by Diane Capri
“Guess who is the CO at Kelham right this very minute?”
“Alec Murphy?”
“The very same.”
“The Boss knows all of this, of course. He thinks Reacher would have heard about Hana Pak because it’s been all over the news for days. And Reacher has always had a knack for finding people.” She sat up straighter on the bed. “The news might have prodded Reacher to solve one more murder. The Boss thinks Reacher will come here to deal with Murphy.”
“Give that girl a gold star,” Gaspar said with approval. “And if he’s right, Reacher is already there in Carter’s Crossing. Maybe he’s been there for the past few days.”
“Makes sense.” Kim nodded, although he couldn’t see her. “Because Kelham is closing. Murphy and all the other soldiers who are still here will be leaving. Reacher’s window of opportunity to deal with Murphy is now.”
“I’ll send you the files. You can decide for yourself. It all hangs together. I haven’t found a paper trail yet for Murphy traveling to New York last week. I could be wrong,” Gaspar said.
“Okay.”
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that. I think you’re right. It all hangs together better than any other theory we’ve come up with.” She tapped a front tooth with a knuckle, thinking it through. “We know I wouldn’t be here unless the Boss believed Reacher would show up. And he always has more intel than we do. He’s likely got more evidence that Reacher is here, too.”
“But?” Gaspar prodded.
“But I’m just wondering what Bonnie Nightingale has to do with all of this,” Kim replied as she glanced at the clock. “I’ve got to go. Send me the files. I’ll call you later.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Thursday, May 12
Carter’s Crossing, Mississippi
7:15 p.m.
Kim finished her conversation with Gaspar, dressed hurriedly, and arrived at Libby’s Diner later than she’d planned. It was Thursday. A school night. People had to be at work Friday morning. Which was why most of the tables were empty. A few hadn’t been bused yet. Seemed like customers ate their evening meals earlier and had cleared out already. Maybe they’d headed for the casino for a while before bed.
Mayor Deveraux was seated at a table for four in the corner. The tables nearby were all vacant. Beside her sat an open bottle of red wine and two large wine glasses.
Kim approached the table and pulled out the chair across from her. “Sorry I’m late,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t know Libby sold wine.”
“This is my private stash.” Deveraux’s returning smile was like a bright light in the very grim day. She was an extraordinarily attractive woman, even now. “If you’re done for the night, Libby brought you a glass.”
Kim was about to decline when she glanced at the ornate label on the bottle and grinned. “Wow. That’s too good to pass up. Just a splash, please. I’ve got work to do later.”
Deveraux tipped the rich Brunello with a light hand, watching the deep red wine settle into the bowl. They raised their glasses. Kim sipped and rolled the wine around on her tongue before she swallowed it.
“That’s really great. It’s not often that I’m served an expensive Italian wine in a diner.” She grinned again. “In fact, I’m not sure it’s ever happened before.”
“We do what we can out here in the wilds of mid-America,” Deveraux replied cheekily.
“How’d your interview go this afternoon?” Kim asked as she settled in.
Deveraux shrugged. “It’s hard to make sinkholes interesting until one of them swallows your livestock or your car in broad daylight. Then the situation gets everybody’s attention.”
Kim grinned. “I’ll bet it does. What are you going to do about it?”
“The experts tell me it’s all about the train. Jurisdiction is murky. The feds control transportation, generally speaking. These tracks were laid decades ago, and the feds handed the responsibility for maintenance to the railroad company. It feels like they’ve been taking liberties with the foundations to save money,” Deveraux explained while she perused the menu, just as a matter of form. “The trick now is to get the railroad company to solve the problem before something more serious happens.”
Kim could think of nothing to offer in response, nor any good reason to say it. She nodded.
Deveraux changed the subject. “How did things go out at the old Gordon barn? Did they find a third body?”
“No,” Kim replied. “No positive IDs yet, but Sheriff Greyson is running the plates on all three trucks. We may know more soon.”
“Makes sense that the dead men owned the trucks. Maybe he’ll get lucky.” Deveraux nodded. “Any solid guesses?”
“About the identity of the victims?” Kim cocked her head while she scanned the menu, just in case Libby had added a special or something. No such luck. “I saw the bodies briefly. Both men were average-sized. That’s about all anyone can tell at this point. Best guess is neither one is Reacher, which is what I needed to know. Maybe you wanted to know that, too.”
The tension Deveraux held in her shoulders visibly relaxed. The tense lines around the corners of her mouth slackened. She raised her wine with a steady hand and took another sip. “Was I that obvious?”
Kim held the stem of the glass, pondering the question. “I take it you still have feelings for Reacher?”
“I hadn’t thought about him in years.” Deveraux’s smile was a little weaker. She seemed to be remembering something that both pleased and perplexed her.
“Reacher was the one who got away?” Kim asked, slightly surprised, and genuinely curious. She found the idea hard to fathom.
“Not exactly.” Deveraux shrugged. She drained her glass and refilled it. “I haven’t been pining for him or anything like that. I didn’t even realize he had made such a lasting impression on me. There was never any question that we were just having a bit of fun back then.”
