“No, sir,” Joe returned steadily.
“Why?”
With a shrug, Joe said, “I lost my sister, Maria, to drugs. I saw what it did to her and what her death ended up doing to all of us. No, sir, I never used drugs. I hated them. And I hate the people who sell them to the kids.”
“I’m sorry about your sister, Sergeant,” Dan said, meaning it. Donnally’s story hit too close to home. He’d lost Janna to cocaine addiction. Since then, all his anger toward the drug culture had been turned into a personal war that included cleaning up the Yuma air station, and now Reed.
“Sir, if I can be bold, there are a couple of other good men who really hate drugs that could be assigned to your office.”
“Excellent. Give me a list of names, Sergeant. We’ll be building this rehab clinic and an undercover interdiction unit from the ground up. I can use all the good men I can get.”
Joe nodded, liking his new officer immensely. Word had come down that Ramsey was a tough officer. Well, Joe didn’t mind that type, as long as they were fair-minded. Hope rose in him. Ramsey seemed a hell of a lot better than his predecessor, Captain Jacobs. Suddenly, excitement thrummed through him.
“Sir, when will you let us in on your plans and ideas for the base?”
Dan hid a smile, liking the sergeant’s intensity and enthusiasm. “Just as soon as we can get a pool of people who hate drugs as much as you and I do.”
Joe jumped up and came to attention. “Permission to leave and get started on this, sir?”
“First things first, Sergeant.” Dan motioned to the report in his hand. “Let’s get Ms. Tyler’s investigation out of the way, shall we?”
“Yes, sir. This’ll be a piece of cake.”
“I hope so. Dismissed, Sergeant.”
Dan pushed his fingers together in a steeple as he thought about Donnally. He liked the staff sergeant, who seemed to couple intelligence with enthusiasm—the combination Dan was searching for in the team he’d put together for Reed. Brig chasers were big, mean marines who reminded him of the old corps before all the changes. As a group, they had one hell of a reputation, and no one messed with them. Not even the highly vaunted recon marines. No, brig chasers were the perfect instruments to use against the drug world.
Glancing at the phone on his desk, Dan wondered how long it would be until it would be ringing off the hook with drug-related problems. Once he’d put his drug unit together in Yuma, the phone had become a living being, stalking him twenty-four hours a day.
Reed was a lot bigger than Yuma, boasting 48,000 military personnel and 4,200 civilian employees to the Arizona air station’s 12,000 military personnel. He exhaled heavily, wondering if the drug problems at this base could be corralled and eradicated. No matter what happened, Dan knew he had to give it his best shot. If people such as Donnally were available to him, his job would be a lot easier. Still, from what Rose, his new secretary, had told him, his office and personnel were in dire need of being shaped up. Captain Jacobs had left the unit in shambles, the morale low. It would only make his job tougher if he had to whip his men and women back into line.
As Dan continued to ponder, his thoughts revolved back to Libby Tyler. If she was this upset about those five horses, why wasn’t her boss, Stuart Garwood? Or was she one of those people who did, indeed, go off on a tangent and make mountains out of mole hills? Dan grimaced, wishing mightily that he was the one going out to the stables to investigate Libby’s allegations rather than Donnally. Somehow, Dan had to figure out a way to see her. Somehow.
Chapter Two
“Chaos.” Dan muttered under his breath so no one passing his office door could hear him. “Utter chaos.” He’d been at Reed exactly three days, and everything was a mess. The officer whom he’d replaced, Captain Arthur Jacobs, had somehow managed to transform his fifty-person contingent into a surly group who were bordering on disrespect—except for Donnally, who was turning out to be a godsend.
His desk was scattered with papers. The In basket was full and teetering with files begging for his attention. It was only a matter of time until the pile toppled.
“Captain?”
Dan looked up. Rose Tannison, his GS-12, government civil service secretary, stood in the doorway. She was a civilian who worked for the military. Her bulk filled it amply. “Yes, Rose?”
“We’ve got a problem.” She removed her bifocal glasses from the end of her nose. “Mind if I come in and shut the door while we talk?”
Groaning inwardly, Dan guessed it to be another personnel problem. Right now, he wanted to strangle Jacobs, a short-timer whose bitter attitude toward the Marine Corps had rubbed off on the enlisted people who worked under him. “Sure.” Dan glanced at his watch: 1145. For once, if this didn’t take long, he was going to be able to grab some lunch.
Rose smiled and sat down after closing the door. She fluffed her full pink cotton skirt. “Have you met Howard Parker, the police chief from Oceanside, yet?”
“No.” Oceanside bordered Reed’s territory and was a military town with all the inherent problems that accompanied such a dubious title. And Dan knew working closely with civilian law enforcement would be vital for his plan to be successful.
“Well,” Rose said, placing her glasses back up on her bulblike nose and peering over them at him, “you’d better pull out a big box of Band-Aids. He’s on his way here.”
“What does that mean?” Dan rested both his elbows on the desk.
“May I be frank?”
“Yes.” Rose had worked in Reed HQ for eighteen years, and Dan was finding her indispensable for the straight scoop on what was going on around the base.
“Trouble with a capital T. His wife was formerly married to a marine sergeant. Unfortunately, the sergeant died and she married Parker on the rebound, six months later. The chief has never forgotten his wife’s first love was a marine. He’s always been the jealous type.”
Mouth quirking, Dan leveled a stare across the desk at Rose. Her black hair was pushed up into a haphazard knot on top of her head, and she wore long, dangling red earrings that matched her red-and-pink cotton blouse. “And so,” Dan said, “he doesn’t like marines very much at all and is a pain in the rear in any working relationship with marines. Right?”
Rose beamed. “Go to the head of the class, Captain Ramsey.” She grinned impishly. “They said you were a tough officer. But I think you’re smart and tough.”
Grinning, Dan leaned back. “Being tough isn’t going to smooth out this problem, Rose. Do you think a little diplomacy will work with Parker?”
“Captain Jacobs hated the police chief, and vice versa. But then, Jacobs couldn’t get along with his own shadow. I think if you appear willing to work with Parker and let him think he’s running the show, there’ll be room to maneuver.”
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Rose. Okay, so handle Parker with kid gloves and pull his strings without him knowing it. Can do.” He frowned. “I just wish my own people weren’t so damned sluggish and morale wasn’t so low.”
“Joe Donnally’s squared away,” Rose assured him. “He and Captain Jacobs got along like a dog and cat. He’ll level with you the way I do. But he needs your permission to speak frankly, while I don’t. Ask him for his opinion and use his suggestions. He’s been at Reed for two years. As a brig chaser and a people manager, he’s the best. I think if you shower your people with a little attention and pats on the back for a job well done, they’ll snap back into line real quick.”
Laughing softly, Dan nodded. He picked up a pen and