by Mike Ryan
Hard Target
By
Mike Ryan
Copyright 2017, Mike Ryan
This book is a work of fiction and comes entirely from the mind of the author. Any similarities to any person, place, thing, or situation is completely coincidental and unintentional. No part of this book may be reproduced in any way without the written permission of the author.
Cover Design by The Cover Collection
Edited by A Fading Street
Formatted by LK Campbell
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
About the author:
Chapter 1
It’d been three months since the day Recker found the body of Susan Hanley, stuffed in the trunk of her Honda Civic. Against his better judgment, he never sought revenge or retribution for the killing of Mia’s friend. Though he disagreed with the professor’s feelings, he nevertheless went along with Jones’ desires. Recker pledged that if the police hadn’t solved the murder and arrested the culprit by this time, that he’d get back on the case to do his own justice. Unfortunately for him, his own cases seemed to be never ending and he couldn’t get back to the investigation of Hanley’s murder. In the last couple of months, Recker never even had more than one day off to just relax, let alone the time he’d need to look into the Hanley case.
Though he didn’t know the Hanley woman personally, with her being a friend of Mia’s, it ate away at Recker that a killer was out there on the loose. Mia asked him constantly if he had the time to work on her friend’s death. Over the past three months, she had become increasingly frustrated over the lack of police progress on the situation. Every time she called the police to speak to the investigators, she felt like they were giving her the runaround. She felt that they were nowhere near solving the case and she was sure they were not even investigating it any more. They didn’t seem to have any leads and she wondered if they’d just moved on to other cases that they felt were more solvable. Even though she had pestered Recker at least three times a week to enquire about Hanley’s case, he tried not to get too annoyed by it, even though it sometimes took his focus off the cases he was working on now. He understood how frustrated she’d become. He felt it too.
Sitting in the diner of Joe’s, one of their frequent meeting places, Recker could only assume that the Hanley case would be one of the first things that Mia brought up. Though she hadn’t mentioned it the day before when she asked him to meet her for lunch, he figured he was going to hear questions about it today. Since she was running a few minutes late due to traffic, she’d already texted him to let him know she’d be there soon. Sitting there by himself, though, gave Recker some time to himself to think. With all the cases he’d been working lately and how busy he was, just taking a few minutes to think was something he didn’t get much time to do.
Recker looked out the window and watched a younger couple getting into their car. For some reason; possibly the woman’s blonde hair that bore a striking resemblance to Carrie’s, his thoughts turned back to her. He thought about a few of the good times that they’d shared together. But those thoughts quickly turned darker when he thought about that fateful night back in London. He replayed the conversation he had with Agent 17 in his mind, over and over again. Though he was looking out the window, he wasn’t seeing anything. In his mind, he was picturing what Agent 17 looked like as he had that conversation over the phone. Recker clenched his jaw tighter as his body embraced the tension that was flowing through him. Then, the image he had of Agent 17 slowly faded away as Recker’s mind turned to other things. He thought about the professor’s software program, that was supposed to be helping find and identify Carrie’s killer. With how busy they’d become, Recker had put the search out of his mind as he focused on helping the people in the city he was now in. But as he sat there thinking about it, he was becoming more agitated at the fact that Jones still hadn’t found Agent 17 yet. Of course, the professor could have found him already and he just didn’t want to reveal it to Recker yet with the amount of cases they had on the table. But Recker also knew that Jones was reluctant to participate in the search anyway. He was starting to think that unless he pestered Jones continuously about it, that the professor would never make it a priority. Jones would always find a way to put it on the back burner if Recker let him. Recker thought about the last time he asked about how the search was going. It’d probably been about a month, and it was only in passing as they were in the middle of another kidnapping case. He remembered Jones not saying much about it, just indicating that they were close.
As he sat there thinking about it, he determined that when lunch with Mia was done, he was going back to the office to confront Jones about his lack of haste in finding what was so important to Recker. He would accept no excuses or delays, and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. After all, finding Agent 17 was one of the conditions Recker insisted on when he agreed to join Jones’ crusade. If he didn’t like Jones’ answer, then Recker would seriously consider leaving on the spot to go find the one person on earth that he hated like no other.
Recker was so deep in thought that he never even saw or heard Mia sit down across from him. She hurriedly rushed into the diner and sat down, knowing that Recker usually didn’t have an overabundance of time on his hands. Once she settled in, she sighed and looked at him, noticing that he was obviously somewhere else since he didn’t pay her even the slightest bit of attention. Seeing that he was looking out the window, Mia glanced out herself, wondering if something was going on out there. Not noticing anything strange, she looked back at him, curious as to what was going through that mind of his. In the time that they’d known each other, she noticed that he sometimes seemed to get lost in another moment and she often wondered just where exactly his mind went. Mia cleared her throat, hoping the noise would awaken him from whatever trance he was in, but he still paid her no mind. Though part of her wasn’t sure whether she should wake him, as part of her worried that in these moments of his, he was taken back to some violent moment in his life. Seeing Recker’s hand resting on the table, she reached her hand across and gently placed it on top of his. Feeling her touch, his concentration was broken and he turned to look at her, somewhat surprised to see her sitting there.