“Fifteen years is a long time to carry a torch for a guy you only knew for a few days, such a very long time ago,” Kim said, swirling the wine and watching it cling to the side of the glass. “Did you learn anything important about him back then?”
“Not much. Hell, maybe that was part of the appeal. When you don’t know anything about a guy, he’s kind of a blank slate. In your head, you can write him any way you want after he goes, you know?” Deveraux replied.
Kim could see that. Maybe she was feeling some of the same things. Maybe the Boss had been right about the subtext in her recent reports. Was she going soft on Reacher?
She shook the idea off and put some firmness into her tone. “He was still in the army back then. Here on assignment. You were the sheriff. Were you working together?”
“Not officially, of course. He wasn’t even here officially. There was another guy out at Kelham taking the lead in the case. His name was…Munroe? No…” Deveraux frowned as she concentrated on locating the missing gray cells. Her face cleared when she found the intel. “Yes. That’s right. Duncan Munro.”
“Were you investigating the murders back then? Three women killed. Happened here in your town, right?” Kim asked.
“We thought it was only one woman at first. Reacher was the one who figured out there were two more,” Deveraux replied. “And the death of the one we knew about before Reacher arrived didn’t make much sense. It seemed like she was a party girl who crossed the wrong man and paid the price for it.”
“You didn’t like that theory?”
“Her steady boyfriend was deployed, off and on. Some top-secret assignment out of the country.” Deveraux shook her head. “If she was just a party girl, why didn’t she have more than one guy hanging around? At least when her steady wasn’t here?”
Kim said quietly, “Turned out she wasn’t a party girl at all, I take it.”
“Like Bonnie Nightingale wasn’t a party girl, you mean?” Before Deveraux had a chance to say more, Libby rushed up to take their dinner orders.
They chose the cheesebur
ger and fries because they knew from experience that it was fast and easy and good. Libby dashed back to the kitchen.
“Poor woman has to be dead on her feet every night,” Kim said as she watched Libby rush away. “Doesn’t she have any help at all?”
“Besides Bonnie Nightingale, you mean?” Deveraux replied.
Kim arched her eyebrows and said nothing.
“She’ll replace Bonnie, but not right away. They were friends for a good long time. Libby is having trouble dealing with the loss,” Deveraux replied.
“Does she know Bonnie was murdered?” Kim asked.
“No reason to put that out there until we find the killer.” Deveraux shook her head. “Libby is grieving enough as it is. Hell, everybody who knew Bonnie is grieving.”
“And you don’t have any theories about what happened to her?” Kim asked.
“Everybody’s got theories.” Deveraux shrugged.
“Do you know Alec Murphy?” Kim asked.
“General Alec Murphy? The CO out at Kelham?”
“That’s the guy.”
“I’ve met him once or twice. That’s all. Why? You think he had something to do with Bonnie’s murder?” Deveraux asked.
Kim shook her head. “I don’t know. His name came up. I don’t know him. What’s he like?”
Deveraux said, “From all accounts, he’s a mean son of a bitch. But like I said, I don’t know the guy. And don’t want to. He’ll be the last one out at Kelham. Which is just fine with me. I’m looking forward to having the army off my turf.”
After a few moments of silence when she realized Deveraux wouldn’t say more, Kim cleared her throat. “Before you drink too much wine and can’t think straight, let’s get the Reacher interview out of the way, okay?”
“Ask away.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Thursday, May 12
Carter’s Crossing, Mississippi
8:15 p.m.
“As you know, Reacher’s being considered for a special classified assignment. I take it you felt he was a reasonable guy, back then. Could he be counted on to follow orders? Or at least follow the law?” Kim asked.
This question was the core of what she’d come to think of as the Reacher paradox.
On paper, he seemed both skilled and deadly. He had medals and commendations enough to paper a room. Which was good.
But he was also uncontrollable. He did whatever he wanted when he wanted to do it without regard to personal consequences. He could be heroic at times. But he also seemed to have only a passing regard for the law.
Given that he was a military policeman and an army officer back then, disregard for the law wasn’t a positive character trait in Kim’s view.
This trait made him seem simultaneously competent and unhinged. She didn’t want to believe Reacher had gone rogue.
A guy who might be better left unfound than picked up dusted off and sent back into battle.
Deveraux cocked her head and seemed to consider the question for a good long time. Finally, she said, “I’m not really sure how to answer that. Reacher didn’t work for me. I wasn’t responsible for him, and he didn’t impact my job security.”
“Right.” Kim nodded, waiting for Deveraux to work things out.
“You read the file. The situation back then was untenable. People at the top of the ladder with absolute power did what people like that too often do. Reacher didn’t like it. He handled it.” Deveraux said, draining her glass. She folded her hands on the table. “Hard to take issue with the results. Those guys got what they deserved.”
“You were a cop, too. You knew, then and now, that the cops catch the bad guys, and the judges put them away. That’s the system. It’s not up to the cops to deliver justice,” Kim said quietly.
“So I guess some might say that he was a rogue cop. And they’d be right. But I appreciated what he was trying to do. As I mentioned this morning, I certainly understood it.” Deveraux nodded and refilled her glass. “You know what we were dealing with. Young women murdered, probably because they were pregnant, and the boyfriend didn’t want to deal with the consequences of his actions.”
