Jack and Joe: Hunt for Jack Reacher Series (The Hunt for Jack Reacher Series Book 6) (13 page)

“Ma’am, I’m FBI Special Agent Kim Otto.” I reached into my jacket and showed her my badge wallet. Gaspar did the same. “This is Special Agent Carlos Gaspar. Is there somewhere we can have a private conversation?”

Most people are at least wary when FBI agents invade, and those that aren’t can be suspicious or downright hostile. Lesley Browning acted like an FBI visit to her home was no more unusual than a visit from the Avon lady. “Sure, let’s go in here.”

She led us toward the double entry doors on the left and we walked into a traditionally decorated formal living room full of ball-and-claw feet and Queen Anne legs and brocade upholstery and dense blocks of mahogany case goods.

She gestured to a loveseat, closed the doors and sat across from us in the center of an identical loveseat. Every inch the fit, smiling contemporary housewife, she looked like an anachronism amid the rather staid traditional furnishings. “How can I help you?”

I felt like I had landed in an alternate universe again. No one but my father had ever greeted me with that much warmth. Either Gaspar felt the same or he was simply waiting for me to take the lead.

“Thank you for seeing us.” I blinked a few times to clear my head. “You are Lesley Browning, aren’t you?”

Her smile wrinkled the freckles on her nose and reached all the way to her very friendly eyes. “Oh my gosh, no one has called me that in years. But yes, my maiden name was Lesley Browning. Why do you ask?”

Maiden name?
The bio we’d located indicated no name change. “Bear with me a moment, ma’am, just to be sure that we have the right person. Did you once live at 7683 Jackson Street in Newburgh, New York?”

“I lived there from the time I was born until college.” Her smile never faltered and she nodded. “Why?”

I gave her my standard explanation of our mission. It was close enough to the truth to pass without objection. “We prepare background checks on people who are being considered for special government employment. It may seem exceptionally thorough to go back as far as college, but…” I let my voice fall away and shrugged as if to say I was just doing my job and hoped she’d help me out.

“Okay.” She nodded enthusiastically and clasped her hands in her lap. “How can I help?”

Good question.

CHAPTER 18

Invoking the name “Reacher” was always the tricky part. Reactions from prior witnesses at this point had ranged from denial to horror to tears to physical pushback. I braced for anything and opened my mouth and, at the last possible moment, vectored to a tangent. “We’re interested in speaking with you about Joe Reacher.”

Her eyes widened, and her mouth formed a little “O” and she drew in the tiniest gasp. Then her smile returned, wider this time, along with her composure. “I haven’t heard that name in a very long time, either. How is Joe? Where is he now? I would love to see him again.”

Gaspar must have missed my intention. He interrupted. “Kim, you misspoke. You said Joe Reacher was being considered for the job, but the candidate is Jack Reacher.”

“Did I?” I cocked my head and frowned a little and resisted the urge to glare at him. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day. Carlos is right. I meant to say it’s Jack Reacher who is being considered for the job, not Joe Reacher.” I shrugged and offered an apologetic smile. “Their names are so similar and I’ve never met either of them.”

“Don’t worry. I understand. They were somewhat interchangeable to me, too. They looked a lot alike. If you met one brother in the dark, you could easily believe he was the other one. And their names are similar though of course everyone called Jack ‘Reacher.’ I asked Joe why once, and he said that’s just the way it always was. Even their mother called him ‘Reacher.’” She gave a little laugh. “I really can’t imagine that, can you? Why would she have started doing that?”

I shrugged as though I couldn’t say. Because it was news to me. Interesting to hear that the brothers were almost interchangeable in appearance. I wondered if that was what got Joe Reacher killed. Had Jack been the intended victim? I put that question on my mental checklist for later.

“Anyway, the two of them were very close. They’d never been separated until Joe went to West Point. Two years later, when Jack joined Joe there, they hung out together often. It would be easy to get them confused.”

“So, Jack Reacher, then,” I said, settling in and smiling as if we were girlfriends about to dish. “Let’s start with when you knew him and how.”

