Page 50 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

Was Skinny the man Kim had pursued on the hillside and lost? She’d never had a clear view of his face out there, but the strong churning in her gut said he was the one.

No doubt his gloved hands had been searching Westwood’s suite before Kim arrived. And destroying evidence as he went.

Half a second after Russell’s shout filled the room, the skinny man looked up, saw the threat, and reached for his gun with his right hand.

Russell shouted, “Hands up! Now!”

Skinny lifted his weapon to fire.

Kim ignored her training and aimed her Glock at his right shoulder. She didn’t want to kill him before he had a chance to answer a thousand questions.

She squeezed off a quick round before Skinny had a chance to aim or fire.

Her bullet struck exactly where she’d placed it.

He screamed and slapped his left hand over the entry wound. His gun fell from his right hand and thumped to the floor. His right arm hung useless at his side dripping blood onto the carpet.

Good. He’d be in pain, but still able to answer questions. Such as who the hell he was and why had he killed two men who only wanted to talk to her?

Half a moment later, before Kim had a chance to move, Russell fired off two rounds. Both slammed into the intruder’s torso, center mass.

The skinny man went down instantly, his blood pooling under him for the slice of a second that his heart continued to beat. Then the blood flow, like his heartbeat, stopped.

“Why’d you kill him?” Kim cast a glare toward Russell. “We need to know what he knows. Why he killed Westwood. And probably Lucas, too.”

“Because he was about to add both of us to his kill list.” Russell snapped. “Not how I wanted to spend the rest of my night. You?”

She didn’t argue with him in the heat of the moment. Russell’s view of the skinny man had been partially blocked. He couldn’t see the extent of the man’s shoulder injury. He didn’t hear the shooter’s gun drop to the floor. No doubt, Russell’s actions were justified.

“Security will be here any minute. The fireworks outside have been over for a while now. No chance those three gunshots will go unnoticed.” Kim jerked her head sideways toward the body. “I’ll search him. Look around. See if you can find what he was looking for. Quickly.”

Kim approached the skinny man, pulling out her phone. She snapped several photos, taking care with the head shots. She might get lucky with facial recognition software.

She pulled his gloves off carefully and then used the app on her phone to take a quick set of fingerprints and ear prints. She swabbed him for DNA.

Still wearing her gloves, she patted him down. His ID was in an RFID wallet in his front pocket. She snapped photos of everything and returned it.

In his other front pocket, he carried a hotel key card and US currency. About five hundred dollars in bills of various denominations.

A burner phone was stuffed into his back pocket. No time to check it thoroughly. She slid it into an evidence bag and then into her pocket.

She grabbed the plastic bag from the ice bucket and dropped his pistol into it.

Then she placed the gloves into the bag as well.

With luck, she’d get better fingerprints and DNA from the gloves from the lab.

His phone could provide faster data and leads, if she got lucky.

The gun might reveal solid ballistics on both the Westwood and Lucas murders.

While Russell searched the other bedroom and Kim was busy with the body, she heard the heavy entrance door slam closed in the front room. Her breath caught.

“Russell!” she shouted as she jammed everything into her pockets and hurried toward the bedroom door. “Let’s go!”

When Russell reached her, she said. “Someone else was in here. Maybe an accomplice. I heard the exit door close. We can’t hang around. Locals could already be on the way.”

“There’s nothing to find here anyway,” Russell said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder toward the dead man. “That guy have anything useful on him?”

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