“Hey, when’d you get here?” he asked.
“Oh, like an hour ago,” Mia teased.
“Really?”
“No. I just got here a minute ago.”
“Oh. I didn’t even notice you come in.”
“Yeah, I could tell. Everything OK?” she said, sensing that he wasn’t totally there.
“Yeah, yeah. Was just thinking about something.”
“Anything you wanna talk about?”
“Nope.”
“Thought so.”
They ordered some food and spent the next few minutes small talking, neither saying anything of much substance. Mia figured she’d wait a little while until she dropped the news on him as she was sure he wouldn’t like what she had to tell him. She waited until they finished eating before she spat out what was on her mind. Part of her was nervous to talk to him about it, knowing he would vehemently disapprove of her actions.
“Have you heard anything about Susie’s case lately?” she said, keeping her tone light deliberately, and running her fingers through her hair as a distraction.
R
ecker just shook his head. “No. Nothing new. Police still don’t seem to have any leads to work from.”
“They don’t seem to be trying very hard.”
“I know it’s tough for you,” Recker said.
“Yeah. That’s why I started doing something about it on my own.”
Recker squinted his eyes slightly, unsure what she meant, but not liking the sound of it. “What exactly have you done?”
“I started looking into some things.”
“Such as?”
“Just going through her contacts, appointments, and clients to see if she had a relationship with anybody outside of work. Or maybe if any of them have a particularly violent past,” Mia said, squirming uncomfortably on her seat in readiness for Recker’s response.
Recker made a face and sighed, clearly unhappy. “Mia, we’ve already done that. When we were looking for her, we checked the backgrounds of all her clients. Only a couple had any type of criminal background and those that did, were home at the time she disappeared.”
“I know. That’s why I dug a little further.”
“You what?”
She cleared her throat as she explained. Even when Recker didn’t try to be, knowing his past history, he could be an intimidating figure. And she knew he didn’t approve of anything she said or was about to say.
“I started digging into the backgrounds of some of the relatives of some of her clients,” Mia stated.
“Mia.”
“Don’t Mia me. One of my best friends, someone I’ve known since college, someone I was roommates with, was killed and stuffed in a car,” she said, on the verge of crying. “It’s been three months since she was found and nobody, including you, seems to give a damn about what happened to her. The police don’t seem to care, you give me the runaround, what else am I supposed to do?”
Knowing she was frustrated, Recker tried to be patient with her. “I know you’re hurt and angry, but you can’t do this.”
“Why?”
“To be perfectly honest, you don’t know what you’re doing.
“Well someone has to do something. Nobody else is.”
“Let the authorities handle it.”
“We both know that if they haven’t found who did it by now, the odds are only going to get worse as time moves on,” Mia said.
“Maybe. But you’re not equipped to do this.”
“Well I’ve already started. I can’t just go on living, knowing that Susie’s killer is out there roaming the streets and no one seems to care.”
“I told you that I would start looking into it as soon as I got some free time,” Recker said, trying hard to stay patient.
“Which is never. Mike, you never have free time. It almost takes an act of God for you to just take a few minutes to have lunch with me,” she replied in frustration.
Recker looked down at the table. The comment stung a little bit even though he knew she wasn’t wrong and was well within her rights to feel that way. Mia read his face and saw that she’d hurt him a little bit with her words.
“I’m…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that,” Mia said.
“Yes you did. It’s OK. You’re not wrong.”
“I know you’re busy and you have a lot on your plate. Not that you ever talk much about what’s on it. But I know you’re stretched thin already and I’ve already asked you more than I should about it. And I know it’s not your job to look into my own personal things so I’m not even going to ask you anymore.”
Recker took a few seconds to think of something to try and convince her to not pursue her intentions any further.
“What do you think’s going to happen if you actually find something?” Recker asked.
“If I get close enough to actually start putting some pieces together then I’ll take what I’ve learned to the police.”
“If you get that far.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mia wondered.
“Because you’re not a trained investigator. You’re not experienced in this line of work. You make one wrong move, take one wrong step, and it could be last. If you start looking into things and ruffle the wrong feathers, you might be the next one that’s stuffed in the trunk of a car,” Recker warned.
“I’m willing to take that chance.”
“I’m not willing to let you take that chance.”
“Mike, you’re not gonna stop me,” she told him.
