Jack Reacher By Lee Child Killing Floor P1

this is audible Killing Floor by Lee Child read by Jeff Harding chapter 1 I was arrested in Eno's Diner at 12:00 I was eating eggs and drinking coffee a late breakfast not lunch I was wet and tired after a long walk and heavy rain all the way from the highway to the edge of town the diner was small but bright and clean brand new built to resemble a converted railroad car narrow with a long lunch counter on one side and a kitchen bumped out back booths lining the opposite wall a doorway where the center Booth would be I was in a booth at a window reading somebody's abandoned newspaper about the campaign for a president I didn't vote for last time and wasn't going to vote for this time outside the rain had stopped but the glass was still pebbled with bright drops I saw the police cruisers pull into the gravel lot they were moving fast and crunched to a stop light bars flashing and popping red and blue light and the raindrops on my window doors burst open policemen jumped out two from each car weapons ready two revolvers two shotguns this was heavy stuff one revolver and one shotgun ran to the back one of each rushed the door I just sat and watched them I knew who was in The Diner a cooking back two waitresses two old men and me this operation was for me I had been in town less than a half hour the other five had probably been here all their lives any problem with any of them and an embarrassed Sergeant would have shuffled in he would be apologetic he would Mumble to them he would ask them to come down to the Station House so the heavy weapons in the rush weren't for any of them they were for me I crammed egg into my mouth and trapped a five under the plate folded the abandoned newspaper into a square and shoved it into my coat pocket kept my hands above the table and drained my cup the guy with a revolver stayed at the door he went into a Crouch and pointed the weapon two-handed at my head the guy with the shotgun approached close these were fit lean boys neat and tidy textbook moves the revolver at the door could cover the room with a degree of accuracy the shotgun up close could splatter me all over the window the other way around would be a mistake the revolver could miss in a Close Quarters struggle and a longrange shotgun blast from the door would kill the arrested officer and the old guy in the rear Booth as well as me so far they were doing it right no doubt about that they had the advantage no doubt about that either the tight Booth trapped me I was too hemmed in to do much I spread my hands on the table the officer with the shotgun came near freeze police he screamed he was screaming as loud as he could blowing off his tent and trying to scare me textbook moves plenty of Sound and Fury to soften the target I raised my hands the guy with the revolver started in from the door the guy with the shotgun came closer too close their first error if I had to I might have lunged for the shotgun barrel and forced it up a blast into the ceiling perhaps and an elbow into the policeman's face and the shotgun could have been mine the guy with the revolver had narrowed his angle and couldn't risk hitting his partner it could have ended badly for them but I just sat there hands raised the guy with the shotgun was still screaming and jumping out here on the floor he yelled I slid slowly out of the booth and extended my wrist to the officer with the revolver I wasn't going to lie on the floor not for these country boys not if they brought along on their whole Police Department with howitzers the guy with the revolver was a sergeant he was pretty calm the shotgun covered me as the sergeant holstered his revolver and unclipped the handcuffs from his belt and clicked them on my wrists the backup team came in through the kitchen they walked around the Lunch Counter took up position behind me they patted me down very thorough I saw the sergeant acknowledge the shakes of the heads no weapon the backup guys each took an elbow the shotgun still covered me the sergeant stepped up in front he was a compact athletic white man lean and tanned my age the acetate name plate above his shirt pocket said Baker he looked up at me you are under arrest for murder he said you have the right to remain silent anything you say may be used as evidence against you you have the right to represent by an attorney should you be unable to afford an attorney one will be appointed for you by the state of Georgia free of charge do you understand these rights it was a fine rendition of Miranda he spoke clearly he didn't read it from a card he spoke like he knew what it meant and why it was important to him and to me I didn't respond do you understand your rights he said again again I didn't respond long experience had taught me that absolute silence is the best way say something and it can be misheard misunderstood misinterpreted it can get you convicted it can get you killed silence upsets the arresting officer he has to tell you silence is your right but he hates it if you exercise that right I was being arrested for murder but I said nothing do you understand your rights the guy called Baker asked me again do you speak English he was calm I said nothing he remained calm he had the calm of a man whose moment of danger had passed he would just drive me to the Station House and then I would become someone else's problem he glanced around his three fellow officers okay make a note he said nothing he grunted let's go I was walked towards the door at the door we formed a single file first Baker then the guy with the shotgun walking backward still with the big black Barrel pointing at me his name played said Stevenson he too was a medium white man in good shape his weapon looked like a drain pipe pointing at my gut behind me were the backup guys I was pushed through the door with with a hand flat on my back outside in the gravel lot the heat was up it must have rained all night and most of the morning now the sun was blasting away and the ground was steaming normally this would be a Dusty hot place today it was steaming with that wonderful headyy Aroma of drenched pavement under a hot noon Sun I stood face up to the Sun and inhaled as the officers regrouped one at each elbow for the short walk to the patrol cars Stevenson still on the ball with the pump action at the first car he skipped backward a step as Baker opened the rear door my head was pushed down I was nudged into the car with the neat hip-to-hip contact from the leftand backup good moves in a town this far from anywhere surely the result of a lot of training rather than a lot of experience I was alone in the back of the car a thick glass part partition divided the space the front doors were still open Baker and Stevenson got in Baker drove Stevenson was twisted around keeping me under observation nobody talked the backup car followed the cars were new quiet and smooth riding clean and cool inside no ingrain traces of desperate and pathetic people riding where I was riding I looked out of the window Georgia I saw rich land heavy damp red Earth very long and straight rows of low bushes in the fields peanuts maybe belly crops but valuable to the grower or to the owner did people own their land here or did giant corporations I didn't know the drive to town was short the car hissed over the smooth soaked tarmac after maybe a half smile I saw two neat buildings both new both with tidy Landscaping the police station and the firehouse they stood alone together behind a wide lawn with a statue North Edge of Town attractive County architecture on a generous budget roads were smooth tarmac sidewalks were Red Blocks 300 yd South I could see a blinding White Church steeple behind a small huddle of buildings I could see flag poles awnings crisp paint green Lawns everything refreshed by The Heavy Rain now steaming and somehow intense in the heat a prosperous Community built I guess on prosperous farm incomes and high taxes on the commuters who worked up in Atlanta Stevenson still stared at me as the car slowed to yaw into the approach to the Station House a wide semicircle of driveway I read on a low Masonry sign margrave Police Headquarters I thought should I be worried I was under arrest in a town where I'd never been before apparently for murder but I knew two things first they couldn't prove something had happened if it hadn't happened and second I hadn't killed anybody not in their town and not for a long time anyway chapter 2 we pulled up at the doors of the long low building Baker got out of the car and looked up and down along the frontage the backup guys stood by Stevenson walked around the back of our car took up a position opposite Baker pointed the shotgun at me this was a good team Baker opened my door okay let's go let's go he said almost a whisper he was bouncing on the balls of his feet scanning the area I pivoted slowly and twisted out of the car the handcuffs didn't help even hotter now I stepped forward and waited the backup fell in behind me ahead of me was the Station House entrance there was a long marble lentil crisply engraved town of margrave police headquarters below it were plate glass doors Baker p pulled one open it sucked against rubber seals the backup pushed me through the door suck shut behind me inside it was cool again everything was white and chrome lights were fluorescent it looked like a bank or an insurance office there was carpet a desk sergeant stood behind a long reception counter the way the place looked he should have said how may I help you sir but he said nothing he just looked at me behind him was a huge open planed space a dark-haired woman in uniform was sitting at a wide low desk she'd been doing paperwork on a keyboard now she was looking at me I stood there an officer on each elbow Stevenson was backed up against the reception counter his shotgun was pointed at me Baker stood there looking at me the desk sergeant and the woman in uniform were looking at me I looked back at them then I was walked to the left they stopped me in front of a door Baker swung it open and I was pushed into a room it was an interview facility no windows a white table and three chairs carpet and the top corner of the room a camera the air in the room was set very cold I was still wet from the rain I stood there and Baker fered into every pocket my belongings made a small pile on the table table a roll of cash some coins receipts tickets scraps a baker checked the newspaper and left it in my pocket glanced at my watch and left it on my wrist he wasn't interested in those things everything else was swept into a large Ziploc bag a bag made for people with more in their pockets than I carry the bag had a white panel printed on it Stevenson wrote some kind of a number on the panel Baker told me to sit down then they all left the room Stevenson carried the bag with my stuff in it they went out and closed the door and I heard the lock turning it had a heavy well greased sound the sound of precision the sound of a big steel lock sounded like a lock that would keep me in I figured they would leave me isolated for a while it usually happens that way isolation causes urge to talk an urge to talk can become an urge to confess a brutal arrest followed by an hour's isolation is pretty good strategy but I figured wrong they hadn't planned an hour's isolation maybe their second slight tactical mistake Baker unlocked the door and stepped back in he carried a plastic cup of coffee then he signaled the uniformed woman into the room the one I'd seen at her desk in the open area the heavy lock clicked behind her she carried a metal flight case which she set on the table she clicked it open and took out a long black number holder in it were white plastic numbers she handed it to me with that brusk apologetic sympathy that Dental nurses use I took it in my cuffed hands squinted down to make sure it was the right way up and held it under my chin the woman took an ugly camera out of the case and sat opposite me she rested her elbows on the table to brace the camera sitting forward her breasts rested on the edge of the table this was a good-look woman dark hair great eyes I stared at her and smiled the camera clicked and flashed before she could ask I turned sideways on the chair for the profile held the long number against my shoulder and stared at the wall the camera clicked and flashed again I turned back and held out the number two-handed because of the Cuffs she took it from me with that Pur grin which says yes it's unpleasant but it's necessary like the dental nurse then she took out the fingerprint gear a crisp 10 card already labeled with a number the thumb spaces are always too small this one had a reverse side with two squares for palm prints the handcuffs made the process difficult Baker didn't offer to remove them the woman Inked my hands her fingers were smooth and cool no wedding band afterwards she handed me a w of tissues the ink came off very easily some kind of new stuff I hadn't seen before the woman unloaded the camera and put the film with the prince card on the table she repacked the camera into the flight case Baker wrapped on the door the lock clicked again the woman picked up her stuff nobody spoke the woman left the room Baker stayed in there with me he shut the door and it locked with the same greased click then he leaned on the door and looked at me my Chief's coming on down he said you're going to have to talk to him we got a situation here got to be cleared up I said nothing back to him talking to me wasn't going to clear any situation up for anybody but the guy was acting civilized respectful so I set him a test held out my hands toward him an unspoken request to unlock the Cuffs he stood still for a moment then took out the key and unlocked them clipped them back on his belt looked at me I looked back and dropped my arms to my sides no grateful exhalation no ruul rubbing of my wrists I didn't want a relationship with this guy but I did speak okay I said let's go meet your Chief it was the first time I had spoken since ordering breakfast now Baker was the one who looked grateful he wrapped twice on the door and it was unlocked from the outside he opened it up and signaled me through Stevenson was waiting with his back to the large open area the shotgun was gone the backup crew was gone things were calming down they formed up one on each side Baker gripped my elbow lightly we walked down the side of the open area and came to a door at the back Stevenson pushed it open and we walked through into a large office lots of Rosewood all over it a fat guy sat at a big Rosewood desk behind him were a couple of big flags there was a stars and stripes with a old Fringe on the left and what I guessed was the Georgia state flag on the right on the wall between the flags was a clock it was a big old round thing framed in Mahogany looked like it had Decades of polish on it I figured it must be the clock from whatever old Station House they bulldozed to build this new place I figured the architect had used it to give a sense of History to the new building it was showing nearly 12:30 the fat guy at the big desk looked up at me as I was pushed in towards him I saw him look blank like he was trying to place me he looked again harder then he sneered at me and spoke in a wheezing gasp which would have been a shout if it hadn't been strangled by bad lungs get your ass in that chair and keep your filthy mouth shut he said this fat guy was a surprise he looked like a real [ __ ] opposite to what I'd seen so far Baker and his arrest team were the business professional and efficient the fingerprint woman had been decent but this fat police chief was a waste of space Thin Dirty hair sweating despite the chilly air the blotchy red and gray complexion of an unfit overweight mess blood pressure Skyhigh arteries hard as rocks he didn't look halfway competent my name name is marrison he wheezed as if I cared I am chief of the police department down here in margrave and you are a murdering Outsider bastard you've come down here to my town and you've messed up right there on Mr kleiner's private property so now you're going to make a full confession of my chief of detectives he stopped and looked up at me like he was still trying to place me or like he was waiting for a response he didn't get one so he jabbed his fat finger at me and then you're going to jail he said and then you're going to the chair and then I'm going to take a dump on your shitty little Popper's grave he hauled his bulk out of the chair and looked away from me I deal with this myself he said but I'm a busy man he waddled out from behind his desk I was standing there between his desk and the door as he crabbed by he stopped his fat nose was about level with the middle button on my coat he was still looking up at me like he was puzzled by something I've seen you before he said where was it he glanced at Baker and then at Stevenson like he was expecting them to note what he was saying and when he was saying it I've seen this guy for he told them he slammed the office door and I was left waiting with the two cops until the chief of detectives swung in a tall black guy not old but graying and balding just enough to give him a patrici air brisk and confident well-dressed in an old-fashioned Tweed suit mol skin vest shined shoes this guy looked like a chief should look he signaled Baker and Stevenson out out of the office closed the door behind them sat down at the desk and waved me to the opposite chair he rattled open a drawer and pulled out a cassette recorder raised it high arms length to pull out the tangle of cords plugged in the power in the microphone inserted a tape pressed record and flicked the microphone with his fingernail stopped the tape and wound it back pressed play heard the thunk of his nail nodded wound back again and pressed record I sat and watched him for a moment there was silence just a faint hum the air the lights or the computer or the recorder worring slowly I could hear the slow tick of the Old Clock it made a patient sound like it was prepared to tick on forever no matter what I chose to do then the guy sat right back in his chair and looked hard at me did the steepled fingers thing like tall elegant people can right he said we got a few questions don't we the voice was deep like a rumble not a Southern accent he looked and