Page 116 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

Kim shook her head. “No chance. But they’ll be identified when the bodies are located.”

Russell nodded again. “Will they find any bullets from your weapon when they do the autopsies?”

“Self-defense. He shot at me first,” Kim replied quietly.

“How are you planning to prove that?” Russell asked.

After a moment, she said, “I’ll leave that issue to Cooper.”

The ambulance siren sounded in the distance, coming closer.

“Good. It’s long past time to put Cooper in the picture. But we also need to go,” Russell said. “Our SUV’s over there. I can’t remove the pressure I’m applying to Chang’s wounds until the ambulance gets here. But let’s be ready to move. They won’t need us. We don’t know anything about Chang’s medical history, anyway.”

“If they don’t see us, they won’t know we were here?” Kim offered a wry smile.

“Something like that,” Russell replied.

“We could be back in the US before they figure out who we are. It’ll take them a while to identify everybody,” Kim said, warming to the realities. “They might never find the gun that put a bullet in that third gunman, data bases being what they are.”

“Exactly,” Russell nodded.

“Okay. I have to check something. You wait here for the ambulance. I’ll come back to pick you up,” Kim said, heading toward the SUV.

“Where are you going?” Russell called to her. When she didn’t reply, he yelled, “Don’t be late.”

Kim was already seated behind the wheel of the SUV. She pulled the seat up and didn’t bother to adjust the mirrors.

She turned the SUV around and pointed the nose toward the cabin. She’d seen a side road on the navigation system earlier. It led to the base of the gorge, where the creek ran out into the woods and eventually ended at the Niagara River.

Hikers could enter the Devil’s Punchbowl from there.

The big man had probably ended up there. She might even catch him along the access road.

On some level, she knew hers was a fool’s errand. But Chang had been the driver behind the wheel of that sedan. So where was Reacher?

He had to be the guy who jumped out of Chang’s vehicle and scrabbled down into the gorge. Didn’t he?

Who else could it have been? Everyone else working with Chang on this drone situation was already dead.

Which meant Reacher could be down there along the creek bed now.

She could find him. Finally.

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Chapter 45

Saturday, June 4

Devil’s Punchbowl, Ontario, CA

Kim drove along the dirt road until she found the turnoff to the lower gorge trail. She pulled the SUV into the unpaved parking lot and shut down the engine.

She heard the sound of running water from the creek bed. Following the sounds and the signs, she found the trailhead.

The ground sloped gently upward along the creek bed. Kim hiked over the rocky path, slipping on the wet stones occasionally. She watched for evidence that the area had been disturbed recently, just in case the big man had already passed through.

He might have reached this point and moved on to help Chang.

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