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A Humvee is a very wide vehicle, and it was on a very narrow dirt road It alreen and black cae colors, and it was very clean Maybe brand new
I walked toward it and it came to a stop and the uy climbed down He was in woodland-pattern BDUs and clean boots Since before the start of my career, battledress unifores of rank, and like everything else in the army the definition of subdued had been specified within an inch of its life, to the point where names and ranks were unreadable from more than three or four feet away An officer-led initiative, for sure Officers worried about snipers picking theotten out of the Humvee Could have been a private first class, could have been a two-star general Three-stars and above don&039;t drive themselves Not usually Not on business Not off duty either They don&039;t dothemselves
But I had a clear preuy was An easy conclusion, actually Who else was authorized to be out and about? He even looked likeIt was like looking in a mirror, except he was five yearsaround with plenty of energy An i and overexuberant The sae would have said I looked old and overtired Such was the contrast between us
He watched me approach, curious about who I was, curious about a white awp until I was six feet away My eyesight is as good as it ever was, and I can read subdued tapes froht sunlit Mississippi afternoons
His tapes said: Munro US Army
He had little tan oak leaves on his collar, to shoas a e pattern as his blouse and his pants He had fine lines around his eyes, which were about the only evidence he wasn&039;t born yesterday
I had the advantage, because my shirt was plain Civilian issue No name tape So I stood there for a moment in silence I could smell diesel froine tick as it cooled I could hear the breeze in Emmeline McClatchy&039;s shade tree
Then I stuck out my hand and said, "Jack Reacher"
He took it and said, "Duncan Munro"
I asked, "What brings you here?"
He said, "Let&039;s sit in the truck a spell"
A Humvee is equally wide inside, but antic transmission tunnel The front seats are s in adjacent traffic lanes I think the separation suited both our "
I said, "The situation is always changing Get used to it"
"The officer in question has been relieved of his command"
"Reed Riley?"
"We&039;re not supposed to use that na to know? You think this truck is wired for sound?"
"I&039; to maintain protocol"
"Was that him in the Blackhawk?"
Munro nodded "He&039;s on his way back to Benning Then they&039;re going to move him on and hide him away so panic two hours ago The phone lines were burning up I don&039;t knohy"
"Kelham just lost its quarantine force, that&039;s why"
"That again? There never was a quarantine force I told you that"
"I just met thee?"
"But less professional"
"Why do people do stupid shit like that?"
"They envy our glamorous lives"
"What happened to them?"
"I chased them away"
"So then so to be popular"
"I don&039;t want to be popular I want to get the job done This is the arh school"
"He&039;s a senator&039;s son He&039;shis name Did you know the Marine Corps employs lobbyists?"
I said, "I heard that"
"This was our version"
I looked out myat the McClatchy place, at its low roof, itstree I asked, "Why did you come here?"
"Same reason you chased the yahoos away," Munro said "I&039;et the job done"
"In ay?"
"I checked out the other tomen you mentioned There were FYI memos in the XO&039;s files Then I cross-referenced bits and pieces of infor the way It see of a ladies&039; irlfriends longer than my dick It&039;s likely both Janice Chapman and Shawna Lindsay were on the list I want to see if Rosemary McClatchy will make it three for three"
"That&039;s why I&039;m here, too"
"Great minds think alike," Munro said "Or fools never differ"
"Did you bring his picture?"
He unbuttoned his right breast pocket, just below his name He pulled out a sliraph froth across the transmission tunnel
Captain Reed Riley The first tiraph was in color, possibly taken for a passport or soear or other visual obstructions He looked to be in his late twenties He was broad but chiseled, somewhere halfway between bulky and slender He was tan and had very white teeth, sorin He had brown hair buzzed short, and wise empty eyes creased at the corners ebs of fine lines He looked steady, competent, hard, and full of shit He looked exactly like every infantry captain I had ever seen
I handed the picture back, arth across the transet a definitive ID I bet all Rangers look the same to old Mrs McClatchy"
"Only one way to find out," Munro said, and opened his door I got out on my side and waited while he looped around the stubby hood He said, "I&039;ll tell you so Soht like to know Sheriff Deveraux is not a lesbian She&039;s a notch on Riley&039;s bedpost too Apparently they were dating less than a year ago"
And then he walked on ahead of me, to Emmeline McClatchy&039;s door
Emmeline McClatchy opened up after Munro&039;s second knock She greeted us with polite reserve She remembered me from before She paid close attention as Munro introduced himself, and then she invited us inside, to a small room that had tooden wheelback chairs either side of a fireplace, and a rag rug on the floor The ceiling was low and the dimensions were cramped and the air sraphs on the wall One was Martin Luther King, and one was President Clinton, and the third was Rosemary McClatchy, from the same series as the picture I had seen in the Sheriff&039;s Department&039;s file, but possibly even more spectacular A friend with a camera, one roll of film, a sunny afternoon, a frame, a hammer, and a nail, and that was all that was left of a life
Emmeline and I took the chairs by the fireplace and left Munro standing on the rug In the tiny roo as I felt, and just as aard, and just as cluraph froainst his chest He said, "Mrs McClatchy, we need to ask you about your daughter Rosemary&039;s friends"
Ehter Rosemary had lots of friends"
Munro said, "In particular one young "
"Seeing?"
"Stepping out with Dating, in other words"
"Let me see the picture"
Munro bent down and handed it over She held it this way and that in the light from theShe studied it She asked, "Is this irl?"
Munro said, "We&039;re not sure We can&039;t rule hiht pictures to ht pictures to Mrs Lindsay when Shaas killed Why is that?"
Munro said, "Because the army made a bad mistake There&039;s no excuse for it All I can say is it would have been different if I had been involved back then Or Major Reacher here Beyond that, all I can do is apologize"
She looked at hiain and said, "This man&039;s naiment Rosemary said he commanded Bravo Co?"
"Alether"
"Was he?"
"Men will say anything to get what they want"
"When did it end?"
"Teeks before she was killed"
"Why did it end?"
"She didn&039;t tell me"
"Did you have an opinion?"
Enant"
59
There was silence in the small room for a moment, and then Emmeline McClatchy said, "A mother can always tell She looked different She acted different She even smelled different At first she was happy, and then later she was ht she would coood tiet the chance"
Munro was quiet for a beat, like a mark of respect, and then he asked, "Did you ever see Captain Riley again after that?"
Emmeline McClatchy nodded "He came by to offer his condolences, a week after her body was found"
"Do you think he killed her?"
"You&039;re the police man, not me"
"I think a mother can always tell"
"Rosemary said his father was an important man She wasn&039;t sure where or how Politics, perhaps Soirlfriend was a good thing for Captain Riley, but a pregnant girlfriend wasn&039;t"
Emmeline McClatchy wouldn&039;t be pushed any further We said our goodbyes and walked back to the Hu real bad"
I asked him, "Did you speak to Shawna Lindsay&039;s mother too?"
"She wouldn&039;t say a word to me She chased me aith a stick"
"How solid is the information about Sheriff Deveraux?"
"Rock solid They dated, he ended it, she wasn&039;t happy Then Roseether"
"Was it his car that got wrecked on the track?"
"According to the Oregon DMV it was Via the plate you found A blue &039;57 Chevy A piece of shit, not a show car"
"Did he have an explanation?"
"No, he had a lawyer"