sounded like a Boston Banker except he was black my name is Finley he said my rank is Captain I am chief of this Department's detective Bureau I understand you have been apprised of your rights you have not yet confirmed that you understood them before we go any further we must pursue that preliminary matter not a Boston backer more like a Harvard guy I understand my rights I said he nodded good he said I'm glad about that where's your lawyer I don't need a lawyer I said you're charged with murder he said you need a lawyer we'll provide one you know free of charge do you want us to provide one free of charge no I don't need a lawyer I said the guy called Finley stared at me over his fingers for a long moment okay he said but you're going to have to sign a release you know you've been advised you may have a lawyer and we'll provide one at no cost to yourself but you absolutely don't want one okay I said he shuffled a form from another drawer and checked his watch to enter date and time he slid the form across to me a large printed cross marked the line where I was supposed to sign he slid me a pen I signed and slid the form back he studied it placed it in a buff folder I can't read that signature he said so for the record we'll start with your name your address and your date of birth there was silence again I looked at him this was a stubborn guy probably 45 you don't get to be chief of detectives in a Georgia jurisdiction if you're 45 and black except if you're a stubborn guy no percentage in jerking them around I drew a breath my name is Jack Creer I said no middle name no address he wrote it down not much to write I told him my date of birth okay Mr reer Finley said as I said we have a lot of questions I've glanced through your personal effects you were carrying no idea at all no driver's license no credit cards no nothing you have no address you say so I I'm asking myself who is this guy he didn't wait for any kind of a comment on that from me who was the guy with the shaved head he asked me I didn't answer I was watching The Big Clock waiting for the minute hand to move tell me what happened he said I had no idea what had happened no idea at all something had happened to somebody body but not to me I sat there didn't answer what is plaus Finley asked I looked at him and Shrugged the United States motto I said urbus Unum adopted in 1776 by the Second Continental Congress right he just grunted at me I carried on looking straight at him I figured this was the type of a guy who might answer a question what is this about I asked him silence again his turn to look at me I could see him thinking about whether to answer and how what is this about I asked him again he sat back and steepled his fingers you know what this is about he said homicide with some very disturbing features victim was found this morning up at the Kleiner Warehouse North End of the County Road up at the highway Cloverleaf witness has reported a man seen walking away from that location shortly after 8:00 this morning description given was that of a white man very tall wearing a long black overcoat Fair hair no hat no baggage silence again I'm a white man I am very tall my hair is fair I was sitting there wearing a long black overcoat I didn't have a hat or a bag I had been walking on the county road for the best part of 4 hours this morning from 8 until about 11:45 how long is a county road I said from the highway all the way down to here Finley thought about it maybe 14 miles I guess he said right right I said I walked all the way down from the highway into town 14 miles maybe plenty of people must have seen me doesn't mean I did anything to anybody he didn't respond I was getting curious about this situation is that your neighborhood I asked him all the way over at the highway yes it is he said jurisdiction issue is clear no way out for you there Mr Reacher the town limit extends 14 mil right up to the highway the warehousing out there is mine no doubt about that he waited I nodded he carried on Kleiner built the place 5 years ago he said you heard of him I shook my head how should I have heard of him I said I've never been here before he's a big deal around here Finley said his operation out there pays us a lot of taxes does us a lot of good a lot of Revenue and a lot of benefit for the town without a lot of mess because it's so far away right so we tried to take care of it for him but now it's a homicide scene and you've got explaining to [Music] do the guy was doing his job but he was wasting money my time okay Finley I said I'll make a statement describing every little thing I did since I entered your lousy Town limits until I got hauled in here in the middle of my damn breakfast if you can make anything out of it I'll give you a damn medal because all I did was to Place One Foot In Front of the other for nearly 4 hours in the pouring rain all the way through your precious 14 damn miles that was the longest speech I had made for 6 months months Finley sat and gazed at me I watched him struggling with any detective's basic dilemma his gut told him I might not be his man but I was sitting right there in front of him so what should a detective do I let him Ponder tried to time it right with a nudge in the right direction I was going to say something about the real guy still running around out there while he was wasting time in here with me that would feed his insecurity but he jumped first in the wrong direction no statements he said I'll ask the questions and you will answer them you're Jack nun Reacher no address no ID what are you a vagrant I sigh today was Friday the Big Clock showed it was already more than half over this guy Finley was going to go through all the Hoops with this I was going to spend the weekend in a Cell probably get out Monday I'm not a vagrant Finley I said I'm a hobo big difference he shook his head slowly don't get smart with me rer he said you're in deep [ __ ] bad things happened up there our witness saw you leaving the scene you're a stranger with no ID and no story so don't get smart with me he was still just doing his job but he was still wasting my time I wasn't leaving a homicide scene I said I was walking down a damn road there's a difference right people leaving homicide scenes run and hide they don't walk straight down the road what's wrong about walking down a road people walk down roads all the damn time don't don't they Finley leaned forward and shook his head no he said nobody has walked the length of that road since the invention of the automobile so why no address where are you from answer the questions let's get this done okay Finley let's get it done I said I don't have an address because I don't live anywhere maybe one day I'll live somewhere and then I'll have an address and I'll send you a picture postcard and you can put it in your damn address book since you seem so damn concerned about it Finley gazed at me and reviewed his options elected to go the patient route patient but stubborn like he couldn't be deflected where are you from he asked what was your last address what exactly do you mean when you say Where am I from I asked his lips were clamped I was getting him bad-tempered too but he stayed patient laced the patience with an icy sarcasm okay he said you don't understand my question so let me try to make it quite clear what I mean is where were you born or where have you lived for that majority period of your life which you instinctively regard as predominant in a social or cultural context I just looked at him I'll give you an example he said I myself was born in Boston was educated in Boston and subsequently worked for 20 years in Boston so I would say and I think you would agree that I come from Boston I was right a Harvard guy a Harvard guy running out of patience okay I said you've ask the questions I'll answer them but let me tell you something I'm not your guy by Monday you'll know I'm not your guy so do yourself a favor don't stop looking Finley was fighting a smile he nodded Gravely I appreciate your advice he said and your concern for my career you're welcome I said go on he said oh okay I said according to your fancy definition I don't come from anywhere I come from a place called military I was born on a US Army base in West Berlin my old man was Marine Corp and my mother was a French civilian he met in Holland they got married in Korea Finley nodded made a note I was a military kid I said show me a list of US bases all around the world and that's a list of where I lived I did High school in two dozen different countries and I did four years up at West Point go on Finley said I stayed in the Army I said military police I served and lived in all those bases all over again then Finley after 36 years of first being an officer's kid and then being an officer myself suddenly there's no need for a great big army anymore because the Soviets have gone belly up so hooray we get the peace dividend which for you means your taxes get spent on something else but for me means I'm a 36-year-old unemployed ex-military policeman getting called a vagrant by smug civilian bastards who wouldn't last 5 minutes in the world I survived he thought for a moment wasn't impressed continue he said I Shrugged at him so right now I'm just enjoying myself I said maybe eventually I'll find something to do maybe I won't maybe I'll settle somewhere maybe I won't but right now I'm not looking to he nodded jotted some more notes when did you leave the Army he asked 6 months ago I said April have you worked at all since then he asked you're joking I said when was the last time you looked for work a ail he mimicked 6 months ago I got this job well good for you Finley I said I couldn't think of anything else to say Finley gazed at me for a moment what have you been living on he asked what rank did you hold major I said they give you severance pay when they kick you out still got most of it trying to make it last you know along silence Finley drummed a rhythm with the wrong end of his pen so let's talk about the last 25 24 hours he said I sighed now I was heading for trouble I came up on the Greyhound bus I said got off at the County Road 8:00 this morning walked down into town reach that Diner ordered breakfast and I was eating it when your guys came by and hauled me in you got business here he asked I shook my head I'm out of work I said I haven't got any business anywhere he wrote that down where did you get on the bus he asked me in Tampa I said left at midnight last night Tampa in Florida he asked I nodded he rattled open another drawer pulled out a Greyhound schedule rifted it open and ran along Brown finger down a page this was a very thorough guy he looked across at me that's an Express Bus he said runs straight through North to Atlanta arrives there 9:00 in the morning doesn't stop here at 8 I shook my head I asked the driver to stop I said he said he shouldn't but he did stop specially let me off you've been around here for he asked I shook my head again got family down here he asked not down here I said you got family anywhere he asked a brother up in DC I said works for the treasury Department you got friends down here in Georgia he asked no I said Finley wrote it all down then there was a long silence I knew for sure what the next question was going to be so why he asked why get off the bus at an unscheduled stop and walk 14 miles in the rain to a place you had absolutely no reason to go to that was the killer question Finley had picked it out right away so would a prosecutor and I had no real answer what can I tell you I said it was an arbitrary decision I was Restless I have to be somewhere right but why here he said I don't know I said guy next to me had a map and I picked this place out I wanted to get off the main drags thought I could loop back down toward the gulf further west maybe you picked this place out Finley said don't give me that [ __ ] how could you pick this place out it's just a name it's just a DOT on the map you must have had a reason I nodded I thought I'd come and look for blind Blake I said who the hell is blind Blake he said I watched him evaluating scenarios like a chess computer evaluates moves was blind Blake my friend my enemy my accomplice conspirator mentor creditor debtor my next victim blind Blake was a guitar player I said died 60 years ago maybe murdered my brother bought a record sleeve note said it happened in margrave he wrote me about it said he was through here a couple of times in the spring some kind of business I thought I'd come down and check the story out Finley looked black it must have sounded pretty thin to him it would have sounded pretty thin to me too in his position you came here looking for a guitar player he said a guitar player who died 60 years ago why are you a guitar player no I said how did your brother write you he asked when you got no address he wrote my old unit I said they forward my mail to my bank where I put my severance pay they send it on when I wire them for cash he shook his head made a note the midnight Greyhound out of Tampa right he said I nodded got your bus ticket he asked in the property bag I guess I said I remembered Baker bagging up all my pocket junk Stevenson tagging it would the bus driver remember Finley said maybe I said it was a special stop I had to ask him I became like a spectator the situation became abstract my job had been not that different from Finley's I had an odd feeling of conferring with him about somebody else's case like we were colleagues discussing a naughty problem why aren't you working Finley asked I Shrugged tried to explain because I don't want to work I said I worked 13 years got me nowhere I feel like I tried it their way and to hell with them now I'm going to try it my way Finley sat and gazed at me did you have any trouble in the Army he said no more than you did in Boston I said he was surprised what do you mean by that he said you did 20 years in Boston I said that's what you told me Finley so why are you down here in this no account little place you should be taking your pension going out fishing Cape Cod or wherever what's your story that's my business Mr Reacher he said answer my question I Shrugged ask the Army I said I will he said you can be damn sure of that did you get an honorable discharge would they give me Severance if I didn't I said why should I believe they gave you a dime he said you live like a damn vagrant honorable discharge yes or no yes I said of course he made another note thought for a while how did it make you feel being let go he asked I thought about it Shrugged at him didn't make me feel like anything I said made me feel like I was in the Army and now I'm not in the Army do you feel bitter he said let down no I said should I no problems at all he asked like there had to be something I felt like I had to give him some kind of an answer but I couldn't think of anything I had been in the service since the day I was born now I was out being out felt great felt like Freedom like all my life I'd had a slight headache not noticing until it was gone my only problem was making a living how to make a living without giving up the freedom was not an easy trick I hadn't earned a scent in 6 months that was my only problem but I wasn't about to tell Finley that he'd see it as a motive he'd think I had decided to bankroll my vagrant Lifestyle by robbing people at warehouses and then killing them I guess the transition is hard to manage I said especially since I had the life as a kid too Finley nodded considered my answer why you in particular he said did you volunteer to muster out I never volunteer for anything I said solders basic rule another silence did you specialize he asked in the service General duties initially I said that's the system then I handled secret security for 5 years then the last 6 years I handled something else let him ask what was that he asked homicide investigation I said Finley leaned right back grunted did the steepled fingers thing again he gazed at me and exhaled sat forward pointed a finger at me right he said I'm going to check you out we've got your prince those should be on file with the Army we'll get your service record all of it all the details we'll check with the bus company check your ticket find the driver find the passengers if what you say is right we'll know soon enough and if it's true it may let you off the hook obviously certain details of timing and methodology will determine the matter those details are as yet unclear he paused and exhaled again looked right at me in the meantime I'm a cautious man he said on the face of it you look bad a Drifter a vagrant no address no history your story may be [ __ ] you may be a fugitive you may have been murdering people left and right in a dozen states I just don't know I can't be expected to give you the benefit of the doubt right now why should I even have any doubt you stay locked up until we know for sure okay it was what I had expected it was exactly what I would have said but I just looked at him and shook my head you're a cautious guy I said that's for damn sure he looked back at me if I'm wrong I'll buy you lunch on Monday he said at Eno's place to make up for today I shook my head again I'm not looking for a buddy down here I said Finley just Shrugged clicked off the tape recorder rewound took out the tape rode on it he buzzed the intercom on the big Rosewood desk asked Baker to come back in I waited it was still cold but I had finally dried out the rain had fallen out of the Georgia sky and had soaked into me now it had been sucked out again by the dried office air a dehumidifier had sucked it out and piped it away Baker knocked an entered Finley told him to escort me to the cells then he nodded to me it was a nod which said if you turn out not to be the guy remember I was just doing my job I nodded back mine was a nod which said while you're covering your ass there's a killer running about outside the cell block was really just a wide Al Cove off the main open plan Squad room it was divided into three three separate cells with vertical bars the front wall was all bars a gate section hinged into each cell the metal workor had a fabulous dull glitter looked like titanium each cell was carpeted but totally empty no furniture or bed ledge just a high budget version of the oldfashioned holding pens you used to see no overnight