Page 119 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

This was normally the point in a case where she’d hash things out with Gaspar. If she’d been alone in the SUV, she’d have called him now.

But she didn’t have the same level of rapport with Russell. His ass wasn’t on the line like hers was. His depth of knowledge on Reacher was shallow.

What could he add that she didn’t already know?

And Russell was Secret Service. His job was to protect Finlay. Which meant he’d be duty bound to read Finlay into the case and Kim wasn’t ready for that.

She couldn’t ask Russell to keep Finlay in the dark, but she hoped he would.

Her instinct was to play the situation much closer than Russell would agree to do. Which meant she should bring Cooper up to speed and she’d be smart to do it before Russell briefed Finlay.

But what would she say, exactly?

An unidentified dead man had been dropped at her front door, so she went looking for his identity and the man who killed him.

Cooper would want a full report. He’d ask whether she’d found the killer.

She could say yes in good conscience. The skinny dude from the Niagara Falls hotel had killed Lucas Stuart. She felt confident of that, even if she couldn’t prove it.

None of the events she discovered during the rest of the case was, strictly speaking, relevant.

But she should report the Reacher connection for self-preservation reasons. Cooper would find out anyway. And when he did, he’d have her head.

Russell and Kim rode a few dozen miles in silence until he finally asked, “Where are we going?”

“Where this whole mess started. Back to my place,” she said cheekily.

Russell scowled and said no more.

Kim used her phone to send images to Gaspar. Photos of the drone as well as the gunman she’d shot in the back. Maybe Gaspar could do something with them.

She also sent an encrypted text asking Gaspar to find the Range Rover with the US State Department plates. He could hack into traffic cams and find it, surely.

Finally, she asked him for more thorough research on Liam Stuart. Whatever Stuart was involved in with the US State Department, Reacher didn’t like it.

Which meant Kim needed to know what it was.

She’d missed Reacher again. But she felt closer to finding him now than she’d been before.

And she had acquired enough intel to suggest a way forward. All of which was progress. Of a sort.

That’s what she’d say in her official report, anyway.

The drive to Port Huron, across the Blue Water Bridge, and back to Detroit consumed a few hours. When they’d stopped for gas, they’d switched drivers.

Russell dropped her off in front of her apartment building.

She climbed out and collected her bags from the back. Before she left, she said, “See you when I see you.”

“Same.” He nodded and replied, “I’ll take care of the SUV.”

“Okay.” She didn’t ask him what he planned to do with it.

Given the amount of trace evidence all over the damned thing, she assumed Russell would destroy the vehicle.

Don’t ask, don’t tell, was as good a motto for these situations as any.

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