One Shot - v4 by Lee Child

Author:Lee Child [Child, Lee]
Format: epub
Publisher: Jack Reacher
Published: 2010-07-30T15:55:31.562000+00:00

Emerson and Bianca called it quits at twelve-fifty. Reacher never showed. The feeder flight came in on time. Nobody that could have been a female Brigadier General from the Pentagon got off. The two cops waited until the arrivals hall emptied out and went quiet. Then they got in their car and drove back to town.

Reacher and Hutton had lunch. A waitress came over, happy to get some business out of her corner table at last. The menu was coffee-shop-basic. Reacher ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and coffee. Hutton went with chicken Caesar and tea. They ate and talked. Reacher ran through the details of the case. Then he ran through his theory. The perverse choice of location, the presumed coercion. He told Hutton about Niebuhr’s theory of the new and persuasive friend. Told her that Barr claimed he had no new friends, and very few old ones.

“Can’t be a new friend anyway,” Hutton said. “Because this is a multilayered setup. There’s the contemporaneous evidence, and the historical parallels. Second story of a parking garage fourteen years ago in KC, second story of a parking garage here and now. Virtually the same rifle. Boat tail sniper ammunition. And the desert boots. I never saw them before Desert Shield. They’re suggestive. Whoever scripted this for him knew all about his past. Which means it isn’t a new friend. It can’t be. It would take years and years before Barr would feel like sharing anything about KC.”

Reacher nodded. “But obviously he did, eventually. Which is why I said there’s someone else out there who knows.”

“We need to find that person,” Hutton said. “The mission is to keep the lid on this thing.”

“Not my mission. I don’t care if this Petersen guy gets his fourth star.”

“But you do care that a quarter million veterans don’t get their reputations trashed. The scandal would taint all of them. And they were good people.”

Reacher said nothing.

“It’s easy enough,” Hutton said. “If James Barr doesn’t have many friends, you don’t have a very big pool to search through. One of them has to be the guy.”

Reacher said nothing.

“Two birds with one stone,” Hutton said. “You get to the puppet master and the army gets to relax.”

“So why doesn’t the army do it for me?”

“We can’t afford to draw attention.”

“I’ve got operational problems,” Reacher said.

“No jurisdiction?”

“Worse than that. I’m about to get arrested.”

“For what?”

“For killing that girl behind the hotel.”

“What?”

“The puppet master doesn’t like me being here. He already tried something on Monday night, with that same girl as bait. So I went to see her yesterday, twice. And now they killed her and I’m sure I’m her last unexplained contact.”

“Have you got an alibi?”

“Depends on the exact timing, but probably not. I’m sure the cops are already looking for me.”

“Problem,” Hutton said.

“Only temporary,” Reacher said. “Science is on my side. If her neck was broken by a single blow to her right temple, then her head rotated a little, counterclockwise, which means the punch was thrown by a left-hander.

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