accommodation here I asked Baker no way he replied you'll be moved to the state facility later bus comes by at 6 bus brings you back Monday he clanged the gate shut and turned his key I heard bolt sock at home all around the rim electric I took the newspaper out of my pocket took off my coat and rolled it up lay flat on the floor and crammed the coat under my head now I was truly pissed off I was going to prison for the weekend I wasn't staying in a Station House cell not that I had any other plans but I knew about civilian prisons a lot of army deserters end up in civilian prisons for one thing or another the system notifies the army military policemen gets sent to bring them back so I'd seen civilian prisons they didn't make me wild with enthusiasm I lay angrily listening to the hum of the squad room phones rang keyboards pattered the tempo Rose and fell officers moved about talking low then I tried to finish reading the borrowed newspaper it was full of [ __ ] about the president and his campaign to get himself elected again for a second term the old guy was down in Pensacola on the Gulf Coast he was aiming to get the budget balanced before his grandchildren's hair turned white he was cutting things like a guy with a machete blasting his way through the jungle down in Pensacola he was sticking it to the Coast Guard they'd been running an Initiative for the last 12 months they'd been out in force like a curved Shield off Florida's Coast every day for a year boarding and searching all the Marine Traffic they didn't like the smell of it had been announced with an enormous Fanfare and it had been successful beyond their Wildest Dreams they'd seized all kinds of stuff drugs mostly but guns as well illegal migrants from Haiti and Cuba the interdiction was reducing crime all over the states months later and thousands of miles further down the line a big success so it was being abandoned it was very expensive to run the Coast Guard's budget was into serious deficit the president said he couldn't increase it in fact he'd have to cut it the economy was in a mess nothing else he could do so the interdiction initiative would be cancelled in 7 Days time the president was trying to come across like a Statesman law enforcement big shots were angry because they figured prevention was better than cure Washington insiders were happy because 50 cents spent on beat cops was much more visible than two bucks spent Out on the Ocean 2,000 Mi away from the voters the arguments flew back and forth and in the smudgy photographs the president was just beaming away like a Statesman saying there was nothing he could do I stopped reading because it was just making me angrier to calm down I ran music through my head the chorus and Smoke Stack Lightning the howl and wolf version puts a wonderful strangled cry on the end of the first line they say you need to ride the rails for a while to understand the traveling Blues they're wrong to understand the traveling Blues CL you need to be locked down somewhere in a cell or in the Army someplace where you're caged some place where Smoke Stack Lightning looks like a far away Beacon of impossible freedom I lay there with my coat as a pillow and listen to the music in my head at the end of the third chorus I fell asleep I woke up again when Baker started kicking the bars they made a dull r ringing sound like a funeral Bell Baker stood there with Finley they looked down at me I stayed on the floor I was comfortable down there where did you say you were at midnight last night Finley asked me getting on the bus and Tampa I said we've got a new witness Finley said he saw you at the warehouse facility last night hanging around at midnight total crap Finley I said impossible who the hell is this new witness the witness is Chief Morrison Finley said the chief of police he says he was sure he had seen you before now he has remembered where chapter 3 they took me back to the Rosewood office and hand cuffs Finley sat at the big desk in front of the flags under the Old Clock Baker set a chair at the end of the desk I sat opposite Finley he took out the tape machine dragged out the cords positioned the microphone between us tested it with his fingernail rolled the tape back ready the last 24 hours Reacher he said in detail the two policemen were crackling with repressed excitement a weak case had suddenly grown strong the thrill of winning was beginning to grip them I recognize the signs I was in Tampa last night I said got on the bus at midnight witnesses can confirm that I got off the bus at 8 this morning where the county road meets the highway if Chief Morrison says he saw me at midnight he's mistaken at that time I was about 400 mil away I can't add any more check it out Finley stared at me then he nodded to Baker who opened a buff file victim is unidentified baker said no ID no wallet no distinguishing marks white male maybe 40 very tall shaved head body was found up there at 8 this morning on the ground against the perimeter fence close to the main gate it was partially covered with cardboard we were able to fin single print the body negative result no match anywhere in the database who was he Reacher Finley asked Baker waited for some sort of reaction from me he didn't get one I just sat there and listened to the quiet tick of the Old Clock the hands crawled around to 2:30 I didn't speak Baker ried through the file and selected another sheet he glanced up again and continued victim received two shots to the head he said probably a small caliber automatic with a silencer first shot was close range left temple second was a contact shot behind the left ear obviously soft noosed slugs because the Exit Wounds removed the guy's face rain has washed away the powder deposits but the burn patterns suggests the silencer fatal shot must have been the first no bullets remained in the skull no shell cases were found where's the gunun reacher Finley said I looked at him and made a face didn't speak victim died between 11:30 and 1:00 last night baker said body wasn't there at 11:30 when the evening Gat man went off duty he confirms that it was found when the day man came in to open the gate about 8:00 he saw you leaving the scene and phoned it in who was he rer Finley said again I ignored him and looked at Baker why before 1:00 I asked him the heavy rain last night began at 1:00 he said the pavement underneath the body was bone dry so the body was on the ground before 1:00 when the rain started medical opinion is he was shot at midnight I nodded smiled at them the time of death was going to let me out out tell us what happened next Finley said quietly I Shrugged at him you tell me I said I wasn't there I was in Tampa at midnight Baker leaned forward and pulled another sheet out of the file what happened next is you got weird he said you went crazy I shook my head at him I wasn't there at midnight I said again I was getting on the bus and Tampa nothing too weird about that the two cops didn't react they looked pretty Grim your first shot killed them baker said then you shot him again and then you went berserk and kick the [ __ ] out of the body there are massive postmortem injuries you shot them and then you tried to kick them apart you kicked that corpse all over the damn place you were in a frenzy then you calmed down down and tried to hide the body under the cardboard I was quiet for a long moment post morm injuries I said Baker nodded like a frenzy he said the guy looks like he was run over by a truck just about every bone is smashed but the doctor says it happened after the guy was already dead you're a weird guy Reacher that's for damn sure who was he Finley asked for the third time I just looked at him Baker was right it had got weird very weird homicidal frenzy is bad enough but postmortem frenzy is worse I'd come across it a few times didn't want to come across it anymore but the way they described it to me it didn't make any sense how did you meet the guy Finley asked I carried on just looking at him didn't answer what does pabus mean he asked I Shrugged kept quiet who was he Reacher Finley asked again I wasn't there I said I don't know anything Finley was silent what's your phone number he said suddenly I looked at him like he was crazy Finley what the hell are you talking about I said I haven't got a phone don't you listen I don't live anywhere I mean your mobile phone he said what mobile phone I said I haven't got a mobile phone a clang of fear hit me they figured me for an assassin a weird ruthless mercenary with a mobile phone who went from place to place killing people kicking their dead bodies to Pieces checking in with an underground Organization for my next Target always is on the Move Finley leaned forward he slid a piece of paper toward me it was a torn-off section of computer paper not old a greasy gloss of wear on it the patent of paper gets from a month in a pocket on it was printed an underlined heading it said plebus Under The Heading was a telephone number I looked at it didn't touch it didn't want any confusion over fingerprints is that your number Finley asked I don't have a telephone I said again I wasn't here last night the more you hassle me the more time you're wasting Finley it's a mobile phone number he said that we know operated by an Atlanta airtime supplier but we can't trace the number until Monday so we're asking you you should cooperate Reacher I looked at the scrap of paper again where was this I asked him Finley considered the question decided to answer it it was in your victim's shoe he said folded up and hidden I sat in silence for a long time I was worried I felt like somebody in a kids book who falls down a hole finds himself in a strange world where everything is different and weird like Alice Wonderland did she fall down a hole or did she get off a Greyhound in the wrong place I was in a plush and opulent office I'd seen worse offices in Swiss banks I was in the company of two policemen intelligent and professional probably had more than 30 years experience between them a mature and competent Department properly staffed and well funded a weak point with the [ __ ] Morrison at the top but as good in organization as I had seen for a while but they were all disappearing up a dead end as fast as they could run they seemed convinced the Earth was flat that the huge Georgia sky was a bowl fitting snugly over the top I was the only one who knew the Earth was round two things I said the guy is shot in the head close up with a silenced automatic weapon first shot drops him second shot is Insurance the shell cases are missing what what does that say to you professionally Finley said nothing his prime suspect was discussing the case with him like a colleague as the investigator he shouldn't allow that he should cut me down but he wanted to hear me out I could see him arguing with himself he was totally still but his mind was struggling like kittens in a sack go on he said eventually Gravely like it was a big deal that's an execution Finley I said not a robbery or a squabble that's a cold and clinical hit no evidence Left Behind that's a smart guy with a flashlight scrabbling around afterward for two small caliber shell cases go on Finley said again close range shot into the left temple I said could be the victim was in a car the shooter is talking to him through the window and raises his gun bang he leans in and fires a second shot then he picks up his shell cases and he leaves he leaves Finley said what about the rest of the stuff that went down you're suggesting a second man I shook my head there were three men I said that's clear right why three he said practical minimum of two right I said how did the victim get out there to the warehouses he drove right too far from anywhere to walk so where's his car now the shooter didn't walk there either so the Practical minimum would be a team of two they drove up there together and they drove away separately one of them in the victim's car but Finley said but the actual evidence points to a minimum of three I said think about it psychologically that's the key to this thing a guy who uses a silent small caliber automatic for a neat head shot and an insurance shot is not the type of guy who then suddenly goes berserk and kicks the [ __ ] out of a corpse right and the type of guy who does get in frenzy like that doesn't then suddenly calm down and hide the body under some old cardboard you're looking at three completely separate things there Finley so there were three guys involved Finley Shrugged at me two maybe he said shoter could have tied it up afterward no way I said he wouldn't have waited around he wouldn't like that kind a frenzy it would embarrass him and it would worry him because it adds visibility and danger to the whole thing and a guy like that if he had tidied up afterward he'd have done it right he wouldn't have left the body where the first guy who came along was going to find it so you're looking at three guys Finley thought hard so he said so which one of I supposed to be I said the shooter the maniac or the idiot who hid the body Finley and Baker looked at each other didn't answer me so whichever one what are you saying I asked them I drive up there with my two buddies and we hit this guy at midnight and then my two buddies drive away and I choose to stay there why would I do that it's crap Finley he didn't reply he was thinking I haven't got two buddies I said or a car so the very best you can do is to say the victim walked there and I walked there I met him and I very carefully shot him like a pro then recovered my shell cases and took his wallet and emptied his pockets but forgot to search his shoes then I stashed my weapon silencer flashlight mobile phone the shell cases the wallet and all then I completely changed my whole personality and kicked the corpse to pieces like a maniac then I completely changed my whole personality again and made a useless attempt to hide the body and then I waited 8 hours in the rain and then I walked down into town that's the very best you can do and it's total crap Finley because why the hell would I wait 8 hours in the rain until daylight to walk away from a homicide he looked at me for a long moment I don't know why he said a guy like Finley doesn't say a thing like that unless he's struggling he looked deflated his case was crap and he knew it but he had a severe problem with the chief's new evidence he couldn't walk up to his boss and say you're full of [ __ ] Morrison he couldn't actively pursue an alternative when his boss had handed him a suspect on a plate he could follow up my alibi that he could do nobody would criticize him for being thorough then he could start again on Monday so he was miserable because 72 hours were going to get wasted and he could foresee a big problem he had to tell his boss that actually I could not have been there at midnight he would have to politely coax a retraction out of the guy difficult to do when you're a new subordinate who's been there 6 months and when the person you're dealing with is a complete [ __ ] and your boss difficulties were all over him and the guy was Miss Miserable as hell about it he sat there breathing hard in trouble time to help him out the phone number I said you've identified it as a mobile by the code he said instead of an area code they have a prefix which accesses the mobile network okay I said but you can't identify who it belongs to because you have no reverse directories for mobiles and their office won't tell you right they want to water War he said but you need to know whose number it is right I said you know some way of doing that without a warrant he asked maybe I said why don't you just call it up and see who answers they hadn't thought of that there was another silence they were embarrassed they didn't want to look at each other or me silence Baker bailed out of the situation left Finley hold the ball he collected up the files and minded going outside to work on them Finley nodded and waved him away Baker got up and went out closed the door very quietly indeed Finley opened his mouth and closed it he needed to save some face badly it's a mobile he said if I call it up I can't tell whose it is or where it is listen Finley I said I don't care whose it is all I care is whose it isn't understand it isn't my phone so you call it up and John Doe in Atlanta or Jane Doe in Charleston answers it then you know it isn't mine Finley gazed at me drummed his fingers on the desk kept quiet you know how to do this I said call the number some [ __ ] story about a technical fa alter and unpaid Bill some computer thing get the person to confirm name and address do it Finley you're supposed to be a damn detective he leaned forward to where he had left the number slid the paper back with his long brown fingers reversed it so he could read it and picked up the phone dialed the number hit the speaker phone button the ringtone filled the air not a sonorous long tone like a home phone a high urgent Electronics sound it stopped the phone was answered Paul Hubble a voice said how may I help you a Southern accent a confident manner accustomed to telephones Mr Hubble Finley said he was looking at the desk writing down the name good afternoon this is the phone company Mobile division engineer and manager or we've had a fault reported on your number a fault the voice said seems okay to me I didn't report a fault calling out should be okay Finley said it's reaching you that may have been a problem sir I've got a signal strength meter connected right now and actually sir it's reading a bit low I can hear you okay the voice said hello Finley said you're fading a bit Mr Hubble hello it would help me to know the exact geographic location of your phone sir you know right now now in relation to our transmitting stations I'm right here at home said the voice okay Finley said he picked up his pen again could you just confirm that exact address for me don't you have my address the voice said manto man jocular stuff you seem to manage to send me a bill every month Finley glanced at me I was smiling at him he made a face I'm here in engineering right now sir he said also jocular just two regular guys battling technology customer details are in a different department I could access that data but it would take a minute you know how it is also sir you've got to keep talking anyway while this meter