She moved deeper into the loveseat and relaxed a little more. She tilted her head back and took a breath as if she were thinking about a long ago experience that she enjoyed very much. Maybe she was.

“I was eighteen, but I guess I was still a senior in high school when I first met Joe. He was at West Point with a neighborhood boy, Matthew Clifton.” Her tone was wistful, pleasant. “And then I met Jack later. When I went to West Point to see Joe.”

“You and Joe must have been good friends.” I nodded like an understanding girlfriend would do.

“Oh! I thought you knew.” She laughed. The sound was light, easy. Not the least bit guarded. “Joe was my first love. He and I were married. It only lasted less than six months. But we stayed friends after that.”

I arched my eyebrows and widened my eyes. “I see.”

“I was too young and my parents were opposed. Of course, at the time, I thought they were being so unreasonable.” She laughed again. “But when Joe graduated West Point, he planned to serve in the Army and then move on to another agency. Well, even back then I knew I didn’t want to be an Army wife. I would never have been any good at that. Joe was disappointed. He was the kind of guy who committed himself to everything and never gave up when there were problems, you know?”

“So you divorced?” Gaspar asked.

“Well, we got married because I was pregnant and Joe insisted he had to take care of me. Joe was like that. He always wanted to take care of everybody.” She cocked her head and seemed to be thinking about that time. She frowned a little and took a deep breath. “And after my miscarriage, I guess a lot of things just hit home to me. I was too young to be a mother then and once the baby was gone…. It just gave me a chance to reconsider, I guess.”

Gaspar’s spine straightened. “What about Joe? How did he feel about all of this?” His tone bore heavy disapproval. He’d be gutted if Marie left him or if he lost his kids. He might not survive it.

Lesley must have sensed his meaning because she dropped her gaze and took another deep breath before she raised it again. “I don’t think Joe was ready to be a father, either. He said he was ready and I was proud of him for wanting to take care of me and the baby.” She paused a couple of beats. “We were too young. At least, I was. But we stayed friends for a long time. Joe called occasionally. Cards at birthdays and holidays, you know.” She paused and then, wistful again, repeated herself: “I would like to see him again.”

I let that comment pass because I didn’t want to get into any conversation about how Joe Reacher died on a lonely road in the middle of nowhere fifteen years ago. Nor did I want to deal with her reactions. Instead, I asked, “And Jack Reacher? What can you tell us about him?”

She smiled again, livelier now. “Reacher was a whole different kettle of fish.”

“How is that?” Gaspar phrased it like he really wanted to know.

“He was smart like Joe. He was a whiz with numbers. And he had an amazing ability to know the time, even though he never wore a watch. Like a savant or something. He didn’t talk much. The strong, silent type, I guess. He did well in school, too. But his skills were well, shall we say more physical in nature?” Her grin widened. Probably remembering some sort of trouble Jack had started or finished. “When he went straight into the Army and joined the MPs, I know Joe felt Reacher had made the right choice. Joe said if I was ever in trouble, I should call Reacher because he would always do what he believed was the right thing.”

“And Joe wasn’t as physical as Jack?” Because Joe was Army all the way. He had served in Military Intelligence. A soft-hearted man would never have made those choices in the first place. And he’d have washed out early if he’d mistakenly done so, instead of developing Joe Reacher’s impressive record.

She laughed. “Oh, Joe was no weenie or anything. He was as tough as any guy. Sometimes a little too quick to square off when he was pushed. Sometimes he shoved back a little too hard. Sure.”

As I suspected. I nodded to encourage her, but she didn’t elaborate.

Gaspar asked, “When was the last time you saw either Jack or Joe Reacher?”

“For Joe, let me see.” Lesley looked at the ceiling a moment, considering. “It was a couple of years after Josephine died. Their mother.”

“Did you know her?” I asked.

