Jack the Reaper, page 10
“You’re mocking me. Corruption should definitely be exposed. There are legal ways to do that. I’m in favor of using them. I’m a lawyer. What else would I say?” She finished her coffee and picked up the menu. Gaspar glanced at his, too. The server came back with more coffee and took their orders.
“Here’s what worries me.” She leaned across the table after the server left, lowering her voice. “These leakers expose private data that can cause real harm to people. Hard to stuff the genie back in the bottle.”
“This particular genie is already out there now. And besides that, we aren’t handling the TrueLeaks case. We’ve got our own problems.” Gaspar stretched his bad leg into the narrow aisle between tables. “The Boss found references to Reacher in those leaked files. We have our orders.”
“That’s what I want to talk about.” She glanced around. The restaurant was filling up, but none of the tables nearby were occupied yet. “The transcript of that recorded telephone conversation between Brewer and Pauling. Brewer wanted Pauling to meet with Reacher. The chat was short and to the point. Brewer and Pauling were both circumspect. Brewer didn’t tell Pauling much at all. She didn’t ask many questions.”
“They’re a couple of cops. Nothing unusual about cops getting to the point and getting off the horn.” Gaspar folded his hands and nodded. “And Brewer confirmed all of it today when we interviewed him. I don’t see the problem here. What’s your point?”
“The Boss said the files we received were part of the recent TrueLeaks dump. Maybe they were.” She paused for another sip of coffee, wondering if he’d noticed on his own. If he had, he didn’t act like it.
“But why was the Brewer/Pauling conversation recorded in the first place?”
Gaspar shrugged.
“Come on, think about it. You know that’s odd.” Otto also knew Gaspar wasn’t the least bit stupid. So maybe she was reading too much into the anomaly. “One call. Only one. Took place sixteen months ago. Neither Brewer nor Pauling were involved in any military related activities at the time.”
“As far as we know,” Gaspar said. “Somebody at Treasury is looking at him, apparently.”
“Right. Hold that thought.” She raised a palm. “As far as we know, Brewer was honorably discharged from the army a couple of decades ago and has been at the NYPD all that time.” Otto took a breath. “Pauling never served in the military or worked for a military contractor. She was FBI until she retired. And she retired five years before this jackpot conversation took place.”
Gaspar frowned. “So what? The Boss found the needle in a haystack. The one call that mattered to him. That’s explained if he set triggers for Reacher’s name everywhere. Which would be the smart thing to do if he’s trying to find Reacher, don’t you think?”
“I do think that’s what happened. I agree.” She nodded.
“Then what? What are you getting at?”
She took another deep breath. If Gaspar didn’t see it, maybe she was off base here. She didn’t want her bias to be confirmed. She wanted the facts confirmed. “So why was the Brewer/Pauling conversation swept up at all?”
“How the hell should I know? We don’t even know where the TrueLeaks stuff came from. Which means we don’t know who was listening. We can’t know why if we don’t know who.” Gaspar scowled. “You know how this job works as well as I do, Otto. The Boss tells us what he wants us to know, no more and no less. We go from there. Simple as that.”
“And that’s just fine with you?”
“You know it’s not. You also know there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.” He inhaled about a gallon of air. “Look, I’ve got five kids and a wife and twenty years to go before I can relax. The only thing I can do is hang on. Show up. Follow orders.”
Otto cocked her head and tried leading him in the right direction. “TrueLeaks released millions of documents less than a week ago. Most of them have not been reviewed yet.” Otto paused, but Gaspar seemed to remain clueless and unwilling to speculate. “Yet, the Boss has already located this single phone conversation and tasked us with following up? Does that seem likely to you?”
“He has his fingers in a lot of pies. Reacher’s name comes up somewhere, no matter how tangential it is, and one of the many minions at his disposal lets him know.”
“Likely.” Otto nodded. “And then what?”
Gaspar shrugged again. “I’m number two, remember? Thinking through all this stuff is your job.”