is connected to give me an exact strength reading you know you may as well recite your address unless you've got a favorite poem or anything the tiny speaker phone relayed a laugh from the guy called Hubble okay here goes testing testing his voice said this is Paul Hubble right here at home that's number 25 Beckman Drive I say again 025 Beckman drive down here in little old margrave that's m a r g r a v e in the state of Georgia USA how am I doing on my signal strength Finley didn't respond he was looking very worried hello The Voice said are you still there uh yes Mr Hubble Finley said I'm right here can't find any problem at all sir just a false alarm I guess thank you for your help okay said the guy called Hubble you're welcome the connection broke and dial tone filled the room Finley replaced the phone leaned back and looked up at the ceiling spoke to himself [ __ ] he said right here in town who the hell is this Paul Hubble you don't know the guy I said he looked at me a bit ruul like he'd forgotten I was there I've only been here 6 months he said I don't know everybody he leaned forward and buzzed the intercom button on the Rosewood desk called Baker back in ever heard of some guy called Hubble Finley asked him Paul Hubble here in town 25 Beckman Drive Paul Hubble baker said sure he lives here like you say always has family man Stevenson knows them some kind of an in-law or something they're friendly I think go bowling together Hubble's a banker some kind of a financial guy you know a big shot executive type works up in Atlanta some big Bank up there I see him around time to time Finley looked at him he's the guy on the other end of this number he said Hubble baker said right here in mrave well that's a hell of a thing Finley turned back to me I suppose you're going to say you never heard of this guy he asked me never heard of him I said he glared at me briefly turned back to Baker you better go on out and bring this Hubble guy in he said 20 five Beckman Drive God knows what he's got to do with anything but we better talk to him go easy on him you know he's probably a respectable guy he glared at me again and left the room banged the heavy door Baker reached over and stopped the recording machine walked me out of the office back to the cell I went in he followed and removed the handcuffs put them back on his belt stepped back out and closed the gate op operated the lock the electric bolts snicked home he walked away hey Baker I called he turned and walked back a level gaze not friendly I want something to eat I said and coffee you'll eat up at the state facility he said bus comes by at 6 he walked away he had to go and fetch the Hubble guy he would Shuffle up to him apologetic ically asked him to come down to the Station House where Finley would be polite to him while I stood in a Cell Finley would politely ask Hubble why his phone number had been found in a dead man's shoe my coat was still balded up on the cell floor I shook it out and put it on I was cold again thrust my hands into the pockets leaned on the bars and tried to read through the newspaper again just to pass the time but I wasn't taking anything in I was thinking about somebody who had watched his partner shoot a guy in the head who had seized the twitching body and kicked it around the floor who had used enough Furious Force to smash all the dead inert bones I was standing there thinking about stuff I'd thought I was through with stuff I didn't want to think about anymore so I dropped the paper on the carpet and tried to think about something else I found that if I leaned up in the front far corner of the cell I could see the hole of the open plan area I could see over the reception counter and out through the glass doors outside the afternoon sun looked bright and hot it looked like a dry and dusty place again The Heavy Rain had moved on out inside was cool and fluorescent the desk sergeant sat up in a stool he worked on his keyboard probably filing I could see behind his counter underneath were spaces designed not to be seen from the front neat compartments contained papers and hardback folders there were sections with mace sprays a shotgun Panic buttons behind the desk sergeant the uniformed woman who' printed me was busy keyboard work the large room was quiet but it hummed with the energy of Investigation chapter 4 people spend thousands of dollars on stereos sometimes tens of thousands there is a specialist industry right here in the states which builds stereo gear to a standard you wouldn't believe tubed amplifiers which cost more than a house speakers taller than me cables thicker than a garden hose some army guys had that stuff I'd heard it on bases around the world wonderful but they were wasting their money because the best stereo in the world is free inside your head it sounds as good as you want it to as loud as you want it to be I was leaning up in my corner running a Bobby Bland number through my head an old favorite it was cranked up real loud further on up the road Bobby Bland sings it in G major that key gives it a strange Sunny cheerful cast takes out the spiteful Sting from the lyric makes it a lament a prediction a consolation makes it do what the blues is supposed to do the relax G major misting it almost into sweetness not vicious but then I saw the fat police chief walked by Morrison on his way past the cells toward the big office in back just in time for the start of the third verse I crunched the song down into E flat a dark and menacing key the real Blues key I deleted the amiable Bobby Bland I needed a harder voice something much more vicious musical but a real cigarettes and whiskey rasp maybe Wild Child Butler Someone you wouldn't want to mess with I wound the level in my head up high for the part about reaping what you seow further on up the road Morrison was lying about last night I hadn't been there at midnight for a while I had been prepared to accept the possibility of a mistake maybe he had seen someone who looked like me but that was giving him the benefit of the doubt right now I wanted to give him a forearm smash to the face burst his fat nose all over the place I closed my eyes Wild Child Butler and I promised ourselves it would happen further on up the road I opened my eyes and Switched Off The Music In My Head standing in front of me on the other side of the bars was the fingerprint officer she was on her way back from the coffee hot plate can I get you a cup of coffee she asked me sure I said great no cream no sugar she put her own cup down on the nearest desk and went back to the machine poured me a cup from the flask and walked back this was a good-look woman about 30 dark not tall but to call her medium would be unfair to her she had a kind of Vitality it had come across as a sympathetic briskness in that first interview room a professional bustle now she seemed unofficial probably was probably against the fat Chief's rules to bring coffee to The Condemned man it made me like her she passed the cup in through the bars up close she looked good smelled good I didn't recall that from earlier I remembered thinking of her like a dentist's nurse if dentist nurses all look that good I'd have gone more often I took the cup I was glad of it I was thirsty and I love coffee give me the chance and I drink coffee like an alcoholic drinks vodka I took a sip good coffee I raised the Styrofoam cup like a toast thank you I said you're welcome she said and she smiled with her eyes too I smiled back her eyes were like a welcome blast of sunshine on a rotten afternoon so you think I didn't do it I asked her she picked up her own cup from where she'd put it down you think I don't bring coffee to the guilty ones she said maybe you don't even talk to the guilty ones I said I know you're not guilty of much she said how can you tell I said because my eyes aren't too close together no fool she laughed because we haven't heard from Washington yet her laugh was was great I wanted to look at her name plate over her shirt pocket but I didn't want her to think I was looking at her breasts I remembered them resting on the edge of the table when she took my photograph I looked nice breasts her name was Rosco she glanced around quickly and moved closer to the bars I sipped coffee I sent your prince to Washington over the computer link she said that was at 12:36 big database there you know FBI millions of prints in their computer prints that get sent in are checked there's a priority order you get checked first of all against the top 10 Wanted list then the top 100 then the top thousand you understand if you'd been near the top you know active and unsolved we'd have heard almost right away it's automatic they don't want any big fugitive to slip away so the system gets right back but you've been in there almost 3 hours and we haven't heard so I can tell you're not on record for anything very bad the desk sergeant was looking over disapproving she was going to have to go I drained the coffee and handed her the cup back through the bars I'm not on record for anything at all I said no she said you don't match the deviants profile I don't I said I could tell right away she smiled you got nice eyes she winked and walked away trashed the cups and moved over to her workstation she sat down all I could see was the back of her head I moved into my corner and leaned up against the hard bars I'd been a Lonely Wanderer for 6 months I'd learned something like blanch in that old movie A Wanderer depends on the kindness of strangers not for anything specific or material for morale I gazed at the back of Rosco's head and smiled I liked her Baker had been gone maybe 20 minutes long enough to get back from Hubble's Place wherever it was I figured you could walk there in back in 20 minutes this was a small town right a DOT on the map I figured you could walk anywhere in back in 20 minutes on your hands although the town limits were pretty weird depended whether Hubble lived in town or somewhere else within the outer boundaries according to my experience you were in town even when you were 14 miles away if that 14 miles extended in all directions then margrave was about as big as New York City Baker had said Hubble was a family man a banker who worked in Atlanta that meant a family house somewhere near town near schools and friends for the kids near shops and the country club for the wife an easy drive for him up the county road to the highway convenient commute up the highway to the office in the big city the address sounded like a town address 25 Beckman Drive not too close to Main Street probably Beckman Drive ran from the center of town out into the countryside Hubble was a fin Financial guy probably Rich probably had a big white place on a Big Lot shade trees maybe a pool call it 4 Acres a square lot covering 4 Acres was about 140 yards on a side homes on the left and the right of the street put number 25 about 12 Lots out from town about a mile maybe outside the big plate glass doors the sun was falling away into afternoon the light was redder Shadows were longer I saw Baker's patrol car yaw and bounce into the driveway no flashing lights it came slowly around the semicircle and eased to a stop bounced once on its Springs its length filled the view through the plate glass Baker got out on the far side and walked out of sight as he rounded the car he reappeared as he approached his passenger's door he opened it like a chauffeur he looked all twisted up with conflicting body language part deferential because this was an Atlanta Banker part friendly because this was his partner's bowling buddy part official because this was a man whose phone number had been hidden in a Corpse's shoe Paul Hubble fore [Music] [Music] spee speee [Music] fore foree got out of the car Baker shut the door Hubble waited Baker skied around him and pulled open the big plate glass door of the Station House it sucked against the Rubber seal Hubble stepped inside he was a tall white man he looked like a page from a magazine an advertisement the sort that uses a grainy photograph of money at play he was in his early 30s trim but not strong Sandy hair toled receding just enough to show an intelligent brow just enough to say yes I was a preppy but hey I'm a man now he wore gold rimmed round eyeglasses he had a square jaw a decent tan very white teeth many of them were on show as he smiled at the desk sergeant he wore a faded polo shirt with a small logo and washed chino pants the sort of clothes that look old when you buy them for 500 bucks he had a thick white sweater draped over his back the arms were Loosely tied in front I couldn't see his feet because the reception desk was in the way I was certain he would be wearing tan boat shoes I made a substantial bet with myself he was wearing them without socks this was a man who wallowed in the Yuppy dream like a pig and [ __ ] he was in a state of some agitation he placed his palms on the reception desk and then turned and dropped his hands to his sides I saw Sandy forearms and the Flash of a heavy gold watch I could see his natural approach would be to act like a friendly rich guy visiting the Station House like our campaigning president would visit a factory but he was distracted uptight I didn't know what Baker had said to him how much he had revealed probably nothing a good Sergeant like Baker would leave the Bombshells to Finley so Hubble didn't know why he was here but he knew something I I was a policeman of sorts for 13 years and I can smell a worried man a mile away Hubble was a worried man I stayed leaning up on the bars motionless Baker signaled Hubble to walk with him around the far side of the squad room towards the Rosewood office in back as Hubble rounded the end of the reception desk I saw his feet tan boat shoes no socks the two men walked out of sight into the office the door closed the desk sergeant left his post and went outside to park Baker's Cruiser he came back in with Finley at his side Finley walked straight back toward the Rosewood office where Hubble waited for him ignored me as he crossed the squad room opened the office door and went inside I waited in my corner for Baker to come out Baker couldn't stay in there not while his partner's bowling buddy entered the orbit of a homicide investigation that would not be ethical not ethical at all Finley struck me as a guy who would go big on ethics any guy with a Tweed suit like that and a mol skin vest and a Harvard Education would go big on ethics after a moment the door opened and Baker came out he walked into the big open room and headed for his desk hey Baker I called he changed course and walked over to the cells stood in front of the bars where Rosco would stood I need to go to the bathroom I said unless I got to wait until I get up to the big house for that too he cracked a grin grudging but a grin he had a gold tooth way back gave him a raish hair a bit more human he shouted something to the desk guy probably a code for procedure he took out his keys and activated the electric lock the bolts popped back I wondered briefly how they did it if there was a power outage could they unlock these Gates without electricity I hoped so probably lots of thunderstorms down here lots of power lines crashing down he pushed the heavy gate inward we walked to the back of the squad room opposite corner to the Rosewood office there was a Lobby off the lobby were two bathrooms he reached past me and pushed open the men's room door they knew I wasn't their guy they weren't taking care no care at all out there in the lobby I could have decked Baker and taken his revolver no problem at all I could have had his weapon off his belt before he hit the floor I could have shot my way out of the Station House and into a patrol car they were all parked right out front keys in for sure I could have got out toward Atlanta before they organized effective opposition then I could have disappeared no problem at all but I just went into their back bathroom don't lock it baker said I didn't lock it they were underestimating me in a big way I had told them I had been a military policeman maybe they believed me maybe they didn't maybe it didn't mean much to them either way but it should a military policeman deals with military law Breakers those law Breakers are service guys highly trained in weapons sabotage unarmed combat Rangers Green Beret Marines not just Killers trained Killers extremely well trained at huge public expense so the military policeman is trained even better better with weapons better unarmed Baker had to be ignorant of all that hadn't thought about it otherwise he would have had a couple of shotguns aimed at me for the trip to the bathroom if he thought I was their guy I zipped up and came back into the lobby Baker was waiting we walked back to the cell area I stepped inside my cell leaned up in my corner Baker pulled the heavy gate shut operated the electric lock with his key the bolts snicked in he walked away into the squad room there was silence for the next 20 minutes Baker worked at a desk so did Rosco the desk sergeant sat up on his stool Finley was in the big office with Hubble there was a modern clock over the front doors not as elegant as the antique in the office but it ticked around just as slowly silence 4:30 I leaned up against the titanium bars and waited silence quarter a five time restart started just before 5:00 I heard a commotion coming out of the big Rosewood office in back shouting yelling things banging somebody getting really stirred up a buzzer sounded on Baker's desk and the intercom crackled I heard Finley's voice stressed asking Baker to get in there Baker got up and walked over knocked and went in the big plate glass door at the entrance sucked open and the fat guy came in Chief Morrison he headed straight back to the Rosewood Office Baker came out as Morrison went in Baker hurried over to the reception desk whispered a long excited sentence to the desk sergeant Rosco joined them there was a huddle some big news I couldn't hear what too far away the intercom on Baker's desk crackled again he headed back to the office the big front door opened again the afternoon sun was Blazing low in the sky Stevenson walked into the Station House first time I'd seen him since my arrest it was like the excitement was sucking people in Stevenson spoke to the desk sergeant he became agitated the desk