“Not really. I never met her, actually.” Lesley shook her head. “She was briefly my mother-in-law and she was over the moon when she learned I was pregnant, Joe said. I talked to her on the phone a couple of times. She had a lovely French accent. I liked her and I think she never forgave me for divorcing Joe.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Oh, Joe all but said as much. As I said, we stayed in touch for a time. That woman was tough as nails. Her own marriage wasn’t the easiest, so she felt I gave up too soon and too easily. I think Joe was her favorite of the two boys, although she certainly loved them both and they loved her too. Joe said she was the glue that held their family together.” She paused again, lost in a memory. “He called me when he found out she had terminal cancer. He was very upset about it, but he said Reacher was taking it too stoically.”

I cocked my head. “What did he mean by that?” The emerging picture she was painting of Jack Reacher was fascinatingly different from what I’d heard from every source before. Different, too, from his Army record, which was all I had to go on. Maybe the years had changed him, as Master Sergeant Jones had said back at Fort Bird yesterday, but not for the better.

“Joe always said he had to look after Reacher, but he said Reacher has the strength of two men and thinks he’s the one who protects Joe. Once Joe told me that if anything ever happened to him, he didn’t know what Reacher would do. I’m sure Reacher felt at least that strongly about Josephine. I know Joe did.” She opened her hands and rested one on each knee. “Like I said, those boys were very close. Two peas in a pod. Josephine died a few days after that and Joe called to tell me about the funeral. I wanted to go, but it was in Paris. That’s where she lived.”

“And Jack,” I said. “When did you last see him?”

“I don’t know.” She cocked her head again and thought about it a while. “Maybe five years ago?” That set my body humming like a tuning fork. If Lesley noticed my reaction, she didn’t let on. “It was after he left the Army because I remember telling him how shocked I was. The Army had seemed such a perfect fit for him, you know? He was really well suited to the work.”

“So. About five years ago, where did you see him?”

“I was at a conference with my husband in East L.A. It was the strangest thing because I saw Reacher on the street. He was older, but otherwise just the same as I remembered. Huge. Fit. Hands the size of baseball mitts. He picked me up and hugged me tight and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to breathe ever again.” She laughed briefly at the memory and then she frowned. “He looked like a hobo, though. He was wearing civilian clothes that didn’t fit him very well like he’d bought them off the rack at a farm goods store or something. Terrible haircut. I thought maybe he was having financial problems.”

“Did you ask him about that?” Gaspar’s ears perked up. Financial problems could and often did lead to crime.

“Well, no. That would have been rude, don’t you think?” She glanced at Gaspar and paused. She frowned in concentration. “He was meeting old Army friends, he said. We didn’t talk long. I’m sorry I didn’t spend more time with him that day, though because I never saw him again.”

“Did he give you a card or an address?”

It was an odd question to ask since we’d told her he applied for a job. Not many people would be considered for a sensitive government job without a permanent residence. But she didn’t hesitate before she replied. “I’m afraid not.”

“You’ve been very helpful, Ma’am,” Gaspar said. “We’ve taken up enough of your time.” He stood and buttoned his jacket. “But if we need anything more, can we contact you again?”

“Of course. Please give my best to Reacher and Joe. And tell them to come by.” She stood and straightened the wrinkles from her slacks, then smiled at us each in turn. “I’d love to catch up with them both.”

She walked us to the front door.

“This is a lovely home you have here,” Gaspar said, looking around. “What kind of work does your husband do?”

“Thomas? He’s a defense contractor. Years ago, he was in the Army before we married. JAG Corps. Now his company produces unmanned tank systems and drones for the military.”

Gaspar pushed his hands into his pockets. “Thomas’s last name is what, again?”

“Same as mine now. O’Connor.”

“How did you meet him?”

“I have Joe Reacher to thank for that, too. After Joe and I divorced, I thought I’d never fall in love again. And I didn’t, for years.” She smiled again and brushed her hair away from her face. She opened the door and the cold air rushed inside. “But Joe and I stayed friends and in one of those quirky twists of fate, Joe was the one who introduced me to Thomas. Now I have Thomas and the girls and it’s all worked out. Everything always does, don’t you think?”