Page 81 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

Kim smiled, nodded, and filed the Reacher lore in her head. Then she tried to get the conversation back on track. “So this time? Is Reacher involved in this case?”

“Reacher thought Westwood and I could handle things on our own, I guess. Like I said, he’s not easy to read.” Chang shrugged and fell silent, a troubled frown marred her features.

Nope. Kim couldn’t see that happening. Reacher wasn’t a team player. Nor would he have handed off the ball. Chang was lying or she didn’t know Jack Reacher well at all.

But Kim didn’t say any of that. Her goal was to gather intel, not supply it.

Aside from Kim’s intuition, Chang’s guess on Reacher’s motives contradicted Westwood.

He said Reacher had sent him to Kim.

If Reacher expected Chang and Westwood to handle the situation alone, he would have stopped there. He wouldn’t have sent them to Kim at all.

No reason to believe Westwood had lied about Reacher’s directions. She shrugged.

Not like she could ask him directly now, either.

Russell and Chang kept talking, but Kim’s thoughts wandered.

What was Reacher doing? What was his goal? His motivation? What had set him off on this trail? Why did any of it involve her?

If she could figure that out, she might know what to do going forward. And she might also know where to find him.

Her mental hard drive had collected quite a bit of intel on Reacher. Sorting through it all and making the right connections was an ongoing quagmire.

Reacher as silent partner in the Stuart operation made sense. He’d played the role before.

Reacher was also freakishly strategic.

He was more than just a brawny hulk. He had brains, too.

And intellectual curiosity.

And unfathomable methods for figuring things out.

Kim’s boss didn’t know it, but Reacher had been helping her for a while. Usually operating in the shadows. Without benefit of any kind of briefing or backup.

Sometimes, she wasn’t even sure whether he’d been there or not. Only in retrospect could she see his hand in certain events.

He had been bafflingly proactive about her assignment recently. He’d even contacted Gaspar and offered assistance. More than once.

It was as if he’d decided to subtly shift his role from target to something else, in ways she couldn’t quite fathom.

She certainly hadn’t figured out Reacher’s game.

He knew where she was. He knew what she wanted. He knew why she wanted it. He could have come forward or walked away at any time.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he went about contacting and assisting her in oblique but essential ways. This time, it seemed he’d sent Westwood and Chang.

The question was, why? To what end?

Lucas Stuart, assuming that’s who he was, had died at her front door.

Surely Reacher wasn’t the one who killed him?

Why would he do that?

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