“Okay. Here’s one scenario.” Otto nodded. “He gets the recorded chat between them. He does a quick background check on both Brewer and Pauling. Something he found caused him to send us here.”
“Makes sense. Sure. Why not?”
“So what was it? What did he find?” She cocked her head. “Why are we here?”
Gaspar grinned. “I take it you don’t mean that in the existential sense.”
Otto smiled back. “You have me confused with my mother. She’s the spiritual one.”
The server returned with their food. Steak and potatoes and a bread basket for Gaspar. Broiled fish and grilled veggies for Otto.
“Bon appétit!” he said before he dished ahead.
Otto shook her head. She’d never cease to be amazed at how much Gaspar could pack away. And she came from farmers. Four brothers, and an extended family with more than its share of oversized people. Nobody she knew could eat as much as the rail-thin Gaspar. Honestly, the guy must have a tapeworm or something.
Gaspar stuffed half of a redskin potato in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Otto smiled again. Usually, he consumed his food fast, as if he’d never get another meal. He’d paused for almost three full seconds. He must have been seriously considering her point.
“So let’s assume that the stuff leaked from a low-level employee. Not active military. A military contractor, because the most recent TrueLeaks document dumps have come from outside the government employee base.” He put down his fork.
First time she’d ever seen that happen while food remained on his plate. Could be a good sign.
“Agreed.” She nodded and continued to chew the salmon.
“Here’s where it gets murky.” He leaned in. “Let’s also assume that this one phone conversation between Brewer and Pauling resulted from illegal surveillance. Someone or something that is somehow related to military corruption inside the government employee base.”
Made sense that the tap was illegal. Otto considered the suggestion, swallowed, and nodded. “Go on.”
“The Brewer/Pauling call was most likely swept up by mistake. Probably happened close in time to one they intended to monitor.” He paused, and she nodded. “So one of them, either Brewer or Pauling, must have been talking with a targeted caller before Brewer placed the Reacher call to Pauling.”
She thought about it. “Capturing the Reacher conversation was a lucky fluke?”
He shrugged. “It happens. You know it does.”
“Maybe. Say you’re right.” She spoke slowly. “Who was actually being watched? Because I don’t see either Brewer or Pauling as the target of any legitimate military corruption investigation. Do you?”
“Beats the hell outta me.” Gaspar paused to think it through before he shook his head again. “But if neither Brewer nor Pauling was the target, then that means one of them was consorting with high-level military personnel and got unintentionally snared.”
Otto nodded. “That’s how I’m reading the situation.”
“But was it Brewer? Or Pauling?”
“This TrueLeaks thing is very, very broad.” Otto swallowed another bite. Her queasy stomach was feeling better since she’d added food to the coffee and antacids. “Could go either way.”
“How’s that?” Gaspar must have solved his issues because he began shoveling his food into his mouth again at an amazing rate of speed.
She’d come up with a couple of guesses. “Brewer is NYPD.”
Gaspar nodded.
“Those detectives don’t make a lot of money and living in New York is expensive. He could be doing some moonlighting,” she said. “Working security for out-of-town VIPs or something like that.”
Gaspar raised one eyebrow and kept eating.
“Maybe VIPs connected to the UN or attached to one of the embassies. If his contact was being monitored, he could’ve been swept up, along with the pizza delivery service and the guy’s kids, and who knows who.”
Gaspar closed his eyes to think about it, but he didn’t stop chewing. Half his food was gone already. Otto had barely touched hers. “I can buy that. Brewer seemed pretty straight with us. Confirmed what we knew. Raised nothing questionable. Volunteered info on Pauling.”
“And that would explain, maybe, why Treasury is looking at Brewer. Maybe his name came up in the TrueLeaks stuff in some other way besides this conversation with Pauling.” But she didn’t agree with his assessment completely. Brewer hadn’t told them everything he knew about Reacher. Not even close. No reason to argue about that just yet.
