract we’ve just been awarded.”
“CLS?”
“Sorry. We live in a world defined by who comes up with the best acronyms. Contractor Logistics Support. We had a new global deployment team, GDT, set down last month, and they’re having issues with some of the ground vehicle systems. But that’s totally irrelevant to Eddie’s murder.”
“Nothing is irrelevant in a murder investigation. I know we talked about this before, but Mr. Donovan’s wife insists he got a call from work, and that’s where he was headed when he was killed.”
“I know. I’ve asked around, and no one here remembers calling him in. I polled everyone on our team. Veronica spoke with all of the analysts, the operators. Nothing.”
Time for a little pressure. “Our investigation showed it to be a general number here in the building.”
“That is very strange, because all of the calls out are attached to the phone the call is made from. All calls in are either direct dial or through the general number, but it’s technically impossible to call out from the main number.”
He would have to double-check that info, but from previous investigations, he knew that’s how most major corporation phone systems worked. Oh, well. It was worth a try. The call Donovan had received was a ghost number, anyway, most likely from a disposable cell. The paperwork had been started to find out its origin, but with disposables, it could take weeks, months even, to trace. There was no direct tie to Raptor’s offices. Susan Donovan had assumed the call came from Donovan’s office because of Donovan’s snap-to reaction, but they had no way to prove it without a doubt. And Hal Croswell’s phone records showed nothing that linked him to Raptor, either. But they paid Fletcher to ask…
“Have you ever employed a man named Harold Croswell?”
“Croswell, Croswell… Yes, I seem to remember that name. From a few years ago.” Deter clicked a button and his computer’s flat screen rose from inside the desk. Okay, now that was cool.
He typed a few words. “Yes, here it is. Harold Croswell, First Sergeant, U.S. Army, retired. Employed as a freelance contractor… Oh.”
“Oh?”
Click, click, click.
“Mr. Croswell was on one of our quick-reaction global deployment teams.” At Fletcher’s blank look, Deter continued, “He was part of one of our private security forces.”
“A mercenary, you mean.”
“Private security. Which means private. But he separated from the company over two years ago. Inadequate performance reviews. It happens, sadly too often. These poor men and women come back from war, we hire them, but they are gripped by their time in the service. Psychologically gripped, if you understand my meaning.”
“What you’re saying is he had severe psychological issues that forced you to fire him.”
Deter smiled, a thin smirk. “Something like that.”
“Let’s get back to Mr. Donovan. Any enemies? People around here who disliked him, resented him? Did he get someone else’s promotion? Screw someone else’s wife?”
Deter laughed. “You don’t know Mr. Donovan very well. He was universally liked. A dedicated member of the Raptor family. And very much in love with his own wife. I have to say, Detective, there’s nothing here that indicated a problem. Just like I told you before.”
Fletcher knew when he was being dismissed. He wasn’t accustomed to people he was interrogating blowing him off. “One last thing. How didyoufeel about Mr. Donovan?”
Deter smiled sadly, and this time, the look seemed genuine. “I’ll miss him very much. He was an excellent operator. I thought the world of him. He’s truly irreplaceable.”
“You can say that again,” a voice boomed from the doorway. Fletcher turned to see a tall, silver-haired man step into Deter’s office with a single stride, effectively sucking all the air from the room. “Allan Culpepper, at your service.”
Deter had jumped to his feet. “Colonel, hello. We didn’t expect you back until next week.”
“I know. Caught a ride with Hassanal Bolkiah.”
“The Sultan of Brunei,” Deter explained to Fletcher, pride ringing in his voice.
