Never Go Back: (Jack Reacher 18)

butter knife. So give me a sporting chance. A few days in the ravine won’t hurt anyone. Because even if we don’t wrap it up personally, then the LAPD and Fort Bragg will, maybe next week, when they eventually find this guy. Either way it’s going to unravel.’
    ‘OK.’
    ‘And we’re keeping the Glock.’

    Which they did, along with a wallet and a cell phone. Then Reacher bunched the front of the guy’s coat in his hands and heaved him off the ground, and staggered with him as close to the edge of the drop as he dared. Most ravine disposals failed. The bodies hung up, six or seven feet down, right there on the slope. Due to a lack of height and distance. So Reacher spun the guy around, like a hammer thrower at the Olympics, two full circles, low on the ground side, high on the air side, and then he let go and hurled him out into the darkness, and he heard the crashing of disturbed trees, and the rattle of stones, and then not much else, apart from the hum of the plain below.

    They U-turned off the turn-out and headed back, through Laurel Canyon to the freeway. Reacher drove. Turner stripped the Glock and checked it, and then put it back together and put it in her pocket, with one nine-millimetre in the chamber and fifteen more in the magazine. Then she opened the wallet. It was loaded just like the others. A thick raft of twenties, a handful of smaller bills, a full deck of unexpired and legitimate credit cards, and a North Carolina driver’s licence with the guy’s picture on it. His name had been Jason Kenneth Rickard, and he had finished his earthly sojourn a month shy of his twenty-ninth birthday. He was not an organ donor.
    His phone was a cheap item similar to the pair Reacher and Turner had bought at the chain pharmacy. An untraceable mission-specific pre-paid, no doubt. Its directory showed just three numbers, the first two labelled Pete L and Ronnie B , which were obviously Lozano and Baldacci, and the third was just Shrago . The call register showed very little activity. Nothing outgoing, and just three incoming, all from Shrago.
    Turner said, ‘Shrago must be the big guy with the small ears. He seems to have the squad leader’s role.’
    ‘They’re not small,’ Reacher said. ‘They’re cropped.’
    ‘What are?’
    ‘His ears.’
    ‘How do you know?’
    ‘The girl told me. She’s seen them up close.’
    ‘You talked to her?’
    ‘She initiated contact, in the diner.’
    ‘Why would she?’
    ‘She thinks we’re feds. She’s curious about what’s happening on her street. She thought we might give her the details.’
    ‘Where did she see the guy with the ears?’
    ‘At the end of her driveway.’
    ‘She really doesn’t know what’s happening?’
    ‘Not even about the paternity suit. My name meant nothing to her. Clearly her mother hasn’t told her about the affidavit. She doesn’t even know her mother is the lawyer’s client. She thinks it’s one of her neighbours.’
    ‘You shouldn’t have talked to her.’
    ‘I had no choice. She sat herself at my table.’
    ‘With a complete stranger?’
    ‘She feels safe in the diner. The counter man seems to look after her.’
    ‘What was she like?’
    ‘She’s a nice kid.’
    ‘Yours?’
    ‘She’s the best candidate yet. She’s about as weird as me. But I still don’t recall a woman in Korea. Not that last time.’
    Turner said, ‘Cropped ears?’
    ‘Like little hexagons,’ Reacher said.
    ‘I never heard of that.’
    ‘Me either.’ Reacher took out his phone and dialled Edmonds. It was nine o’clock on the West Coast, which made it midnight on the East Coast, but he was sure she would answer. She was an idealist. Dial tone sounded seven times, and then she picked up, thick-tongued like before, and Reacher said, ‘Got a pen?’
    Edmonds said, ‘And paper.’
    ‘I need you to check two more names with HRC. Almost certainly from the same logistics company at Fort Bragg, but I need confirmation. The first is Jason Kenneth Rickard, and the second is a guy called Shrago. I don’t know if that’s his first or last name. Try to get some background on him. Apparently he has mutilated ears.’
    ‘Ears?’
    ‘The things on the side of his head.’
    ‘I spoke with Major Sullivan earlier this evening. The office of the Secretary of the Army is pushing for a fast resolution of the Rodriguez issue.’
    ‘Dropping the charges would be pretty fast.’
    ‘It’s not going to happen that way.’
    ‘OK, leave it with