“I don’t think Brewer would be knowingly involved in illegal activities, though. He’s too close to a full pension, for one thing.” Gaspar popped the last bite of steak into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “He didn’t seem like a dirty cop to me, anyway.”
“Which is too bad.” She nodded. “Because that would be the easy answer. And it would explain Treasury’s interest.”
He noticed the fish and veggies chilling on her plate. “Want me to finish that for you?”
“No.” She raised her fork and stabbed something without looking.
He grinned. He’d told her many times that she didn’t eat enough to keep a bird alive. He disapproved of women who didn’t eat. No father of four daughters would feel differently. “What’s your theory on Pauling?”
“I don’t know.” Otto’s words came slowly. “Her background looks good. She was with the Bureau for quite a while, and she did well inside. She retired with a solid resume. The New York field office was sorry to see her go. I checked.”
“All of which means she was a great agent.” He nodded slowly, watching her eat like a drill sergeant keeping her on track. “But that was a long time ago. She could’ve gone south since then.”
“She could have. We can’t rule it out.” Otto took another couple of bites of her food and pushed the plate across to him. “Not until we have a chance to evaluate her.”
He set into her food as if he hadn’t eaten in ten years instead of ten minutes. “So you’re saying you think there’s more to Pauling than meets the eye.”
Otto nodded slowly. “Possibly.”
He sopped up her plate with the last piece of bread, and both plates now looked as if they’d been through the dishwasher already. “Let’s assume you’re right. You figure the Boss knows more than he’s telling.”
“Like you said, that’s the usual situation, isn’t it?” She scowled. “Every single time he sends us somewhere, there’s trouble around the corner. It’s like he knows that specific trouble is on the way. Why should this be any different?”
“What trouble is on the way this time, you figure?”
“What else? Reacher trouble. Something Reacher did before leads to something going down now. In this case, something that involved Brewer and Pauling happened sixteen months ago, give or take. And it’s safe to guess that the Boss didn’t know about any of this until this TrueLeaks dump put a spotlight on the situation.” She stopped for a breath. “Because if he’d known about whatever it was before, he’d have sent us here sooner.”
“Maybe.” Gaspar nodded. “Problem is Pauling’s location. Do we go after her or not?”
“I think Bishop was right. The guy he saw at the Dakota this morning with Peck was not Reacher.” Otto took another, deeper breath before she said, slowly. “I don’t believe Reacher is in New York City.”
Gaspar cocked his head. “You think he’s somewhere with Pauling?”
She shrugged. She didn’t think Reacher was with Pauling. Unfortunately.
“Come on, Sunshine. Spit it out. What’s bugging you?” When she didn’t answer immediately, he frowned. “Look, either you trust me, or you don’t. Which is it?”
“You already know I believe Reacher’s alive.” She stalled, but not because she didn’t trust him. Their relationship had grown way beyond trust. He’d saved her life, and she’d saved his. More than once. She trusted him absolutely. That wasn’t the problem.
The problem was, if she said she’d smelled Reacher in her bedroom at four in the morning, he’d think she was insane.
He might be right.
Once she told him, she couldn’t put that genie back in the bottle, either.
She wasn’t ready to say the words aloud.
Not yet.
She told him half the truth instead. “I think Reacher was in Detroit last night. He might still be there.”
Gaspar nodded. “Got any evidence?”
“Just a hunch so far.”
Gaspar had a healthy respect for hunches. “Based on what?”
“The Boss called you on one of his cell phones. You downloaded your files from the secure satellite. He arranged your flight, and you did the rest on your own. As usual. Right?”
Gaspar nodded again, coaxing her to continue, waiting until she could spit it out.
“He didn’t do that with me.” She took a calming breath. “He showed up at my apartment this morning before daylight.”
“That’s not exactly a smoking gun.”
“He was wearing…strange clothes. Some kind of weird disguise.”
Gaspar’s eyebrows popped up. “What kind of disguise?”