“I’m not gonna let you do this and possibly get yourself killed.”
“Would it really matter to you?”
Recker leaned back, trying not to let her hurtful words get to him. He knew it was more frustration and emotion talking than anything.
“You know I care about you or else I wouldn’t be here,” Recker said.
“I know. I shouldn’t have said it. I guess I’m not feeling myself today,” she sorrowfully replied.
“I promise you that I will start looking into it.”
“When?”
“As soon as I get some time.”
Mia rolled her eyes and sighed, weary from hearing that line before. “I know you mean well, Mike, but I don’t want to wait forever for you. I’m gonna keep looking into things on my own. If you get some free time tomorrow, or next week, or next month, then great. But I can’t wait for you.”
Recker also sighed, knowing there was nothing he could say that was going to change her mind. They sat there for a few more minutes, mostly in silence, both of them rather uncomfortable after their exchange. Eventually, Mia excused herself, saying she had to go home and get ready for work, having the night shift. Recker wasn’t sure she was being truthful or whether she was about to do something that both of them would regret by investigating on her own. Recker didn’t take his eyes off her as she walked out of the diner. He watched out the window as Mia got into her car and drove away.
Recker sat there for a little while longer, just thinking about the conversation they just had. He felt like he had let Mia down. He thought he should’ve done what he wanted to do in the first place and bring Hanley’s killer to justice. If he had, then Mia wouldn’t be in the obvious amount of pain that she was. Recker didn’t blame her a bit for the way she was talking or feeling. He thought back to how he felt in the days after he learned that somebody had killed Carrie. Or the pain that he was still feeling. He didn’t think that losing a friend, even a close one, was comparable to losing a wife or husband, a parent, a child, or even a brother or sister. But he knew the pain could still be severe. Severe enough for someone to do something that they shouldn’t. Something such as seeking revenge or trying to investigate matters on their own when they were clearly out of their element.
He knew he couldn’t let her do what she was planning, at least not alone. Recker was the only one who could help her, outside of the police, who seemed to have put the case on the back burner. He was going to go back to the office immediately to let Jones know that he had to get back on the case and insist that it wasn’t up for debate. He knew the professor would likely try to talk him out of it once more, but Recker couldn’t let that happen again. And while he was at it, he was going to have a much sterner conversation about the whereabouts and progress, or lack thereof, about Agent 17. Recker was through waiting and getting the runaround. There was something tugging at him that Jones had already found Agent 17 and was just holding off on telling him out of fear that Recker would leave immediately.
Once Recker got back to the office, Jones could instantly tell that something was wrong. Recker had the face of someone who was about to blow his cool, a mad scowl seeming to be permanently attached. Recker walked up to the desk and stopped, not saying a word. He just stared at the professor.
“I was going to ask how your lunch was but by the look of your face I’d say it didn’t go so well,” Jones stated.
“We need to have a talk.”
“Oh?” Jones asked, fearful of the subject they were about to embark on. “About?”
“Two different subjects,” Recker an
swered.
“I take it one of them will involve Mia?”
“It does.”
“OK, let’s start with that then,” Jones said. “What exactly is the problem with her?”
“She’s hurting and she’s angry. It’s been three months and nobody seems to give a damn that her friend was killed.”
“We both know that’s not the case.”
“Isn’t it?” Recker asked. “If you’d have let me done what I wanted to when I found her body, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now.”
“We both know that it was for the best that we left it alone.”
“No, we don’t know that. I don’t. The police have put the case on the back burner. You told me yourself the last time you hacked into the police files the other day that they hadn’t even updated the case files in a month,” Recker said. “They’ve moved on.”
“We had other cases…our own cases, to work on,” Jones responded. “As I said, we’re not in the revenge business.”
“But we are in the helping business. And right now we need to help Mia.”
“In what regards?”
“She’s out there investigating on her own. She’s starting to talk to people and look at things,” Recker revealed, getting a sigh out of Jones who knew that was a bad idea.
“So what do you suggest?” Jones asked.
“We both know that she’s not gonna let this go. And it might not be right away, maybe it’ll take some time, but we both know she’s intelligent, resourceful, stubborn, and persistent. Eventually, if she pursues this, and she will, she’s gonna strike a nerve with someone. She’ll talk to someone who knows something. And that someone will get jumpy. And that’s going to put her in danger.”
Though Jones empathized with Recker’s position, he wasn’t so sure the situation was as dire as his friend was predicting. After all, Mia wasn’t a trained investigator. Jones wasn’t sure she’d get far into her investigation at all.
“At the risk of sounding cold hearted and uncaring, what makes you so sure that she won’t give up after a week, despondent that she’s unable to turn up anything of consequence?” Jones wondered.