The Custody of Sha-Ash'Gaz
by
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Blood seeped from the torn body of a young, scantily-clad oriental woman and trickled between the cobblestones of an obscure back alley in the Wanchai district of Hong Kong. Her throat had been horribly slashed and stab wounds insulted her throat, left eye and both breasts. Rats skittered forward to lap up her blood. Ten minutes after the final throbs of life had flowed from the woman’s body, an inebriated young U.S. Navy sailor stumbled into the alley to throw up because of the high concentration of alcohol in his stomach. He stumbled across the body and fell down, then sat up and looked at the dead woman, then threw up--violently--not because of the alcohol in his stomach, but because of the sight of the dead woman’s mutilated body. A crowd gathered. Growing restless, they began throwing rocks and empty bottles at the young sailor. The mood of the crowd steadily grew darker as the sight of the bloody body incited them. Knives appeared and the crowd began to close in on the sailor. Just in time, navy shore patrol personnel arrived and after quieting the crowd, arrested Sonar man Third Class Hamish Quincannon of the destroyer USS Lawrence J. Ryan, for drunk and disorderly conduct. The next morning, the Hong Kong police arrived at U.S. Navy Shore Patrol Headquarters in Hong Kong and furnished an arrest warrant charging petty officer Quincannon with murder. Quincannon was led away in shackles, a dazed look on his face, trying to comprehend what was happening to him. He wasn’t aware he was facing the death sentence for murder--of the young woman he’d stumbled over the night before. He was twelve thousand miles away from home.
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About the Book
Lieutenant (junior grade) Pauline "Tinker Bell" is the first woman combat fighter pilot in the navy. She has just finished her training in the RAG (Replacement Air Group) in San Diego, California, and is heading for Hong Kong to join her ship and squadron for sea duty. Upon arriving in Hong Kong she finds herself embroiled in the investigation of a murder, supposedly commited by a U. S. Navy sailor. Pauline finds herself torn between the murder investigation and her duties aboard ship, which leads to and life and death combat with the Iranian Air Force. The murder investigation devolops into terror and a deadly attack from the murderer. Being a woman in the navy, especially its first combat female fighter pilot, was not an easy proposition.
About the Author
Gary M. Watts has lived the kind of adventurous life most of us only dream about. He worked his way through college by fighting forest fires for the U. S. Forest Service. For two summers, he was a Smoke Jumper, parachuting into forest fires in the remote wilderness areas of the west’s national forests. Upon graduation, with a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah, he went into the U. S. Navy flight training program and became a highly decorated fighter pilot, retiring after twenty years of active duty service. With a second career as an airline pilot, he divides his time between his work, his boat in San Diego Bay, and his home in the mountains of Julian, California. He is currently working on his next novel.