Full Metal Jack

by Diane Capri

  She glanced at the clock. It was later than she’d meant to stay. She stood up and tossed two twenties on the table.

  “Sorry. Say goodbye to Libby for me, will you? I’ve got a plane to catch.”

  “Drop by any time you’re in the area,” Deveraux said.

  Kim said she would.

  Deveraux and Perry turned back to breakfast.

  As she walked out of the diner, she noticed again that the sky was clear and blue, and there was no wind to speak of. Both the driving and the flying should be easy. Kim made her way out to the SUV and drove toward US 72.

  The sun’s glare on the asphalt was almost blinding, even with her aviators covering her eyes. Traffic was heavier than she’d expected. There were a lot of long-haul truckers on the road, which was nerve-wracking.

  She kept her grip on the steering wheel and paused the cruise control to slow her speed. The trip to the airport would take longer than planned. Nothing she could do to speed things up.

  About thirty miles west of Carter’s Crossing, she caught a glimpse of a hitchhiker ahead in the distance. Something about his size, his stance, tickled her instincts.

  She hadn’t slept well or long enough. Maybe she was being too fanciful. But he’d been in Carter’s Crossing, and he was on his way somewhere else. For sure.

  A pickup truck had pulled over onto the shoulder ahead of the man, and he’d climbed into the passenger seat and the vehicle was already rolling again.

  She’d only seen him for a minute. Two at the most.

  Could it be Reacher?

  She pushed the accelerator to the floor. The truck wasn’t that far ahead. She might catch him if she tried.

  Her phone rang. She considered ignoring it, but she’d been trying to call the Boss all morning. So she picked up.

  “Today’s your lucky day,” he said by way of greeting.

  “How’s that?” she asked.

  The truck increased speed and passed another eighteen-wheeler up ahead. She closed the gap between her SUV and the eighteen-wheeler, planning to do the same.

  But traffic made it impossible for her to pass.

  She dropped back to give herself more stopping distance, should she need it.

  The Boss was talking. “You have a new partner. His name is William Burke. He’ll meet you at the airport in Rapid City, South Dakota, tonight.”

  “What? Why am I going to Rapid City, anyway?” She craned her neck and checked her mirrors, anxious for a chance to pass the big rig.

  “Closest major airport,” the Boss said. “Details in the files I sent you. Download them before you get to Memphis. Read on the plane.”

  He hung up.

  The traffic cleared.

  She pressed the accelerator and passed the eighteen-wheeler, fighting the wind like a housefly passing a jetliner.

  When her visibility cleared ahead, she saw miles of empty pavement.

  The pickup truck and its passenger must have turned off on one of the side roads.

  For a moment, she considered going back to search.

  But reason prevailed.

  She wasn’t sure the hitchhiker had been Reacher. And she had no idea where the truck had turned. By the time she found the truck, she’d miss the only flight from Memphis to Rapid City today.

  If the Boss was sending her to Rapid City, it was because he thought Reacher was headed there, too. She’d have another chance.

  Her phone rang. Gaspar. She picked up the call.

  When there’s only one choice, it’s the right choice.

  She continued heading west.

  “How can I be of service to you this fine Friday the 13th, Suzy Wong?” he asked with a smile in his voice.

  “I hope that’s not a bad omen,” she replied.

  “You haven’t walked under any ladders or kicked a black cat, have you?” Gaspar teased.

  “No. But it looks like I’m finally getting a new partner tonight. Name’s William Burke.”

  “Seriously?” He snorted and choked on his coffee.

  “What’s so shocking about that?”

  Gaspar controlled his coughing jag and said, “William Burke? Same as the infamous serial killer?”

  Kim’s brain hadn’t made the connection until Gaspar mentioned it. Burke’s case had been required learning when she was training at Quantico. Burke hadn’t been a classic serial killer. He’d had no sexual motive. He was more like a volunteer assassin. The sixteen murders he’d committed were done for profit. He’d sold the corpses to medical research. Right up until the time he was hanged, he’d insisted his actions supported the common good.

  “Doubtful. Not unless the old Scot’s a ghost. He’s been dead almost two hundred years.”

  Kim nodded, although Gaspar couldn’t see her. “Can you check him out for me?”

  “Will do.”

  “Thanks, Chico.”

  After a brief pause, he said, “Cooper’s a snake, Kim. Watch your back.”

  Kim said nothing and kept her eyes on the road.

  She whispered, “Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.”

  * * *

  Otto and Gaspar’s Hunt for Jack Reacher continues in

  JACK FROST

  Click Here for Details

  Available on Kobo

  Have you read all of Diane Capri’s Hunt for Jack Reacher books so far?