sgent put a hand on Stevenson's arm Stevenson shook it off and ran toward the Rosewood office he dodged desks like a football player as he got to the office door it opened a crowd came out chief mors Finley and Baker holding Hubble by the elbow a light but efficient grip the same as he'd used on me Stevenson stared blankly at Hubble and then grabbed Finley by the arm pulled him back into the office Morrison swiveled his sweating bulk and followed them in the door slammed Baker walked Hubble over toward me Hubble looked like a different guy he was gray and sweating the tan had gone he looked smaller he looked like someone had let the air out and deflated him he was bent up like a man racked with pain his eyes behind the gold rims were blank and staring with panic and fear he stood shaking as Baker unlocked the cell next to mine he didn't move he was trembling Baker caught his arm and levered him inside he pulled the gate shut and locked it the electric bolt snicked in Baker walked back towards the Rosewood office Hubble just stood where Baker had left him staring blankly into space then he slowly walked backward until he reached the rear wall of the cell he pressed his back against it and slid to the floor dropped his head to his knees dropped his hands to the floor I could hear the rattle of his thumb trembling on the stiff nylon carpet Rosco stared in at him from her dead Des the sergeant at the reception counter gazed across they were watching a man fall apart I heard raised voices in the Rosewood office and back the tenor of argument the slap of a pal on a desk the door opened and Stevenson walked out with Chief Morrison Stevenson looked mad he stroe down the side of the open area his neck was rigid with Fury his eyes were fixed on the front doors he was ignoring the fat police chief he walked straight past the reception counter and out through the heavy door into the bright afternoon Morrison followed him Baker came out of the office and walked over to my cell didn't speak just unlocked the cage and gestured me out I Shrugged my coat Tighter and left the newspaper with the big photographs of the president and Pensacola on the cell floor stepped out and followed Baker back into the Rosewood office Finley was at the desk the tape recorder was there the stiff cords trailed the air was still and cool Finley looked harassed his tie was pulled down he blew out a big lung full of air in a ruul hiss I sat down in the chair and Finley waved Baker out of the room the door closed softly behind him we got us a situation here Mr Reacher L said a real situation he lapsed into a distracted silence I had less than a half hour before the prison bus came by I wanted some conclusions pretty soon Finley looked up and focused again started talking rapidly the elegant Harvard syntax Under Pressure we bring this Hubble guy in right he said you maybe saw him Banker from Atlanta right thousand Calvin Klein outfit gold Rolex very uptight guy at first I thought he was just annoyed soon as I started talking he recognized my voice from the phone call on his mobile accuses me of deceitful Behavior says I shouldn't impersonate phone company people he's right of course another lapse into silence he was struggling with his ethics problem come on Finley move along I said I had less than a half hour okay so he's uptight and annoyed Finley said I ask him if he knows you Jack Reacher X army he says no never heard of you I believe him he starts to relax like all this is about some guy called Jack Reacher he's never heard of any guy called Jack Reacher so he's here for nothing he's cool right go on I said then I asked him if he knows a tall guy with a shaved head he said and I asked him about pabus well my God it's like I stuck a poker up his ass he went rigid like with shock totally rigid won't answer so I tell him we know the tall guy is dead shot to death well that's like another pokeer up the ass he practically fell off the chair go on I said 25 minutes before the prison bus was due he's shaking all over the place Finley said then I tell him we know about the phone number in the shoe his phone number printed on a piece of paper with the word pabus printed above it that's another poker up the ass he stopped again he was patting his pockets each one in turn he wouldn't say anything he went on not a word he was rigid with shock all gray in the face I thought he was having a heart attack his mouth was opening and closing like a fish but he wasn't talking so I told him we knew about the corpse getting beaten up I asked him who else was involved I told him we knew about hiding the body under the cardboard he wouldn't say a damn word he just kept looking around after a while I realized he was thinking like crazy trying to decide what to tell me he just kept silent thinking like mad must have been 40 minutes the tape was running the whole time recorded 40 minutes of silence Finley stopped again this time for effect he looked at me then he confessed he said I did it he said I shot him he said the guy is confessing right on the tape go on I said I ask him do you want a lawyer he said he says no keeps repeating he killed the guy so I mirandize him loud and clear on the tape then I think to myself maybe he's crazy or something you know so I ask him who did you kill he says the tall guy with the shaved head I ask him how he says shot him in the head I ask him when he says last night about midnight I ask him who kicked the body around who was the guy what does pluris mean he doesn't answer goes rigid with fright all over again refuses to say a damn word I say to him I'm not sure you did anything at all he jumps up and grabs me he's screaming I confess I confess I shot him I shot him I shove him back he goes quiet Finley sat back folded his hands behind his head looked a question at me Hubble as the shooter I didn't believe it because of his agitation guys who shoot somebody with an old pistol and a fighter in a temper or a messy shot to the chest they get agitated afterwards guys who put two bullets in the head with a silencer then collect up the shell cases they're a different class of person they don't get agitated afterwards they just walk away and forget about it Hubble was not the shooter the way he'd been dancing around in front of the reception counter disproved it but I just Shrugged and smiled okay I said you can let me go now right Finley looked at me and shook his head wrong he said I don't believe him there were three guys involved here you persuaded me of that yourself so which one is Hubble claiming to be I don't think he's the maniac I can't see enough strength in him for that I don't see him as the Gopher and he's definitely not the shooter for God's sake guy like that couldn't shoot pool I nodded like Finley's partner worrying away at a problem got to throw his his assing a can for now he said no option he's confessed couple of plausible details but it definitely won't hold up I nodded again since there was something more to come go on I said with resignation Finley looked at me a level gaze he wasn't even there at midnight he said he was at some old couple's anniversary part a family thing not far from where he lives got there around 8 last night he'd walked down with his wife didn't leave until after 2:00 in the morning two dozen people saw him arrive two dozen people saw him leave he got a ride home from his sister-in-law's brother-in-law he got a ride because it was already pouring rain by then go on Finley I said tell me his sister-in-law's brother-in-law he said drove him home in a rain 2:00 in the morning officer Stevenson chapter 5 Finley leaned right back in his chair his long arms were folded behind his head he was a tall elegant Man educated in Boston civilized experienced and he was sending me to jail for something I hadn't done he levered himself upright spread his hands on the desk Palms up I'm sorry reacha he said to me you're sorry I said you're sending two guys who couldn't have done it to jail and you're sorry he Shrugged looked unhappy about it this is the way Chief marison wants it he said he's calling it a done deal closing us down for the weekend and he's the boss man right you've got to be joking I said he's an [ __ ] he's calling Stevenson a liar his own man not exactly Finley Shrugged he's saying it's maybe a conspiracy you know maybe Hubble wasn't literally there but he recruited you to do it a conspiracy right he reckons the confession is exaggerated because maybe Hubble's afraid of you and is scared to finger you right away marrison figures you were on your way down to Hubble's place to get paid when we hauled you in he figures that's why you waited the 8 hours figures that's why Hubble was at home today didn't go to work because he was waiting around to pay you off I was silent I was worried Chief Morrison was dangerous his theory was plausible until Finley did the checking if Finley did the checking so Reacher I'm sorry he said you and Hubble stay in the bag until Monday you'll get through it over in wurton bad place but the holding pens are okay worse if you go there for a stretch much worse meantime I'll work on it before Monday I'll ask officer Rosco to come in Saturday and Sunday she's the pretty one outside she's good the best we got if what you say is right you'll be free and clear on Monday okay I stared at him I was getting mad no Finley not okay I said you know I didn't do a damn thing you know it wasn't me you're just [ __ ] scared of that useless Fat Bastard Morrison so I'm going to jail because you're just a spineless damn coward he took it pretty well his dark face flushed darker he sat quietly for a long time I took a deep breath and glared at him my glare subsided to a gaze as my temper cooled back under control his turn to glare at me two things rer he said precise articulation first if necessary I'll take care of Chief Morrison on Monday second I am not a coward you don't know me at all nothing about me I gazed back at him 6:00 bus time I know more than you think I said I know you're a Harvard postgrad you're divorced and you quit smoking in April Finley looked blank Baker knocked and entered to say the prison bus had arrived Finley got up and walked around the desk told Baker he would bring me out himself Baker went back to fetch Hubble how do you know that stuff Finley asked me he was intrigued he was losing the game easy I said you're a smart guy right educated in Boston you told me but when you were College age Harvard wasn't taking too many black guys you're smart but you're no rocket scientist so I figure Boston you for the first degree right right he conceded and then Harvard for postgrad I I said you did well at Boston you life moved on you got into Harvard you talk like a Harvard guy I figured it's straight away PhD in criminology right he said again criminology and then you got this job in April I said you told me that you've got a pension from Boston PD because you did your 20 so you've come down here with cash to spare but you've come down here with no woman because if if you had she'd have spent some of that spare cash on new clothes for you she probably hated that wintry Tweed thing you're wearing she'd have junked it and put you in a sun belt outfit to start your new life on the right foot but you're still wearing that terrible old suit so the woman is gone she either died or divorced you so it was a 50/50 guess looks like I guessed right he nodded blankly and the smoking thing is easy I said you were just stressed up and you were Pat in your pockets looking for cigarettes that means you quit fairly recently easy guess is you quit in April you know New Life new job no more cigarettes you figured quit now and you might beat the cancer thing Finley glared at me a bit grudging very good Reacher he said Elementary deduction right I Shrugged didn't say anything so duu who Ace the guy of the the warehouse he said I don't care who aced any guy anywhere I said that's your problem not mine and it's the wrong question Finley first you got to find out who the guy was right so you got any wait to do that smart guy he asked me no ID no face left nothing from the prince Hubble won't say didly run the prince again I said I'm serious Finley get Rosco to do it why he said something wrong there I said what something he asked me run them again okay I said will you do that he just grunted didn't say yes or no I opened the office door and stepped out Rosco had gone nobody was there except Baker and Hubble over at the cells I could see the desk Sant outside through the front doors he was writing on a clipboard held by the prism bus driver as a backdrop behind the two of them was the prison bus it was stationary in the semicircular driveway it filled the view through the big plate glass entrance it was a school bus painted light gray on it was written state of Georgia Department of Corrections that inscription ran the full length of the bus under the line of Windows under the inscription was a Crest the windows had grills welded over them Finley came out of the office behind me touched my elbow and walked me over to Baker Baker was holding three sets of handcuffs hooked over his thumb they were painted bright orange the paint was chipped dull steel showed through Baker snapped a pair of handcuffs onto each of my wrists separately he unlocked Hubble's cell and signaled the scared Banker to come out Hubble was blank and dazed but he stepped out Baker caught the dangling cuff on my left wrist and snapped it onto Hubble's right wrist he put put the third set of cuffs on Hubble's other wrist ready to go take his watch Baker I said you'll lose it in jail he nodded he knew what I meant guy like Hubble could lose a lot in jail Baker unlatched the heavy Rolex from Hubble's wrist the bracelet wouldn't slide over the Handcuff so Baker had to fiddle and fuss with taking the Handcuff off and putting it back on again the prison driver cracked the door and glared in a man with a timetable Baker dropped Hubble's watch on the nearest desk exactly where my friend Rosco had put her coffee cup okay guys let's hit the road baker said he walked us to the doors we went out into a dazzling hot bar of sunshine handcuffed together walking was awkward before Crossing to the bus Hubble stopped he craned his neck and looked around carefully he was being more vigilant than Baker or the prison driver maybe scared of a neighbor seeing him but there was nobody around we were 300 yards north of the town I could see the church steeple in the distance we walked over to the bus through the evening warmth my right cheek tingled in the low Sun the driver pushed the bus door inward Hubble shuffled sideways onto the step I followed him made a clumsy turn into the aisle the bus was empty the driver directed Hubble into a seat he slid over the vinyl to the window I was pulled alongside the driver knelt on the seat in front and clicked our outer wrist to the chromium hoop which ran across the top he rattled each of our three Cuffs in turn wanted to know they were secure I didn't blame him I've done that job nothing worse than driving with prisoners loose behind you the driver walked forward to his seat he started the engine with a loud diesel clatter the bus filled with vibration the air was hot stifling there was no air conditioning none of the windows opened I could smell fuel fumes the gears clashed and ground and the bus moved off I glanced out to my right nobody waving goodbye we drove North out of the police lot turning our backs on the town heading up towards the highway we passed Eno's Diner after a half mile his lot was empty nobody looking for an early dinner we carried on North for a spell then we turned a tight left off the county road and struck out west down a road between Fields the bus settled to a noisy Cruise endless rows of bushes flicked past endless drills of red Earth between ahead of me the sun was on the way down it was a giant red ball heading for the fields the driver had the large sun visor down on it were printed manufacturers instructions about how to operate the bus Hubble rocked and bounced beside me he said nothing he had slumped down with his face parallel to the floor his left arm was raised because it was handcuffed to the Chrome bar in front of us his right arm rested inert between us he still had his expensive sweater draped across his shoulders where the Rolex had been was a band of pale skin the life force had just about drained out of him he was in the grip of a paralyzing fear we rocked and bounced for the best part of another hour through the huge landscape a small stand of trees flashed past on my right then way in the far distance I saw a structure it sat alone in a thousand acres of flat Farmland against the low red Sun it looked like a protrusion from Hell something forced up through the CR to the Earth it was a complex of buildings looked like a chemical Factory or a nuclear Place massive concrete bunkers and glittering metal walkways tubing running here and there with steam drifting all surrounded with fencing punctuated by towers as we drew closer I could see Ark lights and razor wire search lights and rifles in the towers layers of fences separated with plowed red Earth Hubble didn't look up I didn't nudge him it wasn't the Magic Kingdom up ahead the bus slowed as we approached the outermost fence was about 100 yds out forming a giant perimeter it was a substantial fence possibly 15 ft tall studded along its entire length with pairs of sodium flood lights one of each pair was trained inward across the 100 yard breadth of plowed Earth one was trained out over the surrounding Farmland all the flood lights were lit the whole complex blazed with yellow sodium light up close it was very bright the yellow light turned the red Earth to a ghastly tan the bus rattled to a halt the idling engine set up a vibration what little ventilation there had been ceased it was stifling Hubble finally looked up he peered out through his gold rims he looked around him and out the window he groaned it was a groan of hopeless dejection he dropped his head the driver was waiting for a signal from the first gate Guard the guard was speaking into a radio the driver blipped the engine and crunched into gear the guard signaled to him using his radio as a baton waving us through the bus grounded forward into a cage we passed a long low sign at the Curve War Burton