Jack in the Green Read Online Free PDF

“OK, Danimal. I’d like more than just another few minutes with the guy. Two days in a room alone with him, maybe. He knows a lot more than he’s telling.”
    “Sorry. Can’t happen,” he said. “Happy to spill whatever I know, though. Not that there’s much to spill. Reacher was a good cop and he did a good job on the case. He had a good close record on his cases, but he couldn’t make it stick against Weston. Everything’s in the file. I’ve read it. We can’t release the file, but my boss promised yours that I could answer your questions.”
    “Not a lot of Army here on base back then, right?” Otto asked. “How was this case Reacher’s jurisdiction, anyway?”
    “Strictly speaking, it probably wasn’t. Weston was on base for a few months on a special assignment. Reacher came down after the murders.”
    Gaspar asked, “So Reacher wasn’t assigned to duty here?”
    “No need for Army military police like Reacher. Base security handles everything. In appropriate cases, we coordinate with Tampa P.D. and the local FBI. Sometimes other jurisdictions.”
    “Weston was Army. What was his assignment?”
    “Classified,” Danimal said, as if no further comment was necessary.
    “Weston lived off base. Why was base security involved in the case?”
    “All MacDill security teams have good relationships with local law enforcement. We work together when our personnel are involved.”
    Otto said, “Reacher disregarded all the standard procedures, I gather.”
    He nodded. “Murder of an Army officer’s family is not the sort of thing we’d keep our noses out of just because it happened off base.”
    “Weston and Reacher had a history,” Gaspar said. “That have anything to do with Reacher’s interest?”
    Danimal shrugged. “Weston had a history with everybody who crossed his path. He’s not an easy guy. You must have noticed.”
    Gaspar said, “Wife and three kids shot in the head with a .38 while they slept in their own civilian beds around midnight on a Wednesday. Ballistics on the gunshots?”
    “It was the wife’s gun. First responders found it on the bed still loosely gripped in her hand. Army wives learn to shoot for self-protection and she was damn good at it. In this case, looks like she didn’t get the chance to fire.”
    “Reacher concluded there’d been no intruder?”
    “House was in a good, safe South Tampa neighborhood, but shit happens sometimes.”
    “Not in this case?” Otto asked.
    “Right.” He nodded. “No forced entry, no identifiable evidence of a break-in. Front door locked and alarm system activated. Family dog asleep in the kitchen.”
    “The dog slept through the whole thing?” Gaspar asked.
    Danimal nodded. “That’s what it looked like.”
    Gaspar had to agree. Dogs don’t sleep through break-ins. Not unless they’re drugged, or deaf. Or they know the killer. And sometimes, not even then.
    “Say Reacher was right. No intruder,” Otto said. “Normal conclusion would be murder suicide. Yet the locals ruled that out and Reacher agreed. Why?”
    “No motive, for starters.”
    Gaspar nodded. Women usually need a reason to kill, even if it’s a crazy reason.
    “By all accounts, she was a wonderful mother, decent wife to a difficult guy. Kids were great, too. Good students. Lots of friends. No substance abuse.”
    “All-American family, huh?” Otto asked, glancing again at the photographs on the stage.
    Danimal shrugged. “Zero reported difficulties.”
    Which was not the same thing as no problems, exactly. Gaspar was forming a clearer picture of Reacher’s analysis of the crimes. “Suspects?”
    “No.”
    “She have any enemies?”
    “None anyone could find.”
    “How hard did Reacher look?”
    Danimal shrugged again. “Not too hard, probably. He knew Weston. We all did. Guy had plenty of enemies. We didn’t need to spin our wheels looking for hers.”
    “Where was Weston at the time of the murders?” Otto asked.
    “Alibi was weak from the