The Affair recap

In 1997, Army military police major Jack Reacher investigates murders near Fort Kelham while Sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux pursues the same case from the civilian side. A secret perimeter manned by the Tennessee Free Citizens leads Reacher to Colonel John James Frazer, who monitored Reacher's calls and arranged the militia deployment. Frazer dies after attacking Reacher. Evidence then points toward Captain Reed Riley, son of Senator Carlton Riley, but a Marine Corps file attempts to blame Deveraux. Frances Neagley proves that a central figure in that file never existed. Reacher concludes that Reed killed Rosemary McClatchy, Shawna Lindsay, and Janice May Chapman, and that the senator's influence drove the protection effort. Reacher kills Reed and Carlton Riley, stages their deaths as a train collision, and supports a false official account blaming a dead militia member. Deveraux is privately cleared, while Reacher faces likely consequences within the Army.

Previously: Jack Reacher serves in the Army as a military police major.

On 11 March 1997, Army military police major Jack Reacher enters the Pentagon for a meeting while expecting that he may be detained. He chooses a crowded entrance, notices four armed security officers who seem unusually idle, and refuses an attempt to draw him aside. The men follow him beyond the turnstile, reinforcing his suspicion that they are waiting for him. Reacher takes an indirect route before reaching the office of Colonel John James Frazer, the Pentagon's Senate liaison. Frazer says the apparent surveillance was merely a security shift change. Reacher then admits that he falsely claimed to possess a name, hoping the claim would provoke whoever might want to stop his inquiry. A flashback explains Reacher's deliberately unshaven and poorly groomed appearance: his commanding officer, Leon Garber, arranged it as part of an assignment concerning a problem in Mississippi. The immediate fear of arrest subsides, but the reason for the assignment and the identity of anyone threatened by Reacher's inquiry remain unresolved.

In Carter Crossing, Sheriff Elizabeth Deveraux and Reacher compare a series of murders with suspicious activity outside Fort Kelham. A civilian is killed near the post with a military-style wound dressing applied, even though military police major Duncan Munro denies that the Army maintains an exclusion zone. A wreck tied to Reed Riley is removed with unusual thoroughness, adding to the signs of organized concealment. Frances Neagley warns Reacher that his assignment may be intended to ruin him. Shawna Lindsay's brother Bruce describes her soldier-like boyfriend Reed and his battered blue Chevrolet. Janice May Chapman, another victim, appears to have created her Carter Crossing life only three years earlier. Reacher requests fingerprints from her home while he and Deveraux begin working together more openly and become sexual partners. Karla Dixon finds no Kosovo money leaving the region, weakening the suggested financial motive, although two local women had disappeared there during an inquiry led by Munro. Chapman's fingerprints return under the unexplained name Audrey Shaw. Before Bruce can provide further information, he is shot near Fort Kelham, apparently by someone positioned around the perimeter.

Reacher finds that the armed force outside Fort Kelham is the Tennessee Free Citizens, a civilian militia using illicit Army weapons. One member admits killing Bruce Lindsay and a journalist. Reacher kills him, disperses the group, and uses a tapped call to suggest that he knows who arranged the deployment. Stan Lowrey then establishes that Janice May Chapman was formerly Audrey Shaw, who disappeared after an affair with Senator Carlton Riley. Duncan Munro identifies Captain Reed Riley, the senator's son and a Fort Kelham company commander, as the common boyfriend of Chapman and Shawna Lindsay. Emmeline McClatchy confirms that Reed also dated her daughter Rosemary, who may have been pregnant. Deveraux admits that suspicious blood found at her abandoned family property came from a deer she had hunted, not a murder. At the Pentagon, Reacher proves that Colonel Frazer knew information available only through the tapped call. Frazer attacks him and dies in the fight. Frances Neagley disguises the death as an accident. Leon Garber then presents a Marine Corps file accusing Deveraux of misconduct involving Paul Evers and Alice Bouton and concludes that she killed the women. Fort Kelham reopens, but Reacher distrusts the new case and returns to Carter Crossing.

Reacher continues investigating despite the Army's case against Elizabeth Deveraux. Frances Neagley and Stan Lowrey trace the people named in the file: Paul Evers is dead, and no service record can initially be found for Alice Bouton. Munro's interviews establish that Reed Riley dated all three murdered women and falsely claimed a relationship with Deveraux. With Senator Carlton Riley visiting Fort Kelham, Ranger teams are sent to keep Reacher and Munro from interfering. Neagley confirms through Marine Corps Personnel Command that Alice Bouton never existed. Reacher recognizes additional defects in the file, including the use of Deveraux's later rank in a supposedly older record and reliance on dead corroborating figures. He escapes the Rangers holding him, while Munro defeats the team sent after him. Munro keeps Deveraux occupied and helps ensure Reed leaves the senator's event last. Reacher intercepts Reed and Carlton Riley and takes them onto a railroad track. The senator acknowledges that the Fort Kelham deployment benefited his son. Reacher concludes that Reed murdered Rosemary McClatchy, Shawna Lindsay, and Janice May Chapman, and that the false file was created to protect him. Reacher kills both Rileys and stages a train collision. The Army publicly blames a dead militia member for the murders. Deveraux is privately cleared, but Reacher is left vulnerable to career consequences.

Frances Neagley's search establishes that Alice Bouton never existed, confirming Reacher's suspicion that the Marine Corps case against Elizabeth Deveraux was fabricated. Duncan Munro helps keep Deveraux away while arranging for Reed Riley to leave Senator Carlton Riley's event last. Reacher intercepts father and son, forces the senator to acknowledge that the Fort Kelham operation served Reed's interests, and concludes that Reed murdered Rosemary McClatchy, Shawna Lindsay, and Janice May Chapman. Reacher kills both Rileys and makes their deaths appear to result from a train collision. The public case closes under a false Army account that assigns the murders to a dead member of a local white-supremacist militia. Deveraux and Munro know that the official resolution is untrue, Frazer is dead, and the Tennessee Free Citizens have been dispersed. Reacher and Deveraux's relationship has no stated final resolution. Reacher remains in the Army for the moment but is exposed to career repercussions for defying the effort to protect Senator Riley.