Correctional Facility state of Georgia Department of Corrections behind us a gate swung closed we were sealed in a wire cage it was roofed with wire at the far end a gate swung open the bus ground through we drove the 100 yds to the next fence there was another vehicle cage the bus went in waited and drove on out we drove right into the heart of the prison we stopped opposite a concrete bunker the reception area the engine noise beat against the concrete surrounding us then it shut down and the vibration and clatter died away to silence the driver swung out of his seat and walked up the aisle stooping pulling himself like a climber on the seatbacks he pulled out his keys and unlocked the Cuffs fixing us to the seat in front Okay boys let's go he grinned party time we hauled our ourselves out of our seat and shuffled down the bus my left arm was pulled back by Hubble the driver stopped us at the front he removed all three sets of handcuffs and dropped them in a bin next to his cab hauled on a lever and sprang the door we got out of the bus a door opened opposite and a guard stepped out called us over he was eating a donut and spoke with his mouth full a sugar mustache frosted his lip he was was a pretty casual guy we went through the door into a small concrete chamber it was filthy deal chairs surrounded a painted table another guard sat on the table reading from a battered clipboard sit down okay he said we sat he stood up his partner with the donut locked the outer door and joined him here's a deal said the clipboard guy you guys are Reacher in Hubble in from margar Brave not convicted of any crime in custody pendent investigation no bail application for either of you hear what I say not convicted of any crime that's important thing excuses you from a lot of [ __ ] in here okay no uniform no processing no big deal you understand nice accommodations on the top floor right said the donut guy thing is if you were coni we'd be Pok and prodding and hitting on you and you'd get the uniform and we'd shove you on the convict floors with the other animals and we'd just sit back and watch of fun right right his partner said so what we're saying is this we ain't here to give you a hard time so don't you boys be giving us a hard time neither you understand this damn facility ain't got the Manpower Governor laid off about half the staff okay got to meet the budget right got to cut the deficit right so we ain't got the men to do the job the way it ought to be done trying to do our job with half a crew on every shift right so what I'm saying is we shove you in there and we don't want to see you again until we pull you out on Monday no hassle right we ain't got the Manpower for hassle we ain't got the Manpower for hassle on the convict floors let alone hassle on the holding floor you understand yo Hubble you understand Hubble looked up at him and nodded blankly didn't speak Reacher the clipboard guy said you understand sure I said I understood this guy was underst staffed having problems because of a budget while his friends collected unemployment tell me about it good he said so the deal is this the two of us are off duty at 7:00 which is in about 1 minute's time we ain't staying late for you boys we don't want to and the union wouldn't let us anyway so you get a meal then you're locked down in here until they got manpower to take you upstairs no Manpower until lights out maybe 10:00 okay but then no guards will move prisoners around after lights out anyway right Union won't let them so so Spivy will come get you himself assistant Warden top boy tonight about 10:00 okay you don't like it you don't tell me you tell the governor okay the donut eater went out into the corridor and came back a long moment later with a tray on it were covered plates paper cups and a thermos he put the tray on the table and the two of them swung out through the corridor locked the door from the outside it went quiet as a tomb in there we ate Fish and Rice Friday food coffee in the thermos Hubble didn't speak he left most of the coffee for me score one for Hubble I put the debris on the tray and the tray on the floor another 3 hours to waste I tipped my chair back and put my feet up on the table not comfortable but as good as I was going to get a warm evening evening September in Georgia I looked over at Hubble without curiosity he was still silent I had never heard him speak except on Finley's speaker phone he looked back at me his face was full of dejection and fear he looked at me like I was a Creature From Another World he stared at me like I worried him then he looked away maybe I wouldn't have head back to the gulf but it was too late in the year to head north too cold up there maybe skip right down to the islands Jamaica maybe good music there a Hut on the beach live out the winter in a Hut on a Jamaica Beach smoke a pound of grass a week do whatever Jamaica people do maybe two pounds of grass a week with someone to share the Hut Rosco kept drifting into the picture her uniform shirt was fabulously crisp a crisp light blue shirt I had never seen a shirt look better on a Jamaica beach in the sun she wouldn't need a shirt I didn't think that would prove to be any kind of a major problem it was her wink that did it to me she took my coffee cup she said I had nice eyes and she winked got to mean something right the eyes thing I've heard that before an English girl I'd had good times with for a while she liked my eyes said it all the time they're blue equally people have said they look like icebergs in an Arctic sea if I concentrate I can stop them blinking gives a stare and intimidating effect useful but Rosco's wink had been the best part of the day the only part of the day really except Eno scrambled eggs which weren't bad eggs you can get anywhere but I'd miss Rosco I floated on through the empty evening not long after 10 the door from the corridor was unlocked a uniformed man came in he carried a clipboard and a shotgun I looked him over a son of the South a heavy fleshy man reden skin a big hard belly and a wide neck small eyes a tight greasy uniform straining to contain him probably born right there on the farm they commandeered to build the prison assistant Warden Spivy this shifts top boy underst staffed and harassed ushering the short stay guests around by himself with a shotgun in his big red Farmer's hands he studied his clipboard which one to use Hubble he asked he had a high-pitched voice at odds with his bulk Hubble raised his hand briefly like a boy at grade school spivey's little eyes flicked over him up and down like a snake's eyes he grunted and signaled with the clipboard we formed up and moved out Hubble was blank and acquiescent like an exhausted Trooper turn left and follow the red line Spivy said he waved left with the shotgun there was a red line paint painted on the wall at waist height it was a fire lane guide I guessed it must lead outside but we were going in the wrong direction into the prison not out of it we followed the red line through corridors upstairs and around corners Hubble first then me then Spivy with the shotgun it was very dark just dim emergency lighting Spivy called a halt on a landing he overrode an electronic lock with his key a lock which would spring the fire door when the alarm went no talking he said rules here say absolute silence at all times after lights out sell the end on the right we stepped in through the outdoor the foul odor of prison hit me the night exhalation of countless dispirited men it was nearly pitch black a nightlight glowed dimly I sensed rather than saw rows of cells I heard the Babble Of Night sounds breathing and snoring muttering and whimpering Spivy walked us to the end of the row pointed to an empty cell we crowded in Spivy swung the bars shut behind us they locked automatically he walked away the cell was very dark I could just about see a bunk bed a sink and a John not much floor space I took off my coat and lobbed it onto the top bunk reached up and remade the bed with the pillow away from the bars I liked it better that way worn sheet and blanket but they smelled clean enough Hubble sat quietly on the lower bed I used the John and rinsed my face at the sink pulled myself up into bed took off my shoes left them on the foot of the bed I wanted to know where they were shoes can get stolen and and these were good shoes bought many years ago in Oxford England a university town near the airbase where I was stationed big heavy shoes with hard soles and a thick welt the bed was too short for me but most beds are I lay there in the dark and listened to the Restless prison then I closed my eyes and floated back to Jamaica with Rosco I must have fallen asleep there with her because the next thing I knew it was Saturday I was still in prison and an even worse day was beginning chapter 6 I was woken up by Bright Lights coming on the prison had no windows day and night were created by electricity at 7:00 the building was suddenly flooded with light no Dawn or soft Twilight just circuit breakers thrown shut at seven the bright light did not make the cell look any better the front wall was bars half would open outward on a hinge to form the door the two stacked beds occupied just about half the width and most of the length on the back wall were a steel sink and a steel toilet Pan the walls were masonry part poured concrete and part old bricks all thickly covered with paint the walls looked massively thick like a dungeon above my head was a low concrete ceiling the cell didn't feel like a room bounded by walls floor ceiling it felt like a solid block of masonry with a tiny living space grudgingly burrowed in outside the Restless night mutter was replaced by the clatter of daytime everything was metal brick concrete noises were Amplified and echoed around sound it sounded like hell through the bars I could see nothing opposite our cell was a blank wall lying in bed I didn't have the angle to see down the row I threw off the cover and found my shoes put them on and Lac them up lay down again Hubble was sitting on the bottom bunk his tan boat shoes were planted on the concrete floor I wondered if he'd sat like that all night or if he'd slept next person I saw was a cleaner he moved into view outside our bars this was a very old guy with a broom an old black man with a fringe of Snow White hair bent up with age fragile like a wizened old bird his orange prison uniform was washed Almost White he must have been 80 must have been inside for 60 years maybe stole a chicken in the depression still paying his debt to society he stabbed the broom randomly over the corridor his spine forced his face parallel to the floor he rolled his head like a swimmer to see from side to side he caught sight of Hubble and me and stopped rested on his broom and shook his head gave a kind of reflective chuckle shook his head again he was chuckling away an appreciative delighted chuckle like at long last after all these years he'd been granted the sight of a fabled thing like a unicorn or a mermaid he kept trying to speak raising his hand as if his point was going to require emphasis but every time he'd start up with the chuckling again I need to clutch the broom I didn't hurry him I could wait I had all weekend he had the rest of his life well yes indeed he grinned he had no teeth well yes indeed I looked over at him well yes what Granddad I grinned back he was cackling away this was going to take a while yes indeed he said now he had the chuckling under control I've been in this joint since God's dog was a puppy yes sir since Adam was young boy but here's something I ain't never seen no sir not in all those years what ain't you never seen old man I asked him well he said I've been here all these years and I ain't never seen anybody in that cell wearing clothes like yours man you don't like my clothes I said surprised I didn't say that no sir I didn't say I don't like your clothes he said I like your clothes just fine a very fine set of clothes yes sir yes indeed very fine so what's the story I asked the old guy was cackling away to himself the quality of the clothes ain't the issue he said no sir that ain't the issue at all it's a fact you're wearing them man like not wearing an orange uniform I never saw that before and like I say man I've been here since the Earth cooled since the dinosaur said enough is enough now I seen everything I really have yes sir but guys on the holding floor don't wear the uniform I said yes indeed that sure is true the old man said as a fact for sure the guard said so I confirmed they was say so he agreed because that's the rules and the gods they know the rules yes they know them cuz they make them so what's the issue old man I said well like I say you're not wearing an orange suit he said we were going around in circles here but I don't have to wear it I said he was amazed the sharp bird eyes locked in on me you don't he said why is that man tell me because we don't wear it on the holding floor I said you just agreed with that right there was a silence he and I got the message simultaneously you think this is a holding floor he asked me isn't this the holding floor I asked him at the same time the old guy paused a beat lifted his broom and crabbed back out of sight quickly as he could shouting incredulously as he went this ain't the holding floor maam he whooped holding floor is a top floor floor six it's here floor three you're on floor three man this is lifers man this is categorized Danger people man this ain't even G population this is a worst man yes indeed you boys are in a wrong place you boys are in trouble yes indeed you going to get visitors they going to check you boys out oh man I'm out of here evaluate long experience had taught me to evaluate and assess when the unexpected gets dumped on you don't waste time don't figure out how or why it happened don't recriminate don't figure out whose fault it is don't work out how to avoid the same mistake next time all of that you do later if you survive first of all you evaluate analyze the situation identify the downside assess the upside plan accordingly do all that and you give yourself a better chance of getting through to the other stuff later we were not in the holding pens on the sixth floor not where unconvicted prisoners should be we were among dangerous lifers on the third there was no upside the downside was extensive we were new Boys on a convict floor we would not survive without status we had no status we would be challenged we would be made to embrace our position at the absolute bottom of the pecking order we faced an unpleasant weekend potentially a lethal one I remembered an army guy a deserter young guy not a bad recruit went awall because he got some nut religion got into trouble in Washington demonstrating ended up throwing in jail among bad guys like on this floor died on his first night anally raped and estimated 50 times and at the autopsy they found a pint of semen in his stomach a new boy with no status right at the bottom of the pecking order available to all those above him assess I could call on some heavy training and experience not intended for prison life but it would help I had gone through a lot of unpleasant education not just in the Army stretching right back into childhood between Grade School and High School military kids like me get to go to 20 maybe 30 new schools some on bases most in local neighborhoods in some tough places Philippines Korea Iceland Germany Scotland Japan Vietnam all over the world the first day at each new school I was a new boy with no status lots of first days I quickly learned how to get status in Sandy hot schoolyards in cold wet schoolyards my brother and I had slugged it out together back to back we had got status then in the service itself that brutality was refined I was trained by experts guys who traced their own training back to World War II Korea Vietnam people who had survived things I had only read about in books they taught me methods details skills most of all they taught me attitude they taught me that inhibitions would kill me hit early hit hard kill with the first blow get your retaliation in first cheat the gentlemen who behaved decently weren't there to train anybody they were already dead at 7:30 there was a ragged clunk along the row of cells the time switch had unlocked the cages our bars sagged open an inch Hubble sat motionless still silent I had no plan best option would be to find a guard explain and get transferred but I didn't expect to find a guard on Floors like this they wouldn't Patrol singly they would move in pairs possibly in groups of three or four the prison was underst staffed that had been made clear last night unlikely to be enough manpower to provide groups of guards on each floor probability was I wouldn't see a guard all day they would wait in a crew room operate as a crash Squad responding to emergencies and if I did see a guard what would I say I shouldn't be here H they must hear that all day long they would ask who put you here I would say Spivy the top boy they would say well that's okay then right so the only plan was no plan wait and see react accordingly objective survival until Monday I could hear the grinding as the other inmates swung back their Gates and latched them open I could hear movement and shouted conversation as they strolled out to start another pointless day I waited not long to wait from my tight angle on the Bed Head away from the door I saw our next door neighbors stroll out they merged with a small knot of men they were all dressed the same orange prison uniform red bandanas tight over shaved heads huge black guys obviously bodybuilders several had torn the the sleeves off their shirts suggesting that no available garment could contain their massive bulk they may have been right an impressive sight the nearest guy was wearing pale sunglasses the sort which darken in the sun silver haly the guy had probably last seen the sun in the 70s may never see it again so the shades were redundant but they looked good like the muscles like the bandanas and the torn shirt s all image I waited the guy with the sunglasses spotted us his look of surprise quickly changed to excitement he alerted the group's biggest guy by hitting his arm the big man looked round he looked blank then he grinned I waited the KN of men assembled outside our cell they gazed in