The man who stands tall, p.1
The Man Who Stands Tall, page 1
part #10 of Jack Reacher Cases Series
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Book One in The JACK REACHER Cases
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The Jack Reacher Cases (The Man Who Stands Tall)
Dan Ames
Slogan Books, New York, NY
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Copyright © 2019 by Dan Ames
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
THE MAN WHO STANDS TALL
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Also by Dan Ames
THE MAN WHO STANDS TALL
The Jack Reacher Cases - Book 10
by
* * *
Dan Ames
“…the wicked are ensnared
by the work of their hands.”
-Psalm 9:16
Chapter One
Julia Rafferty stood and looked out at the Atlantic Ocean, marveling at her naiveté.
The water was a stunning blue with shades of emerald and turquoise worthy of the highest-priced tourism photography shot for an advertisement promoting a remote island in the Caribbean.
However, she was not by any means on a remote island.
She hadn’t even left the continental United States.
No, she was standing on the sands of Delray Beach, Florida, looking east across the vast Atlantic, imagining the white cliffs of Dover or whatever landfall was the first to greet sailors heading for Europe. At this time of year, the Atlantic was remarkably calm and temperate. In fact, she’d heard recreational boaters would sometimes leave the east coast of Florida and motor over to the Bahamas, arriving in two hours or so.
Julia felt naïve because she had no idea the water here could be so warm and crystal clear. She’d always imagined the beaches on the Atlantic side of Florida as being cold and frankly, scary. So close to deep water and the creatures that inhabit the depths, like great white sharks. She had assumed the other side of the state – the Gulf coast side – was where you would find shallow, turquoise waters.
Of course, she knew it was the dead of summer. Mid-August in Florida was staggeringly hot and humid, the kind of heat that caused you to break into a deep sweat just walking down the block. It was like being wrapped in a warm, wet blanket while the sun acted like a microwave, making the blanket even hotter.
It’s why the place was half-empty after all. The snowbirds, as they were called, had all departed hot Florida for their original homes “up north.” Months back the freeways heading north had been clogged with minivans, motor homes and cars festooned with clothing racks from which the warm-weather seekers hung their Florida gear. They would soon be replaced with sweatshirts bearing college names like Michigan, Syracuse and NYU.
“Mom, look!” Julia’s son Todd held up the remains of a horseshoe crab. Julia could see flies buzzing around the rest of the carcass which was still resisting being dragged back into the ocean by the waves. Julia thought horseshoe crabs were creepy, so clearly dating back hundreds of thousands of years. Like aliens from a different planet.
Even though she was thinking mostly of germs and how gross the thing looked, she gave her son an enthusiastic thumbs-up while simultaneously remembering she had a tube of hand sanitizer in her beach bag.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Julia turned to see the already pinkish face of her husband Steven. He was of mostly Irish descent and his pale skin burned quickly. Some of his sunblock had washed off after a swim, so Julia smeared a dollop onto her palm and quickly gave the pink sections of her husband’s body a second coat.
“Spectacular. Who knew the water was like this?” she answered.
Steven’s business had brought them to Delray Beach for a week-long conference. He was a neurologist and frequently attended seminars where other doctors showcased new techniques and innovations within the field. Back home in Portland, Oregon, Steven Rafferty was frequently voted to the “Top Docs” list that came out every year. Julia was immensely proud of her husband and was glad he could take an afternoon off from medical discussions to join them on the beach.
Julia was always happy when the three of them were together, although sometimes at moments like these she felt a pang over them being a trio and not a quartet or a quintet, even.
There had been complications with Todd’s birth that had rendered her unable to continue having children. They had discussed adoption, especially after reading some of the issues that only children can have, but by then Steven’s practice had grown immensely and Julia had started to work again. Ultimately, adoption discussions trailed off and were never revived.
She worked occasionally as a research assistant primarily for fiction writers. It was fascinating work and allowed her to use parts of her mind that often weren’t required by motherhood. She enjoyed the pursuit of tracking down and verifying certain types of information. In fact, it was similar in some ways to what her sister Lauren did for a living. Lauren Pauling was a former FBI agent and private investigator and Julia’s only sibling. Lauren was also Todd’s godmother.
