“Stay down, Otto,” Reese warned.
“Fuck you!” Accustomed to winning because of his massive size, the man lumbered to his feet. A crowd had begun to gather. Otto looked at them and smiled. Spurred on by their cheers of support, he charged like a bull, head down, big feet thundering across the concrete floor.
Reese used the guy’s own momentum against him, turned to the side and gave Otto a shove, followed by a hard kick in the ass as he roared past. He landed on all fours and slid into a metal table, turning it upside down with a clatter. He shook his head like a big wet dog, took a couple of long, deep breaths, and staggered back to his feet.
“All I want, Otto, are the answers to my questions.”
A muscle in Otto’s jaw worked up and down. His round face was bathed in sweat and he was breathing hard. He took a last ragged breath and blew it out. His shoulders sagged and he nodded. “I didn’t sabotage that chopper. I wouldn’t do a thing like that.”
Reese walked up to him, tipped his head toward a quiet area off to one side of the hangar. “Let’s talk.”
* * *
As the group of uniformed workmen began to disperse, Kenzie stood in shocked silence in the shadows inside the hangar. She had just watched the CEO of Garrett Resources brawling like a street thug with a man the size of a grizzly bear.
And he had won.
She should have been appalled. Grown men didn’t act that way. Not civilized men, at any rate.
Instead, her heart was thundering with excitement and she couldn’t stop a twinge of admiration. The memory of Reese moving with the grace of a gazelle and the strength of a tiger was amazing. And sexy. A sweep of unwanted desire still pumped through her veins.
She knew Reese kept himself in good physical condition, knew he practiced with a self-defense coach three early mornings a week. But she had no idea he could handle a bad situation in a way that would make Jack Reacher take notice. No wonder he didn’t believe he needed a bodyguard.
He didn’t.
He finished talking to the mechanic, spotted her, and headed in her direction. She noticed his knuckles were bruised and there was a faint, darkening spot on his cheek, but aside from that, he looked fine. Too fine.
“I...umm, saw what happened with Otto Kovacs.”
One of his black eyebrows went up. “We...ahh...worked things out.”
“Yes, that was apparent.”
“I don’t think he had anything to do with sabotaging the engine.”
“What about the other guy, Fernando Ramirez?”
“Calls himself Ferdie. Apparently, he’s just back from lunch. I’m on my way to talk to him now.” Reese started walking and Kenzie fell in beside him, her purse slung over her shoulder.
“You get that passenger list?” he asked.
“It’s right here.” She pulled it out of her bag and Reese took it from her hand. He took out his cell phone and hit the button for one of his contacts.
“Tabby, it’s Reese. I’ve got those names we talked about.” He rattled off the passengers’ names and those of the pilots. “I need to know if one of these people was the target. Look for anything in their backgrounds that might have made an enemy willing to take down a helo in order to kill them.”
He nodded at something from the other end of the line, then added the names of the last two mechanics to work on the helo before the crash, Ramirez and Kovaks. The call ended and Reese shoved the phone back into the pocket of his jeans.
“One of the detectives from Maximum Security?” she guessed.
“In a way. Computer specialist named Tabitha Love. Technically, Tabby works for Chase and the gang at The Max, but since I’m a Garrett, she puts up with me.” A smile touched his lips. She watched the slow, sensuous curve, and her stomach contracted.
“Maybe she’ll find something,” Kenzie said.
“If anyone can, it’s Tabby.”
Kenzie paused as Reese came to a halt in front of a dark-skinned Hispanic male as small as Otto was big.
“Ferdie Ramirez?” Reese guessed.
“That’s right. What can I do for you?”
Reese identified himself and Kenzie, told Ferdie about the NTSB findings, and asked him about the crash.
“I don’t know anything about it, I swear. It’s my job to keep the damn things running, not cause them to fall out of the sky.”
“You and Otto were the last guys to work on the chopper. The FBI is going to be breathing down your necks. If you two are innocent, who else could have done it?”
Ferdie started shaking his head. He was thin and wiry, his face slightly weathered. “I got no idea who crashed the helo or why the hell they would want to do it.” He paused, his eyebrows sliding together. “Wait a minute. I remember something that might be important.”
“I’m listening.”
“The day before the crash, first thing that morning, one of the guys noticed a window in the back of the shop had been jimmied open. Whoever broke in would have had access to the helo.”
“You report the break-in to the police?”
“I reported it to my super and he called the sheriff. Deputy came out and took a look, asked us if anything was missing. We searched but didn’t find anything gone. I’m pretty sure the deputy filed a report, but that was the end of it. Until now, it didn’t seem important. I mean, we all thought the crash was an accident.”
“Thanks, Ferdie.” Reese handed him one of his Garrett Resources business cards. “If you think of anything else, I’d appreciate a call.”
Ferdie nodded, tucked the card into the breast pocket of his overalls, and walked away.
Kenzie looked at Reese. “You think someone from outside the terminal could have broken in and sabotaged the engine?”
“I don’t know, but it’s something we need to check out.”
They started walking back across the asphalt yard. “I have a feeling you don’t think it was Ferdie, either,” Kenzie said.
“The break-in changes the dynamics. It makes sense it was someone who wouldn’t immediately be a suspect. Someone other than one of the regular mechanics.”
“True, but from what you’ve said, whoever it was had to be an expert, someone who knew how to sabotage the chopper without anyone figuring it out. It’s been weeks. Whoever did it almost got away without anyone knowing.”
Reese’s jaw clenched, but he made no comment.
It was late in the afternoon and they hadn’t had anything besides coffee all day.