“A wide-brimmed hat. Collar turned up. Hunting clothes.” She paused for another breath. “And sunglasses. Inside the building. While it was still full dark outside.”
“Okay, that’s strange. I agree.” Gaspar cocked his head. “But there could be a thousand reasons why he came in person instead of calling. Maybe he was already in Detroit. On a hunting trip. Or maybe even working on the TrueLeaks thing.”
She arched her eyebrows, mocking his favorite incredulous expression. “Has he ever delivered an assignment to your home? Personally? Because this was a first for me. And I’ve never heard of him doing that to anyone before. Have you?”
Gaspar shrugged, which she took to mean he didn’t want to admit she was right. She understood. She didn’t want to believe her conclusion, either. But she’d been over it in her head a thousand times, and there was only one likely explanation.
The Boss had come to her home in the wee hours, dressed to avoid recognition, for one reason only.
Because he thought Reacher was there. Nothing else would have motivated him to behave in such an odd and out of character way.
And even worse, she believed Reacher had been there, too.
A few minutes of silent thinking passed while they finished the last of the coffee and Gaspar paid the bill. Otto noticed the buzz of indistinct conversations surrounding them. The restaurant was full. People were waiting for tables.
Gaspar returned his credit card to his wallet. “You’re number one. It’s your call. What do you want to do?”
What she should do was make a full report to the Boss on the Brewer interview, say Pauling was unavailable, and wrap things up. Gaspar should go back to his family. She should return to Detroit and get a new apartment with better security. Maybe a new job, too.
She squared her shoulders and looked steadily at her partner. “Let’s find Pauling. She’s the key to this thing. Like you said, she could be with Reacher right now. If she is, we can find him and get some answers.”
“It’s not our assignment to find him. We’re just filling out the paperwork, remember?” Gaspar quirked one eyebrow this time. “Besides, I thought you didn’t want to find him.”
“I’ve changed my mind.” She glanced at the door where the line of waiting diners snaked around the corner. She tossed her napkin on the table and grabbed her laptop case. “Let’s stash these laptops here. I’m tired of dealing with them.”
“As you wish, Dragon Lady Boss,” Gaspar wisecracked. But he grabbed his laptop and followed along. They stopped at a row of lockers, shoved the bags inside, and pocketed the keys.
They hustled toward the 42nd Street exit and joined the taxi line. It was full dark now, but the city’s lights were almost as bright as weak January sunlight. She stuffed her hands in her pockets and stomped her feet to avoid their freezing to the pavement while they waited.
Gaspar placed a few calls, first to Brewer, who didn’t answer. Then, attempting to find the first taxi driver and their stolen travel bags. She tuned him out while she ran through their options.
At this point, she could only think of two. She could call the Boss, which she rejected immediately. He already knew everything she might report, and he hadn’t called her. Which meant he either couldn’t or wouldn’t have anything helpful to add. Contacting him would be futile as well as infuriating.
The second choice was the only choice, really. Whether she wanted to admit it or not.
Gaspar disconnected his call. “Maybe they’ll find the guy. But don’t hold your breath.”
Otto smiled, but her heart wasn’t in it. They were finally at the front of the line. A taxi pulled up. She opened the door and scooted across the bench seat. Gaspar followed her inside and closed the door.
“Where to?” the driver asked.
Gaspar turned to her. “Where are we going?”
“You don’t want to know.” Which was true. And he wouldn’t be thrilled about the destination whether she told him or not. Why suffer his outrage twice?
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Thursday, January 13
6:05 p.m.
Stanwix Village, New York
Parnell parked the rental in front of a row of rectangular homes clad in white vinyl siding resting on concrete slab foundations. Probably manufactured somewhere and trailered here, he figured. Each building was thirty-feet by eighty-feet, give or take. A horizontal wall divided the buildings in half, creating two homes under one roof. Each duplex unit was thirty-by-forty, about twelve-hundred square feet of utilitarian living space.