Julia saw her sister occasionally, once or twice a year and they chatted or texted regularly. But Lauren was a busy woman although she had told Julia that she’d just sold her private investigative firm for a bundle and was considering next steps. Julia had invited Lauren down to Florida but their schedules hadn’t worked out.
A cloud momentarily passed over the sun and the shade instantly cooled her skin. Julia felt the ocean breeze, a bit cooler now and glanced over toward their rental car parked along the A1A – a narrow strip of road that worked its way all along the coast. Julia felt the cool air and a slight chill ran down her spine as she made eye contact with a man sitting in the sand just in front of their rented minivan.
He was staring directly at her. It wasn’t something Julia was foreign to. Like her sister, Julia had blonde hair and stunning green eyes. Even though many would consider her an “older Mom,” Julia had quickly regained her curvaceous body after having Todd years ago, and that gorgeous body was now on full display in a teal bikini.
The man didn’t look away from Julia’s direct gaze and so she turned back to her husband.
The cloud passed and the sun came back out, washing the beach in hot sunlight once again.
“Want a beer?” Steven asked, holding up a chilled bottle of Corona with a fresh lime wedge jammed into its mouth.
“Don’t mind if I do,” she answered.
Chapter Two
“Before we begin, I just wanted to give a shout-out to the company’s founder and current consultant, Lauren Pauling.”
The man speaking was Karl Furlong, the new CEO of the firm Pauling had built from the ground up. It was the company’s first official “state of the union” and since Pauling was still technically a part of the firm, albeit in a casual, even token role, Furlong had invited her to sit in on the meeting.
Naturally, they were not in the offices Pauling had used while she headed the organization. Furlong and his team had promptly moved equipment and personnel from that location to the headquarters, a sprawling office complex taking up the 11th and 12th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper.
Among light applause, Pauling nodded to the group surrounding the giant black onyx conference table. Out of the twenty or so executives seated, Pauling and two others were the only women present. There were glass pitchers of water placed strategically at key points on the table, and everyone was gazing at a leather folio that had been placed in front of them, along with a pen and notepad.
Furlong turned the microphone over to the company’s new chief financial officer, who breezed through the current revenue streams and associated expenses. Pauling noted all of the arrows were pointing up, with one especially large spike from what appeared to be less than three months ago.
“Yes, despite not all of you being accounting professio
The CFO sat down and a big man with broad shoulders and a large, block head stood at the head of the table. He looked like he could be the starting linebacker for the Chicago Bears if his career in corporate security didn’t take off. Although, that didn’t appear to be the case according to these numbers, Pauling thought.
“Yes, I’m here to tell you about some exciting news,” Torcher began. “You may have heard rumors about a new client and I’m here to confirm that we did in fact land the Zeta Corporation’s entire security account, from top to bottom. Estimated spend this year is nearly one hundred million dollars and their projections indicate that could grow ten to twenty percent per year for the next five years.”
More applause broke out and Pauling noted that some of the members around the table were less enthusiastic than others. Competitors of Torcher, perhaps?
“If you turn to the first appendix in your folio you’ll see some of the firm’s detailed needs for security and background issues,” Torcher continued. “Obviously, I’m not going to go over each item now, but you can review them at your own discretion as some of you will very quickly be pulled into some immediate projects right out of the gate.”
Pauling flipped to the appendix and scanned the security needs which were all fairly standard. However, when she reached the company’s information it was remarkably scant. Surely a company with this size of budget would have more information – unless Torcher had been so busy with landing the account he hadn’t put in as much effort at providing background than Pauling would have liked.
The meeting carried on for nearly an hour longer with short speeches from the legal department, human resources and public relations. Eventually, Furlong stepped to the head of the table and closed the meeting. As people were gathering their things, Pauling approached Torcher.
“Congratulations on that new account,” she said to him.
