Galen's Gemma - Dale Mayer Page 0,2
and forth, completely oblivious to the fact that one of them could have switched seats with him, putting them together instead of talking over him.
He closed his eyes, intent on tossing around the minor details he had on the case so far. He had a little bit of information on his phone that he’d read on the way over, but this flight was a short jump from Berlin to Munich, thank heavens. It seemed to be even shorter than he expected, as they were touching down before he’d even had a chance to adapt to the awkward seating arrangement.
When he finally got off the plane and headed outside, he looked around for his ride. The problem was, it wasn’t like anyone held up a sign with his name on it. But Galen noted one guy, standing off to the side, a hard look on his face, as he leaned against one of the center posts, his arms crossed over his chest. The glare on his face said he hated being here. Galen understood. He walked over, stood in front of him, and reached out his hand. “Hello, Zack. I’m Galen.”
Zack straightened slowly with surprise, then reached out and shook hands. “How did you know it was me?”
“Because you’re the only other guy, besides me, who looks like you’d rather be anywhere else but here.”
Zack laughed. “Yep,” he said. “I prefer to travel by private jet, or give me a backpack and let me go through the woods, but a million people all crowded into one space trying to go in a million different directions? Hell no.” Zack pointed the way to his ride.
Once in the vehicle, Galen looked at the small pickup truck. “Is this yours?”
“It is for this job,” Zack said.
Galen nodded. He wasn’t too sure about the lack of information—on this job and on his partner for this job—but figured that he’d get to know more about this op and Zack over time. Some guys ended up being the strong, silent type, never saying more than two words. “Do you have the details on the job? I know next to nothing.”
“Yep,” he said. “A guy was murdered.”
“What?” Galen said. “Ice never mentioned anything about a murder. She said something about him dying but I didn’t realize it was a murder.”
“The local police didn’t think it was connected to the goings-on at the brewery.”
“And that’s related to the brewery how?”
“Joe worked for the beer company. It’s a massive production system. He was in management, looking to make some changes in the sales distribution, as well as implementing new security measures at the brewery, which made him very unpopular as well. Seems the first break-in was at the brewery, which followed two minor thefts. Then the second break-in was at Joe’s home. But it was only made to look like a burglary,” he said.
“Is that something worth murdering for?”
“Well, Joe was one of the few truly honest guys I’ve ever known,” Zack said. “He took over from the guy before him who is facing two charges of embezzling company funds.”
“Normally companies just fire them or lay them off,” Galen said. “So it must have involved enough money that they couldn’t afford to do that.”
“Yes, but it only was by Joe’s hand that his predecessor’s been ID’d.”
“So he made enemies long before his first day on his new job. And changes always make existing staff pissed off. No one is ever ready for those. And if he made a bunch of changes …”
“Lots of them. And he made lots of enemies at the same time. Joe was not popular when seen as the guy who took down his boss and who then took his boss’s job, especially when not knowing all the particulars. Although no one had anything nasty to say about him personally. Only that he was a hard-ass.”
“So this sounds like more of a criminal case for the cops, right?” Galen asked cautiously. “Why are we involved?”
“Well, it was a job for the local cops,” Zack said, “until I found out Joe’s wife and kid are missing.”
He studied Zack’s profile for a long moment. “So that’s when you made the call for backup.”
“Yes. I didn’t like doing it either.” Zack turned and gave him a hard look. “You used to work for Bullard?”
“Technically I probably still do,” he said with a laugh. “I went to the US to work for Levi for a bit to get a change of scenery.”
“The scenery never changes.” Zack had a world weariness that