The Affair: A Reacher Novel

him?”
    “Pretty much.”
    “Did they get along?”
    “Pretty good.”
    “No problems?”
    “Didn’t see any.”
    “Did he kill her?”
    “He might have.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Can’t rule him out.”
    “Gut feeling?”
    “I want to say no, but someone killed her. It could have been him.”
    “What was his name?”
    “Reed. That was all Shawna ever said. Reed this, Reed that. Reed, Reed, Reed.”
    “Last name?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “We wear name tapes,” I said. “Battledress uniform, above the right breast pocket.”
    “I never saw him in uniform. They all wear jeans and T-shirts to town. Jackets, sometimes.”
    “Officer or enlisted man?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “You talked to him. Didn’t he say?”
    The kid shook his head. “He said his name was Reed. That’s all.”
    “Was he an asshole?”
    “A bit.”
    “Did he look like he worked hard for a living?”
    “Not really. He didn’t take things very seriously.”
    “Probably an officer, then,” I said. “What did he tell you about joining the army?”
    “He said serving your country was a noble thing to do.”
    “Definitely an officer.”
    “He said I could learn a skill. He said I might make specialist.”
    “You could do better than that.”
    “He said they would explain it all at the recruiting office. He said there’s a good one in Memphis.”
    “Don’t go there,” I said. “Way too dangerous. Recruiting offices are shared between all four branches of the service. The Marines might grab you first. Fate worse than death.”
    “So where should I go?”
    “Go straight to Kelham. There are recruiters on every post.”
    “Will that work?”
    “Sure it will. As soon as you’ve got something in your hand that proves you’re eighteen years old, they’ll let you in and never let you out again.”
    “But they say the army is getting smaller.”
    “Thanks for pointing that out, kid.”
    “So why would they want me?”
    “They’re still going to have hundreds of thousands of people. Tens of thousands will still leave every year. They’ll always need to be replaced.”
    “What’s wrong with the Marines?”
    “Nothing really. It’s a traditional rivalry. They say stuff, we say stuff.”
    “They do amphibious landings.”
    “History shows the army has done many more all on its own.”
    “Sheriff Deveraux was a Marine.”
    “Is a Marine,” I said. “They never stop being Marines, even after they leave. It’s one of their things.”
    “You like her,” the kid said. “I could tell. I saw you riding in her car.”
    “She’s OK,” I said. “Did Reed have a car? Shawna’s boyfriend?”
    The kid nodded. “They all have cars. I’m going to have a car too, after I join.”
    “What kind of car did Reed have?”
    “He had a 1957 Chevy Bel Air two-door hardtop. Not really a classic. It was kind of beat up.”
    “What color was it?”
    The kid said, “It was blue.”

Chapter
33
    The kid showed me his sister’s room. It was clean and tidy . Not preserved as a shrine, but not yet cleared out, either. It spoke of loss, and bewilderment, and lack of energy. The bed was made and small piles of clothes were neatly folded. No decision had been taken about its future fate.
    There was none of Shawna Lindsay’s personality on display. She had been a grown woman, not a teenager. There were no posters on the walls, no souvenirs of anything, no breathless diary. No keepsakes. She had owned some clothes, some shoes, and two books. That was all. One book was a thin thing explaining how to become a notary public. The other was an out-of-date tourist guide to Los Angeles.
    “Did she want to be in the movies?” I asked.
    “No,” the kid said. “She wanted to travel, that’s all.”
    “To LA specifically?”
    “Anywhere.”
    “Did she have a job?”
    “She worked part time at the loan office. Next to Brannan’s bar. She could do her numbers pretty good.”
    “What did she tell you that she couldn’t tell your mom?”
    “That she hated it here. That she wanted to get out.”
    “Your mom didn’t want to hear that stuff?”
    “She wanted to keep Shawna safe. My mom is afraid of the world.”
    “Where does your mom work?”
    “She’s a cleaner. At the bars in town. She gets them ready for happy hour.”
    “What else do you know about Shawna?”
    The kid started to say something, and then he stopped. In the end he just shrugged and said nothing. He moved toward the center of the plain