He turned and she was struck by the size of the man. He was as big as Jack Reacher, maybe even bigger. His head was enormous with a thick shock of silvery hair and a dark beard. His eyes were ice blue and she could feel their intensity.
“Thank you,” he said. “Just trying to continue your winning streak.” He flashed a smile and Pauling thought it seemed a little forced – or was she just a little peeved that the company was doing so well without her?
“What was the deal with the lack of background info on Zeta, if you don’t mind my asking? Let me guess – you were rushed into breaking the news?”
“Exactly,” he said with a laugh. “I had no idea I was even presenting this until about two hours ago, so I cobbled together what I could. I’d be happy to send you the full dossier we’ve got going on them, as well as our initial presentation.”
“That would be great,” Pauling said. She handed him her business card with the email she’d been given for the new firm.
“I’ll be in touch,” he said.
They shook hands again and his meaty paw totally enveloped her hand and did he give it a little extra squeeze?
Chapter Three
Sand was everywhere.
Julia marveled at its ability to infiltrate every nook and cranny of every single item they’d brought to the beach. Despite her best efforts to rinse their feet and beach sandals, along with vigorously shaking out the beach towels, Julia noted with dismay the scattered sand all around the kitchen floor.
Todd was already flopped in front of the television watching a baseball game and Steven was in the shower.
Their cottage was a rental, just two blocks from the beach. It had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, along with an open kitchen and living room. It was small but neat, clean and perfect for the three of them to relax. Back home, they had a big, turn-of-the-century house built on one of Portland’s many bluffs. As much as she loved their Portland home, at times she thought it was simply too big for three people, even though she had a cleaning service come once a week.
Now, Julia was pleased to note how nice the smaller space fit them. Maybe once Todd was off to college she and Steven would downsize. Julia had no problem with that, although Steven might want to keep the big house in case Todd eventually married and had children, as a big house would serve them well for family get-togethers.
Julia again thought of her sister Lauren, and knew that the time for her sister to have a family of her own had probably passed. Adoption was always an option, but Julia knew that Lauren was still very driven professionally and might never choose to become a Mom, which Julia actually admired.
It took courage in this day and age for a woman to focus on other things. Peer pressure didn’t stop with being a teenager.
Julia found the vacuum stashed in a closet off the kitchen and used it to clean the sand from the floor, knowing it was a futile effort. She’d also purchased two dozen shrimp from a local market and was looking forward to making them for dinner.
She realized she’d left the small cooler with the rest of the beer in the car. Julia put the vacuum away, walked through the living room, past Todd watching his baseball game and went to the minivan.
Sunset had passed and it was now twilight – the air was considerably cooler and the ocean breeze felt fantastic. Julia thought maybe she and Steven would sit outside tonight after Todd went to bed. Enjoy an evening cocktail and take advantage of the cooler air.
She went to the back of the minivan and opened the rear door. The cooler had slid over to the side and somehow they had all missed it. The Corona would go great with the shrimp–
Julia felt a shadow pass over her at the same time she heard the sound of a foot shifting slightly on the parking lot’s sand-covered asphalt.
And then a hand with a cloth reeking of chemical smell clamped over her mouth. She struggled and lunged toward the cottage but arms held her in place and she tried to kick backward but she couldn’t make her legs move.
Quickly, the twilight sky turned to pitch-black.
Chapter Four
Pauling returned home to her loft-style apartment on Barrow Street in the heart of New York City.
Even though she’d made a commitment to Michael Tallon, she’d kept her home in Manhattan and he had kept his small ranch compound out west. The city was still home to her, even though she’d spent more and more time with Tallon at his place and that had begun to feel like home, too.
There was just something about her pad here in the Big Apple that Pauling felt like she would always keep it. It was where she’d moved after her time with the Bureau, a highly emotional and challenging time of her life. And when her private security firm had started to make some serious money, she’d made a down payment on Barrow Street and immediately begun the renovations that ultimately created the perfect space for her. And due to a case that had hit a little too close to home, the apartment now featured a state-of-the-art security system that provided more than enough comfort to her.
The thought of Tallon made her pick up the phone and give him a call.
