Free Expectation (Ghost Targets, #2) by Aaron Pogue Page A

getting off the airplane yesterday. Eventually, she couldn't contain herself any more. "What's gotten into you?"
    "Hmm?" He glanced up at her, then blanked his handheld. "What do you mean?"
    "You're operating on an hour of sleep. You were a total mess yesterday afternoon, if you'll excuse my saying so. But right now, there's no sign of any of that."
    He tilted his head, considering, and then shrugged. "I'm working," he said. "I guess Rick taught me that. Going without sleep barely fazes me. Having to defend my loyalty, to answer for my friendship to a man barely six weeks dead, that's...that's not easy for me. But I'm good at my job." He tapped his handheld to get the time and nodded. "I've seen the same from you."
    Katie laughed. "I don't do well on an hour's sleep. I sure don't do this well!" She waved at him, his pressed suit, his perfect tie. "Anyway, I got your message, and listened through it. I think there's a pretty good chance I can get the wife to cooperate."
    "Don't be too sure," Reed said. "Dora has put in some serious time working on her, and she's gotten nowhere."
    Katie snorted. "Dora has a certain way about her." When Reed just looked blank, Katie sighed. "She's not good with women. I've seen it before, especially the kind of girl who gets to a position of authority like that." Reed frowned, and Katie blushed. "Fine, whatever. I'm telling you, this lady doesn't know how to talk to women. She would've put Mrs. Barnes on the defensive from the start, and that's no way to get access to private information."
    Reed sat back in his chair, a thoughtful frown dragging down a corner of his mouth. After a moment, he shrugged one shoulder. "There's a little bit more there. Dora likes the wife for the crime."
    "What?"
    "She thinks Mrs. Barnes might have done it. There's a financial motive, and it's very specific to his situation. You saw the setup they had at the clinic? As long as he's showing real brain function, the army has committed to keeping him on staff. Full-pay, full medical expenses. If he'd been killed, she'd be looking at a moderate life insurance settlement right now, but this coma he's in...it's a full paycheck. Long-term, it'll pay out ten times what his life insurance would have."
    Katie thought about it for a moment, chewing her lower lip, then shook her head. "That doesn't make sense. Without the coma, he'd be bringing in the same paycheck, right? And she'd still have her husband. Well..." She thought about his short evenings and his long days at the office. "Sort of."
    Reed shrugged. "Maybe there's trouble at home. Maybe he wasn't such a safe bet, long term. Or maybe it's all nothing, but I want you to see what you can find out. Given the curious nature of his current situation, it's worth at least looking into."
    "Will do," she said. She wadded up her napkin and wiped off her spot at the table, then jumped to her feet. "Okay," she said, "I'm off to see what I can see. Good luck with the men in green."
    He smiled back at her. "I'll be in touch."
    It was a twenty-minute drive to the Barneses' household. Katie spent it dividing her attention between the breathtaking vistas outside her window and a replay of Reed's late-night message. Knowing what she knew now about the chief's suspicions, Katie could hear the subtle hints of it in Reed's message. It was in phrases like "stubborn refusal to cooperate," and "withholding crucial evidence." Katie wasn't ready to adopt Hart's conclusions, though. The woman was protecting her husband's privacy—and he was one of the last men left in the world who really had any worth protecting. That didn't exactly sound like a crime to Katie.
    She felt that all the more strongly when the car pulled to a stop halfway down a suburban street, and she climbed out into the bright morning sunlight at the end of a well-tended gravel walk. Mrs. Barnes stood waiting in the doorway, and she gave a friendly wave when Katie met her eyes. "Come on in," she called, "I've got some breakfast