Dead Reckoning

While recuperating in a Paris hospital after the war, Captain Rip Murdock and Sergeant Johnny Drake, who were a two person paratrooper team, are, without earlier notice, sent back immediately to Washington DC for an undisclosed reason, they unexpectedly needing to land in New York City to take the train instead to their final destination. It is on the train trip that they learn by accident that the reason for the immediacy of their return stateside is that Johnny, stemming from a report Rip wrote for his superiors, is to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, with Rip to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. After learning this news, Johnny takes the first opportunity available to run off, something about the notoriety of the ceremony spooking him. After receiving an unofficial okay, Rip follows what few leads he has to locate Johnny, a former English professor, to learn why he ran off. Those leads take him to what looks to be Johnny's home town of Gulf City on the Gulf coast. He also locates Dusty, the deep voiced woman with the poor grammar about who Johnny often lovingly spoke, her real name being Coral Chandler, a widowed "Mrs." who used to be a singer at a nightclub/casino owned and operated by a gangster named Martinelli. Rip knows that whatever was going on with Johnny has to do with Martinelli and a murder rap, the primary question being which side Coral is working on, that question despite she having professed her love for Johnny.