Jack Reacher 24: Blue Moon by Lee Child

Author:Lee Child
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781473542310
Publisher: Random House
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SEVEN

The third guy in Barton’s hallway had the kind of hair and skin that made a person look ten years younger than he really was, which therefore in reality made him about Reacher’s own generation. He was smaller and neater. He had sharp watchful eyes set deep either side of a blade of a nose. He had a long unruly lock of hair that fell across his forehead. He was dressed with a modicum of style, in good shoes and corduroy pants and a shirt and a jacket.

Joe Hogan said, ‘This is who I was telling you about. The dogface who knows all the old Commie languages. His name is Guy Vantresca.’

Reacher stuck out his hand.

‘Pleased to meet you,’ he said.

‘Likewise,’ Vantresca said, and he shook hands, and then he did so all over again, with Abby.

Reacher said, ‘You got here fast.’

‘I was still awake,’ Vantresca said. ‘I live close by.’

‘Thanks for helping out.’

‘Actually that’s not why I’m here. I came to warn you off. You can’t mess with these people. Too many, too nasty, too protected. That would be my assessment.’

‘Were you Military Intelligence?’

Vantresca shook his head.

‘Armour,’ he said.

A company commander late on in the Cold War, Hogan had called him.

‘Tanks?’ Reacher asked.

‘Fourteen of them,’ Vantresca said. ‘All mine. All facing east. Happy days.’

‘Why did you learn the languages?’

‘I thought we were going to win. I thought I might be ruling a civilian district. Or at least ordering a bottle of wine in a restaurant. Or meeting girls. It was a long time ago. Plus Uncle Sam paid for it. Back then the army liked education. Everyone was getting postgraduate degrees.’

Reacher said, ‘Too many and too nasty are subjective judgements. We can talk about that kind of stuff later. But too protected is different. What do you know about that?’

‘I do some corporate consulting. Mostly physical security of buildings. But I hear things, and I get asked things. Last year a federal project ran a set of integrated numbers from all across the nation, and it turned out the two most law-abiding populations in America were the Ukrainian and Albanian communities right here in town. They don’t even get parking tickets. That suggests a very close relationship with all levels of law enforcement.’

‘But there must be a red line somewhere. I suggested to one of them that gunfire on the city streets at night would get a reaction, and the guy didn’t argue. In fact I guess he agreed with me, because he didn’t pull the trigger.’

‘Plus we’re getting a new police commissioner. They’re nervous. But there’s still plenty of boring invisible stuff their side of the line. Generally speaking this type of thing isn’t about bullets in the street. It’s about someone having a cosy chat with a potential witness, out of sight, out of earshot, probably in the witness’s own home, probably in a meaningful location, like an infant daughter’s bedroom, about what a weird thing memory is, how it comes and goes, how it fades in

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