I Dare You: A gripping thriller that will keep you guessing (A Kate Blakemore Crime Thriller Book 1)
Page 31
This is where the hunter had positioned his vehicle. There was a good line of sight to where the deer lay. To his right he could see the lights of his lodge. Kate was in there, doors locked, waiting.
Scott looked at the folded wrappers again and thought about the deer. No genuine hunter would shoot a deer and immediately leave it.
Unless, of course, he had some news that changed the game.
And then Scott got it. The origami animal wasn’t a deer. It was a kind of message: a horse. That had been no ordinary hunter. The guy had been there to clean up Hamilton’s mess; to remove the witnesses. Hurwitz first, so there would be no warning, then Scott and Kate, and then Woodall.
But he hadn’t carried it through.
It was over. Really over.
Scott flicked the paper horse away and jumped into the four-by-four. He K-turned, jounced down the track and pulled onto the road.
He paused by the deer and saw a brief flash of what had come so close.
Snow began to fall. The flakes danced in his headlights then, moments later, heavier ones hit the windscreen. He put his foot down and headed for home.
THE END
Acknowledgements
There are many ups and downs in writing—especially a book that took six years to go from the first draft to something I was happy with. I am grateful to my family for their cajoling and general encouragement—and finally insistence that I Dare You be published. Thank you to Robert Barrington and Tobias Block of Transparency International for your information on corruption in Iraq. Thank you to my family and friends for their reviews of early drafts. To John Christiansen for research and for being my tour guide in Prague. To Pete Tonkin whose comments helped shape this final version. I am grateful to the Barbara Levy Literary Agency especially to Mike Bailey (no relation) for his review of an early version. Hopefully you’ll approve of the changes I’ve made. A final mention should go to my editor, Richard Sheehan, who did an excellent job. As always though, any mistakes are my own.
Author’s note
The “ghost soldiers” of Iraq has been widely covered in the media and is the reason Islamic State fighters found little resistance when they took Mosul from Iraqi forces in 2014. Military commanders had 50,000 soldiers on their books—the equivalent to four battalions—receiving salaries without showing up for work. In reality the commanders were pocketing the money. They paid $1 million for the position of military commander which resulted in extortion and the abuse of power on a staggering, institutionalised scale. Transparency International report that at each year least $380 million of international funds intended for defence and security goes to corrupt officials.
If you would like to know more about the corruption associated with the defence and security of Iraq, the most comprehensive available source of information is Transparency International’s “Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index”:
http://government.defenceindex.org/countries/iraq/
The “personnel section” is of greatest interest.
There is no evidence that the US were directly or indirectly involved in the corruption. However the expression “the buck stops here” seems apt. Where did the aspiring military commanders and other corrupt officials get the $1 million each to fund their roles. And who did they pay this to?