Deadly Dozen: 12 Mysteries/Thrillers by J. F. Penn, Cheryl Bradshaw, Diane Capri, J. Carson Black, Aaron Patterson, Vincent Zandri, M A Comley, Carol Davis Luce, Joshua Graham, Michele Scott, Allan Leverone, Linda S Prather

files. Let me know if you need anything else. If I can’t talk immediately, I’ll get back to you.”
    Then with his hand on the doorknob he added, “And when you do find Jack Reacher, give him my regards, will you? Ask him to call me when he has the time. You can give him that number.”
    Gaspar asked, “Did you know Harry Black?”
    Finlay thought and came up empty. “I don’t recognize the name. Who is he?”
    “Who was he. He’s dead.”
    Finlay shook his head. “Should I have known him?”
    “He was a Margrave cop. Killed last night. Roscoe was pretty upset about it.”
    There it was again. The eyelid flick. Finlay knew something. But he said, “Must have been hired after I left.”
    “His wife shot him, she claims.” Gaspar pulled out his smart phone and showed Finlay a picture. “Sylvia Black. Do you know her?”
    The flick came before the lie this time, and again afterward.
    “Never saw her before,” Finlay said.
    “Did Reacher kill Harry Black?” Gaspar asked.
    The aide knocked again, opened the door, stood aside.
    “You’ll have to ask him yourself,” Finlay replied. He turned and walked away. His entourage followed behind him like ducklings follow their mother.

 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    Kim stared at Finlay’s business card. There was nothing on it except the phone number. No name. No title. She slapped it back and forth across her fingers. Gaspar said, “Roscoe and Finlay are both as nervous as hens in a fox house every time we ask about Reacher. They’ve got something to hide, and it’s big enough to bury them both. Don’t you think?”
    Kim said, “Whatever they’re hiding, it’s something the boss doesn’t know.”
    Gaspar raised his right eyebrow.
    She said, “Don’t give me that. You’re the one who said he’s not God. Obviously he doesn’t know. Think it through, Zorro.”
    “It’s a mystery to me how your mind works, Susie Kwan.” Gaspar moved over to the coffee and poured a cup for each of them before pulling out his laptop. “We’ve got about an hour before our flight to Atlanta. I’m not walking into Margrave again until I know everything Roscoe and Finlay are hiding. No more flailing around in the dark. I’ll find the files Finlay was talking about. Should be easy enough unless they’re sealed. You take Joe Reacher and Sylvia Black.”
    He bent his head to his task. She got her phone out. She sent the recording to her secure storage. Then she beamed a copy to her laptop. The audio would be transcribed and available on her laptop in minutes; she’d go through it again on the plane.
    She asked, “You still think the Blacks are involved in the Reacher situation somehow?” She wrinkled her nose. The coffee was tepid. She liked her coffee hot.
    “It would be stupid not to think so,” Gaspar said.
    “Agreed.” And Special Agent Kim Louisa Otto would not fail because she’d been stupid. Not now, not ever. She walked to the window and pulled the heavy drapes open and gazed into the pre-dawn. Airports were fascinating places. Little cities of their own. Then she turned away from the window and rubbed the tension out of her neck and refocused.
    She saw she had voice mail from Chief Roscoe’s cell phone. She pressed play. Only a fragment had been recorded due to fluctuating cell tower signals. Roscoe must have been out of range or in a vehicle when she called. “—couldn’t wait? I told you I would handle this. Where did you take her?—”
    “Sounds like Roscoe’s ticked off at us again,” Kim said. She put the message on speaker and played it again. Roscoe sounded angry. Gaspar didn’t look up from his screen, but he cocked his head like a wolf hearing distant threats.
    Kim played the message twice more. “Makes no sense. What’s she talking about? Did she call you at any point?”
    He pulled his phone out to check. “Nothing. What time did she call?”
    “Timer says her message came in at twelve thirty-three a.m.” Kim felt herself squint, remembered