  The Hunt for Jack Reacher Series:

  (in publication order with Lee Child source books in parentheses)

  Don’t Know Jack • (Killing Floor)

  Jack in a Box (novella)

  Jack and Kill (novella)

  Get Back Jack • (Bad Luck and Trouble)

  Jack in the Green (novella)

  Jack and Joe • (The Enemy)

  Deep Cover Jack (Persuader)

  Jack the Reaper • (The Hard Way)

  Black Jack • (Running Blind / The Visitor)

  Ten Two Jack • (The Midnight Line)

  Jack of Spades • (Past Tense)

  Prepper Jack • (Die Trying)

  Full Metal Jack • (The Affair)

  MORE FROM DIANE CAPRI

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  Have you read all of Diane Capri’s series? Maybe it’s time to give them a try!

  For a complete list of Diane Capri Books visit:

  http://dianecapri.com/books/

  (Click each title to buy or download a sample)

  The Jess Kimball Thrillers Series:

  Fatal Enemy (novella)

  Fatal Distraction

  Fatal Demand

  Fatal Error

  Fatal Fall

  Fatal Edge (novella)

  Fatal Game

  Fatal Bond

  Fatal Past (novella)

  Fatal Dawn

  The Hunt for Justice Series:

  Due Justice

  Twisted Justice

  Secret Justice

  Wasted Justice

  Raw Justice

  Mistaken Justice (novella)

  Cold Justice (novella)

  False Justice (novella)

  Fair Justice (novella)

  True Justice (novella)

  Night Justice

  The Park Hotel Mysteries:

  Reservation with Death

  Early Check Out

  Room with a Clue

  Late Arrival

  The Heir Hunter Series:

  Blood Trails

  Trace Evidence

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Diane Capri is an award-winning New York Times, USA Today, and worldwide bestselling author. She’s a recovering lawyer and snowbird who divides her time between Florida and Michigan. An active member of Mystery Writers of America, Author’s Guild, International Thriller Writers, Alliance of Independent Authors, Novelists, Inc., and Sisters in Crime, she loves to hear from readers and is hard at work on her next novel.

 
Please connect with her online:

  http://www.DianeCapri.com

  Twitter: http://twitter.com/DianeCapri

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  http://www.facebook.com/DianeCapriBooks

  FROM LEE CHILD

  THE REACHER REPORT:

  March 2nd, 2012

  The other big news is Diane Capri—a friend of mine—wrote a book revisiting the events of KILLING FLOOR in Margrave, Georgia. She imagines an FBI team tasked to trace Reacher’s current-day whereabouts. They begin by interviewing people who knew him—starting out with Roscoe and Finlay. Check out this review: “Oh heck yes! I am in love with this book. I’m a huge Jack Reacher fan. If you don’t know Jack (pun intended!) then get thee to the bookstore/wherever you buy your fix and pick up one of the many Jack Reacher books by Lee Child. Heck, pick up all of them. In particular, read Killing Floor. Then come back and read Don’t Know Jack. This story picks up the other from the point of view of Kim and Gaspar, FBI agents assigned to build a file on Jack Reacher. The problem is, as anyone who knows Reacher can attest, he lives completely off the grid. No cell phone, no house, no car…he’s not tied down. A pretty daunting task, then, wouldn’t you say?

  First lines: “Just the facts. And not many of them, either. Jack Reacher’s file was too stale and too thin to be credible. No human could be as invisible as Reacher appeared to be, whether he was currently above the ground or under it. Either the file had been sanitized, or Reacher was the most off-the-grid paranoid Kim Otto had ever heard of.” Right away, I’m sensing who Kim Otto is and I’m delighted that I know something she doesn’t. You see, I DO know Jack. And I know he’s not paranoid. Not really. I know why he lives as he does, and I know what kind of man he is. I loved having that over Kim and Gaspar. If you haven’t read any Reacher novels, then this will feel like a good, solid story in its own right. If you have…oh if you have, then you, too, will feel like you have a one-up on the FBI. It’s a fun feeling!

  “Kim and Gaspar are sent to Margrave by a mysterious boss who reminds me of Charlie, in Charlie’s Angels. You never see him…you hear him. He never gives them all the facts. So they are left with a big pile of nothing. They end up embroiled in a murder case that seems connected to Reacher somehow, but they can’t see how. Suffice to say the efforts to find the murderer and Reacher, and not lose their own heads in the process, makes for an entertaining read.

  “I love the way the author handled the entire story. The pacing is dead on (okay another pun intended), the story is full of twists and turns like a Reacher novel would be, but it’s another viewpoint of a Reacher story. It’s an outside-in approach to Reacher.

  “You might be asking, do they find him? Do they finally meet the infamous Jack Reacher?

  “Go…read…now…find out!”

  Sounds great, right? You can get it HERE. Check out “Don’t Know Jack,” and let me know what you think.

  So that’s it for now…again, thanks for reading THE AFFAIR, and I hope you’ll like A WANTED MAN just as much in September.

  Lee Child