the big guy pulled open our Gate The Others passed it from from hand to hand through its Ark they latched it open look what they sent us the big guy said you know what they sent us what they sent us the sunglasses guy said they sent us fresh meat the big guy answered they sure did man the sunglasses guy said fresh meat fresh meat for everybody the big guy said he grinned he looked around his gang and they all grinned back exchanged low fives I waited the big guy stepped half a pace into our cell he was a normous maybe an inch or two shorter than me but probably twice as heavy he filled the doorway his dull eyes flicked over me then Hubble yo white boy come here he said said to Hubble I could sense Hubble's Panic he didn't move come here white boy the big guy repeated quietly Hubble stood up took half a pace toward the man at the door the big guy was glaring with that rage glare that is supposed to chill you with its ferocity this is red boy territory man the big guy said explaining the bandanas what's Whitey doing in red boy territory Hubble said nothing in reply residency tax man the big guy said like they got in Florida hotels man you got to pay the tax give me a sweater white boy Hubble was rigid with fear give me your sweater white boy he said again quietly Hubble unwrapped his expensive white sweater and held it out the big man took it and threw it behind him without looking give me the eyeglasses white boy he said Hubble flicked a despairing glance up at me took off his gold glasses held them out the big man took them and dropped them to the floor crunched them under his shoe screwed his foot around the glasses smashed and splintered the big man scraped his foot back and flicked the wreckage backwards into the corridor the other guys all took turns stamping on them good boy the big guy said you paid the tax Hubble was trembling now come here white boy said his Tormentor Hubble shuffled nearer closer white boy the big man said Hubble shuffled nearer until he was a foot away he was shaking on your knees wet boy said the big guy Hubble knelt unzip me Whitey he said Hubble did nothing filled with panic unzip me white boy the big guy said again with your teeth Hubble gave a gasp of fear and revulsion and jumped back he scuttled backwards to the rear of the cell tried to hide behind the ja he was practically hugging the pan time to intervene not for Hubble I felt nothing for him but I had to intervene for myself Hubble's abject performance would taint me we would be seen as a pair Hubble's surrender would disqualify us both in the status game come back white boy don't you like me the big guy called to Hubble I took a long silent breath swung my feet over the side of the bunk and landed lightly in front of the big man he stared at me I stared back calmly you're in my house fat boy I said but I'm going to give you a choice choice of what said the big guy blankly surprised a choice of exit strategies fat boy I said say what he said what I mean is this I said you're going to leave that's for sure your choice is about how you leave either you can walk out of here by yourself or these other Fat Boys behind you are going to carry you out in a bucket oh yeah he said for sure I said I'm going to count to three okay so you better choose real quick right he glared at me one I counted no response two I counted no response then I cheated instead of counting three I headbutted him full in the face came off the back foot with a Thrust up the legs and whipped my head forward and smashed it into his nose it was beautifully done the forehead is a perfect arch in all PLS and very strong the skull at the front is very thick I have a ridge up there like concrete the human head is very heavy all kinds of neck muscles and back muscles balance it it's like getting hit in the face with a bowling ball it's always a surprise people expect punching or kicking a headbutt is always unexpected it comes out of the blue it must have caved his whole face in I guess I pulped his nose and smashed both his cheekbones Jarred his little brain around real good his legs crumpled and he hit the floor like a puppet with the strings cut like an ox in the slaughterhouse his skull cracked on the concrete floor I stared around the KN of men they were busy reassessing my status who's next I said but this is like Vegas now it's double or quits this guy is going to the hospital maybe 6 weeks in a metal mask so the next guy gets 12 weeks in the hospital you understand that couple of smashed elbows right so who's next there was no reply I pointed at the guy in sunglasses give me the sweater fat boy I said he bent and ped picked up the sweater passed it to me leaned over and held it out didn't want to get too close I took the sweater and tossed it onto Hubble's bunk give me the eyeglasses I said he bent and swept up the Twisted gold wreckage handed it to me I tossed it back at him they're broken fat boy I said give me yours there was a long pause he looked at me I looked at him him without blinking he took off his sunglasses and handed them to me I put them in my pocket now get this carcass out of here I said the bunch of men in their orange uniforms and their red bandanas straightened out the slack Limbs and dragged the big man away I crawled back up into my bunk I was shaking with Adrenaline Rush my stomach was churning and I was panting my circulation had just about shut down I felt terrible but not as bad as I would have felt if I hadn't done it they'd have finished with Hubble by then and started in on me I didn't eat any breakfast no appetite I just lay on the bunk until I felt better Hubble sat on his bed he was rocking back and forward he still hadn't spoken after a while I slid to the floor washed at the sink people were strolling up to the doorway and gazing in Strolling away the word had gotten around fast the new guy in the Cell at the end had sent a red boy to the hospital check it out I was a celebrity Hubble stopped his rocking and looked at me opened his mouth and closed it again opened it for a second time I can't take this he said they were the first words I had heard him say since his assured B ENT on Finley's speaker phone his voice was low but his statement was definite not a whine or a complaint but a statement of fact he couldn't take this I looked over at him considered his statement for a long moment so why are you here I asked him what are you doing I'm not doing anything he said blankly you confessed to something you didn't do I said you asked for this no said Hubble I did what I said I did it and I told the detective [ __ ] Hubble I said you weren't even there you were at a party the guy who drove you home as a policeman for God's sake you didn't do it you know that everybody knows that don't give me that [ __ ] Hubble looked down at the floor thought for a moment I can't explain it he said I can't say anything about it I just need to know what happens next I looked at him again what happens next I said you stay here until Monday morning and then you go back to margrave and I guess they'll let you go well they he said like he was debating with himself you weren't even there I said again they know that they might want to know why you confessed when you didn't do anything and they'll want to know why the guy had your phone phone number what if I can't tell them he said can't or won't I asked him I can't tell them he said I can't tell anybody anything he looked away and shuddered very frightened but I can't stay in here he said I can't stand it Hubble was a financial guy they give out their phone numbers like confetti talking to anybody they meet about hedge funds or tax Havens anything to transfer some guy's hard-earned dollars their way but this phone number was printed on a scrap of torn computer paper not engraved on a business card and hidden in a shoe not stuffed in a wallet and playing in the background like a Rhythm Section was the fear coming out of the guy why can't you tell anybody I asked him because I can't he said wouldn't say anything more I was suddenly weary 24 hours ago I had jumped off a greyhound at a Cloverleaf and walk down a new road striding out happily through the Warm Morning Rain avoiding people avoiding involvement no baggage no hassle freedom I didn't want it interrupted by Hubble or by Finley or by some tall guy who got himself shot in his shaved head I didn't want any part of it I just wanted some peace and quiet and to go looking for blind Blake I wanted to find some 80-year-old who might remember him from some bar I should be talking to that old guy who swept up around the prison not Hubble yepy [ __ ] he was thinking hard I could see what Finley had meant I had never seen anybody think so visibly his mouth was working soundlessly and he was fiddling with his fingers like he was checking off positives and negatives weighing things up I watched him I saw him make his decision he turned and looked over at me I need some advice he said I've got a problem I laughed at him well what a surprise I said I'd never have guessed I thought you were here because you were bored with playing golf on the weekend I need help he said you've had all the help you're going to get I said without me you'd be bent forward over your bed right now with a line of big horny guys forming at the door and so far you haven't exactly overwhelmed me with gratitude for that he looked down for a moment nodded I'm sorry he said I'm very grateful believe me I am you saved my life you took care of it that's why you've got to tell me what to do I'm being threatened I let the Revelation hang in the air for a moment I know that I said that's pretty obvious well not just me he said my family as well he was getting me involved I looked at him he started thinking again his mouth was working he was pulling on his fingers eyes flicking left and right like over here was a big pile of reasons and over there was another big pile of reasons which pile was bigger have you got family he asked me no I said what else could I say my parents were both dead I had a brother somewhere who I never saw so I had no family no idea whether I wanted one either maybe maybe not have been married 10 years Hubble said 10 years last month had a big party I've got two two children boy age nine girl age seven great wife great kids I love them like crazy he meant it I could see that he lapsed into silence misting over as he thought about his family wondering how the hell he came to be in here without them he wasn't the first guy to sit in this cell wondering that and he wouldn't be the last we've got a nice place he said out on Beckman Drive bought the there 5 years ago a lot of money but it was worth it you know Beckman no I said again he was afraid to get to the point pretty soon he'd be telling me about the wallpaper in the downstairs half bath and how he planned to pay for his daughter's orthodonture I let him talk prison conversation anyway he said eventually it's all falling apart now he sat there in his Che nose and his polo shirt he had picked up his white sweater and wrapped it around his shoulders again without his glasses he looked older more vacant people who wear glasses without them they always look unfocused vulnerable out in the open a layer removed he looked like a tired old man one leg was thrust forward I could see the pattern sole of his shoe what did he call a threat some kind of exposure or embarrassment something that might blow away the perfect life he' described on Beckman Drive maybe it was his wife who was involved in something maybe he was covering for her maybe she'd been having an affair with the tall dead guy maybe lots of things maybe anything maybe his family was threatened by disgrace bankruptcy stigma cancellation of country club membership I went around in circles I didn't live in Hubble's world I didn't share his frame of reference I had seen him trembling and shaken with fear but I had no idea how much it took to make a guy like that afraid or how little when I first saw him at the station house yesterday he had looked upset and agitated since then he had been from time to time trembling paralyzed staring with fear sometimes resigned and apathetic clearly very afraid of something I leaned on the cell wall and waited for him to tell me what they're threatening us he said again if I ever tell anybody what's going on they said they'll break into our house round us all up in my bedro they said they'll nail me to the wall and cut my balls off then they'll make my wife eat them then they'll cut our throats they said they'll make our children watch and then they he'll do things to them after we're dead that we'll never know about chapter 7 so what should I do Hubble asked me what would you do he was staring over at me waiting for a reply what would I do if somebody threatened me like that they would die I'd rip them apart either as they spoke ER days or months or years later I would hunt them down and rip them apart but Hubble couldn't do that he had a family three hostages waiting to be taken three hostages already taken taken as soon as the threat was made what should I do he asked me again I felt pressure I had to say something and my forehead hurt it was bruising up after the mass of impact with the red boy's face I stepped to the bars and glanced down the row of cells leaned against the end of the bunk thought for a moment came up with the only possible answer but not the answer Hubble wanted to hear nothing you can do I said you've been told to keep your mouth shut so you keep it shut don't tell anybody what's going on ever he looked down at his feet dropped his head into his hands gave a moan of abject misery like he was crushed with disappointment I've got to talk to somebody he said I've got to get out of this I mean it I've got to get out I got to talk to somebody I shook my head at him you can't do that I said they've told you to say nothing so you say nothing that way you stay alive you and your family he looked up shuddered something very big is going on he said I've got to stop it if I can I shook my head again if something very big was going on around people who use threats like that then he was never going to stop it he was on board and he was going to stay on board I smiled a bleak smile at him and shook my head for the third time time he nodded like he understood like he finally accepted the situation he went back to rocking and staring at the wall his eyes were open red and naked without the gold rims he sat silently for a long time I couldn't understand the confession he should have kept his mouth shut he should have denied any involvement with the dead guy should have said he had no idea why his phone number was written down in the guy's shoe should have said he had no idea what pbus was then he could have just gone home Hubble I said why did you confess he looked up waited a long moment before replying I can't answer that he said I'd be telling you more than I should I already know more than I should I said Finley asked about the dead guy in pbus and you flipped so I know there's a link between you and the dead guy and whatever pbus is he gazed at me looking vague is Finley that black detective he said yes I said Finley chief of detectives he's new Hubble said never seen him before he was always gray he was there years since I was a kid there's only one detective you know don't know why they say chief of detectives when there's only one there's only eight people in the whole Police Department chief marrison he's been there years then the desk Man Four uniformed men a woman and the detective gray only now it's Finley the new man black guy the first we've ever had gray killed himself you know hung himself from a rafter in his garage February I think I let him Ramble On prison conversation it passes the time that's what it's for Hubble was good at it but I still wanted him to answer my question my forehead hurt and I wanted to bathe it with cold water I wanted to walk around for a while I wanted to eat I wanted coffee I waited without listening as Hubble rambled through the municipal history of margrave suddenly he stopped what were you asking me he said why did you confess to killing the guy I repeated he looked around then he looked straight at me there's a link he said that's all it's safe to say right now the detective mentioned the guy and used the word plubis which made me jump I was startled I couldn't believe he knew the connection then I realized he hadn't known there was a connection but I just told him by being startled you see I'd given it away I felt I'd blown it giv away the secret and I mustn't do that but because of the threat he tailed off and went quiet an echo of the frightened Panic he had felt in Finley's office was back he looked up again took a deep breath I was terrified he said but then the detective told me the guy was dead he'd been shot I got scared because if they had killed him they might kill me too I can't really tell you why but there's a link like you worked out if they got that particular guy does that mean they're going to get me too or doesn't it I had to think it out I didn't even know for sure who had killed the guy but then the detective told me about the violence did he tell you about that I nodded the injuries I said sounded pretty unpleasant right Hubble said and it proves it was who I thought it was so I was was really scared I was thinking are they looking for me too or aren't they I just didn't know I was terrified I thought for ages it was going around and around in my head the detective was going crazy I didn't say anything because I was thinking seemed like hours I was terrified you know he fell back into silence he was running it through his head again probably for the thousandth time trying to figure fure out if his decision had been the right one I suddenly figured out what to do he said I had three problems if they were after me too I had to avoid them hide you know to protect myself but if they weren't after me then I had to stay silent right to protect my wife and kids and from their point of view that particular guy needed shooting three problems so I can fast I didn't follow his reasoning didn't make much sense the way he was explaining it to me I looked blankly at him three separate problems right he said I decided to get arrested then I was safe if they were after me because they can't get at me in here right they're