“Indefensible. So Reacher killed them.” Kim said flatly.
“He paid the price.”
“How’s that?” Kim arched her eyebrows.
Deveraux said, “He lost his job over the way he behaved. His last case was the one we worked together here in Carter’s Crossing. He loved the army. He made no secret of it. Given everything that happened, it was a pretty stiff price to pay.”
“Not everyone would agree that losing a job, even one you’re good at is the moral equivalent of losing lives,” Kim replied. Nor did she believe Reacher lost his job because of what had happened here. His file was full of similar incidents, and the brass never showed him the door before.
“Tell me.” Deveraux cocked her head. “What would you have done?”
Before she was required to answer, Libby arrived with the cheeseburgers. A few moments were spent with delivering the food and refilling water glasses before Libby dashed away again.
The aroma made Kim’s stomach growl. While the burgers were hot and fresh, they dug in.
Which allowed Kim to pretend Deveraux’s last question was never asked.
Deveraux didn’t push it. Some questions were best left unanswered.
But if the Boss was right and Kim had begun to romanticize Reacher, then Deveraux was several miles ahead along that road. She seemed to be holding something back, but Kim didn’t expect her to spill whatever it was after a single bottle of wine.
Kim changed the subject. “How long were you and Sheriff Greyson married?
Deveraux laughed. “We’re still married.”
Kim blinked. Twice. “He called you his ex.”
“We don’t live together anymore. But there was no need to get divorced. It’s not like either one of us is going to find someone else as long as we live in this town.”
After a pause, Kim said, “Why’d you split up?”
Deveraux shrugged and took another bite of her cheeseburger. Kim waited, but the answer never came.
“What about you, Agent Otto? I’ll bet the FBI is your whole life now. But you were married once.” She grinned when Kim blinked again. “Yeah, I checked.”
Kim shook her head slowly as she wiped the burger juice off her fingers. “My divorce seems like such a long time ago that I almost said I’d never been married without even thinking about it.”
“What happened?”
“It’s complicated.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go tonight,” Deveraux said, leaning back.
“We were incompatible,” Kim eventually replied before turning her attention to finishing her meal, but the conversation had dulled her appetite.
Deveraux swirled the deep red wine in her glass and waited as if she had all the time in the world.
Kim finally grinned and held out her glass. “If we’re going to talk about my ex, I’ll need more wine.”
Deveraux refilled the glasses and pushed her empty plate to the side. “Was it true love?”
“I thought so at the time. We were in college together. Then law school. We were living in DC. At first, Van was the guy I thought would be my soul mate forever.” She laughed uncomfortably because talking about Van seemed surreal.
She rarely even thought about Van, let alone discussed him. She hadn’t seen him in years. She wasn’t certain she could pick him out of a lineup.
Kim quipped, “Of course, I also thought I was going to be a tax attorney and work in Chicago. We can see how that went.”
“So what happened?” Deveraux asked.
“He decided he wanted to be a politician. Back in California. Having a mixed-race wife didn’t fit into his election plans.” Kim shrugged.
Deveraux’s eyes widened with surprise. “You’re not Asian? I’d never have guessed. Not that I’m an expert, but I spent some time in Asia when I was in the Marines.”
“My
mother was a Vietnamese war bride. My dad’s family has lived in the Midwest for about a hundred years. He served in Vietnam. They met and fell in love there.” Kim explained her history briefly, which was more than she normally told anyone. “I have three older brothers who look like my dad, all born in Michigan. I’ve always felt tall and blond and German on the inside. But my younger sister and I look like my mom.”
“Well, your mother must be very beautiful,” Deveraux said.
Kim blushed slightly before she shrugged again. She wasn’t used to compliments. It had been a while since anyone had commented on her appearance at all.
She nodded and sipped the wine, which really was excellent. “So you can see how Van would think my family might cause a problem for his ambitions.”
Deveraux frowned. “I don’t actually. Sounds like he was simply looking for an excuse, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe so. Maybe he’d found someone else and he was too big a coward to admit it,” Kim offered, simply to change the conversation. She didn’t plan to pour her heart out to Elizabeth Deveraux even if she did offer a great bottle of wine to ply her with.
“What happened with his election?”
“I have no idea. I never checked,” Kim said flatly.
Deveraux let the subject drop. She poured the last of the wine into the two glasses. “Shall we have coffee and pie?”
Before Kim had a chance to agree, the door opened and Perry came inside. He’d changed out of his smoky clothes, too.
He strode over to their table with his hands jammed into his front pockets. He nodded toward Deveraux and then turned his attention to Kim. “Good to see you Mayor. Otto, I’m headed out to the casino. Greyson’s already on his way. Do you want to come along?”
“What’s going on?” Deveraux asked.
Perry replied, “Greyson found charred money in the barn after they put the fire out. His hunch is that it might have been stolen from the casino.”
“Yeah. Let’s go.” Kim pulled a two twenties out of her pocket and tossed them on the table. “Thanks for the wine,” she said to Deveraux.