out there and I'm in here that's problem number one solved but I also figured this is the complicated bit if they actually were not after me at all then why don't I get arrested but don't say anything about them they would think I had got arrested by mistake or whatever and they see that I'm not talking they see okay it proves I'm safe it's like a demonstration that I'm Dependable a sort of proof trial by ordeal sort of a thing that's problem number two solved and by saying it was me actually killed the guy it sort of definitely puts me on their side it's like a statement of loyalty right and I thought they might be grateful I'd pointed the heat in the wrong direction for a while so that was problem number three solved I stared at him no wonder he had clammed up and thought like crazy for 40 minutes when he was in with Finley three birds with one stone that's what he'd been aiming for the part about proving he could be trusted not to spill his guts was okay whoever they were they would notice that a spill in jail without talking was a write of Passage a badge of honor counted for a lot good thinking Hubble unfortunately the other part was pretty shaky they couldn't get to him in here he had to be joking no better place in the world to Ace a guy than prison you know where he is you've got all the time you need lots of people who'll do it for you lots of opportunity cheap too on the street a hit would cost you what a grand two grand plus a risk inside it cost you a carton of cigarettes plus no risk because nobody would notice no prison was not a safe Hiding Place bad thinking Hubble and there was another flaw too what are you going to do on Monday I asked him you'll be back home doing whatever you do he'll be walking around margrave or Atlanta or wherever it is you walk around if they're after you won't they get you then he started up with the thinking again going at it like crazy he hadn't thought very far ahead before yesterday afternoon it had been blind panic deal with the present not a bad principle except pretty soon the future rolls in and that needs dealing with too I'm just hoping for the best Hubble said I sort of felt if they wanted to get me they might cool off after a while well I'm very useful to them I hope they'll think about that right now it's a very tense situation but it's all going to calm back down very soon I might just make it through if they get me they get me I don't care anymore it's my family I'm worried about he stopped and Shrugged blew a sigh not a bad guy he hadn't set out to be some big criminal it had crept up on The Blind Side sucked him in so gently he hadn't noticed until he wanted out if he was very lucky they wouldn't break all his bones until after he was dead how much does your wife know I asked him he glanced over an expression of horror on his face nothing he said nothing at all I I haven't told her anything not a thing I I couldn't it's all my secret nobody else knows a thing you'll have to tell her something I said she's sure to have noticed you're not at home vacuuming the pool or whatever you do on the weekend I was just trying to lighten it up but it didn't work out Hubble went quiet misting over again at the thought of his backyard in the early fall sunlight his wife may be fussing over rose bushes or whatever his kids darting about shrieking maybe they had a dog and a three-car garage with European sedans waiting to be hosed off a basketball hoop over the middle door waiting for the 9-year-old to grow strong enough to dunk the heavy ball a flag over the porch early leaves waiting to be swept family life on a Saturday but not this Saturday not for this guy maybe she'll think it's all a mistake he said maybe they've told her I I don't know we know one of the policemen Dwight Stevenson my brother married his wife's sister I don't know what he'll have said to her I guess I'll deal with that on Monday I'll say it was some kind of terrible mistake she'll believe it everybody knows mistakes are made he was thinking out loud Hubble I said what did the tall guy do to them that was liable to get himself shot in the head he stood up and leaned on the wall rested his foot on the edge of the steel toilet pan looked at me wouldn't answer now for the big question what about you I asked him what have you done to of them liable to get yourself shot in the head he wouldn't answer the silence in our cell was terrible I let it crash around for a while couldn't think of anything more to say Hubble clunked his shoe against the metal toilet pan a rattly little rhythm sounded like a bow didly riff you ever heard of blind Blake I asked him he stopped clunking and looked up who he said blankly doesn't matter I said I'm going to find a bathroom I need to put a wet towel on my head it hurts I'm not surprised he said I'll come with you he was anxious not to be left alone understandable I was going to be his minder for the weekend not that I had any other plans we walked down the cell road to a kind of open area at the end I saw the fire door as Spivy had used the night before Beyond it was a tiled opening over the opening was a clock nearly 12 noon clocks in prison are bizarre why measure hours and minutes when people think in years and decades the tiled entrance was clogged with men I pushed through and Hubble followed it was a large tiled room square a strong disinfectant stink one wall had the doorway on the left was a row of shower stalls open the back wall was a row of toilet cubicles open at the front divided by was high partitions the right wall was a row of wash basins very communal not a big deal if you'd been in the Army all your life but Hubble wasn't happy not what he was used to at all all the fitting were steel everything that would normally be porcelain was stainless steel for safety a smashed up porcelain wash basin yields some pretty good shards a decent sized sharp piece would make a good weapon for the same reason the mirrors over the basins were sheets of polished steel a bit dull but fit for the purpose you could see yourself in them but you couldn't smash them up and stab somebody with a fragment I stepped over to a basin and ran cold water water took a wat of paper towels from the dispenser and soaked them held them to my bruised forehead Hubble stood around doing nothing I kept the cold towels on for a while and then took some more water ran down my face felt good there was no real injury no flesh there just skin over solid bone not much to injure and impossible to break a perfect arch Nature's strongest structure that's why I avoid hitting anything with my hands hands are pretty fragile all kinds of small bones and tendons in there a punch big enough to deck that red boy would have smashed my hand up pretty good I'd have joined him in the hospital not much point in that I patted my face dry and leaned up close to the steel mirror to check out the damage not bad I combed my hair with my fingers as I leaned against the sink I could feel the sunglasses in my pocket the boy Shades The Spoils of Victory I took them out and put them on gazed at my dull reflection as I messed about in front of the steel mirror I saw the start of some kind of a commotion happening behind me I heard a brief warning from Hubble and I turned around the sunglasses dimmed the bright light five white guys were trolling across the room biker types orange suits of course more torn off sleeves but with black leather addition caps belts fingerless gloves big beards all five were big heavy men with that hard slabby fat which is almost muscle but not quite all five had crude tattoos on their arms and their faces swastikas on their cheeks under their eyes and on their foreheads the Aran Brotherhood white trash prison gang as the five swept the room the other occupants melted away any who didn't get at the message were seized and hustled to the door thrown out into the corridor even the Soapy naked guys from the shower stalls within seconds the big bathroom was empty except for the five bikers and Hubble and me the five big men fanned out in a loose Arc around us these were big ugly guys the swastika tattoos on their faces were scratched in roughly Inked my assumption was they'd come to recruit me somehow now hijack the fact that I'd knocked over a red boy claim my bizarre celebrity for their cause turn it into a race Triumph for the Brotherhood but I was wrong my assumption was way out so I was left unprepared the guy in the middle of the five was looking back and forth between Hubble and me his eyes flicked across they stopped on me okay he's the one he said looking straight at me two things happened the end two bikers grabbed Hubble and ran him to the door and the boss man swung a big fist at my face I saw it late dodged left and it caught me on the shoulder I was spun around by the blow grabbed from behind by the neck two huge hands at my throat strangling me the boss man lined up for another shot at my gut if it landed I was a dead man I knew that much so I leaned back and kicked out smash the boss man's balls like I was trying to punt a football right out of the stadium the big Oxford shoe crunched him real good the welt hit him like a blunt axe my shoulders were hunched and I was pumping up my neck to resist the Strangler he was wrenching hard I was losing it I reached up and broke his little fingers I heard the knuckle Splinter over the Roaring in my ears then I broke his ring fingers more splintering like pulling a chicken apart he let go the third guy waited in he was a solid Mountain Allard sheathed with heavy slabs of meat like armor nowhere to hit him he was pounding me with short Jabs to the arm and chest I was jammed back between two sinks the mountain aard pressing up nowhere to hit him except his eyes I jammed my thumb into his eye hooked the tips of my fingers in his ear and squeezed my thumbnail popped his eyeball sideways I pushed my thumb in his eyeball was nearly out he was screaming and pulling on my wrist I held on the boss man was up on one knee I kicked hard at his face missed caught him in the throat instead smashed his voice box he went back down I went for the big guy's other eye missed I held on with my thumb like pushing it through a bloody stake he went down I spun away from the wall the guy with the broken fingers ran for the door the guy with the eye out was flopping about on the floor screaming the boss man was choking on his smashed voice box I was grabbed from behind again I twisted away a red boy two of them I was dizzy I was going to lose it now but they just grabbed me and ran me to the door Sirens were going off get out of here man screamed the red boys over the sirens this is ours we did this understand red boys did this we'll take the fall man they hurled me into the crowd outside I understood they were going to say they did it not because they wanted to protect me from the blame because they wanted to claim the credit a race Victory I saw Hubble bouncing around in the crowd I saw guards I saw hundreds of men men I saw Spivy I grabbed Hubble and we hustled back to the cell Sirens were blasting guards were tumbling out of a door I could see shotguns and clubs boots clattered shouting and screaming Sirens we raced to the cell fell inside I was dizzy and panting I had taken a battering the sirens were deafening couldn't talk I splashed water on my face the sun glasses were gone must have fallen off I heard screaming at the door I turned and saw Spivy he was screaming at us to get out he rushed into the cell I grabbed my coat from the bunk Spivy seized Hubble by the elbow then he grabbed me and straight armed both of us out of there he was screaming at us to run sirens were blasting he ran us to the emergency door where the guards had rushed out shoved us through and ran us upstairs up and up my lungs were given out there was a door at the top of the last flight painted with a big figure six we crashed through he hustled us down a row of cells shoved us into an empty cell and flung the iron gate shut it crashed and locked he ran off I collapsed on the bed eyes tight shut when I opened them again Hubble was sitting on a bed looking over at me we were in a big cell probably twice as wide as the last one two separate beds one on each side a sink a John a wall of bars everything was brighter and cleaner it was very quiet the air smelled better this was the holding floor this was floor six this was where we should have been all the time what the hell happened to you in there Hubble asked I just Shrugged at him a meal card appeared outside our cell it was dragged by an old white guy not a guard some kind of an orderly looked more like an old Steward on an ocean liner he passed a tray through an oblong slot in the bars covered plates paper cups thermos we ate the food sitting on our beds I drank all the coffee then I paced the cell shook the gate it was locked the sixth floor was calm and quiet a big clean cell separate beds a mirror towels I felt much better up here Hubble piled the meal to on the tray and shoved it out under the gate into the corridor he lay down on his bed put his hands behind his head stared at the ceiling doing time I did the same but I was thinking hard because they had definitely gone through a selection process they had looked us both over very carefully and chosen me quite definitely chosen me then they had tried to strangle me they would have killed me except for one thing the guy with his hands around my throat had made a mistake he had me from behind which was in his favor and he was big enough and strong enough but he hadn't balled up his fingers the best way is to use the thumbs on the back of the neck but fold up the fingers do it with knuckle pressure not finger pressure the guy had left his fingers out straight so I had been able to reach up and snap them off his mistake had saved my life no doubt about that soon as he was neutralized it was two against one and I'd never had a problem with those kinds of odds but it was still a straightforward attempt to kill me they came in chose me tried to kill me and Spivy had just happened to be outside the bathroom he had set it up he had employed the Aran Brotherhood to kill me he had ordered the attack and waited ready to burst in and find me dead and he had planned it yesterday before 10: in the evening that was clear that's why he had left us on the wrong floor on the third not the sixth on a convict floor not the holding floor everybody had known we should have been on the holding floor the two guards last night in the reception bunker they had been totally clear about it it had said so on their battered clipboard but at 10:00 Spivy had left us on the third floor where he knew he could have me killed he'd told the Aryans to attack me at 12:00 the next day he'd been waiting outside that bathroom at 12:00 ready to burst in ready to see my body lying on the tiles but then his plan had fouled up I wasn't killed the arens were beaten off the red boys had piled in to seize the moment Mayhem had broken out a riot was starting Spivy was panicking he hit the alarms and called the crash squads rushed us off off the floor up to the sixth and left us up here according to all the paperwork the sixth floor is where we'd been all the time a neat fallback it made me fireproof as far as investigation went Spivy had chosen the fallback option which said we were never there he had a couple of serious injuries on his hands probably even a dead guy I figured the boss man must have choked to death Spivy must know I had done it but he could never say so now because according to him I was never there I lay on the bed and stared at the concrete ceiling I exhaled gently the plan was clear no doubt about Spivy plan at all the fallback was coherent an aborted plan with a neat fallback position but why I didn't understand it let's say the Strangler had baled up his finger fingers they would have got me then I would have been dead dumped on the bathroom floor with my big swollen tongue sticking out Spivy would have rushed in and found me why what was Spivy angle what did he have against me I'd never seen him before never been anywhere near him or his damn prison why the hell should he operate an elaborate plan to get me dead I couldn't begin to figure it out chapter 8 Hubble slept for a while on the cot across from mine then he stirred and woke up wried around looked disoriented for a moment until he remembered where he was tried to check the time on his watch but saw only a band of pale skin where the heavy Rolex had been pushed against the bridge of his nose and remembered he'd lost his ey glasses sighed and flopped his head back onto the striped prison pillow one very miserable guy I could understand his fear but he also looked defeated like he' just rolled the dice and lost like he'd been counting on something to happen and it hadn't happened so now he was back in despair then I began to understand that too the dead guy was trying to help you wasn't he I said the question scared him I can't tell you that can I he answered I need to know I said maybe you approached the guy for help maybe you talk to him maybe that's why he got killed maybe it looks like now you'll start talking to me which could get me killed too Hubble nodded and rocked back and forth on his bed took a deep breath looked straight at me he was an investigator he said I brought him down here because I want the this whole thing stopped I don't want to be involved anymore I'm not a criminal I'm scared to death and I want out he was going to get me out and take down the scam but he slipped up somehow and and and now he's dead and I'm never going to get out and if they find out it was me brought them down here they'll kill me and if they don't kill me I'll probably go to jail for A Thousand Years anyway because right now the whole damn thing is very exposed and very dangerous who was the guy I asked him he didn't have a name Hubble said just a contact code he said it was safer that way I can't believe they got him he seemed like a capable guy to me tell the truth you remind me of him you seem like a capable guy to me too what was he doing up there at the warehouse I asked him he Shrugged and shook his head I don't understand that situation he said I put him together with another guy and he was meeting with him up there but wouldn't they have shot the other guy as well I don't understand why they only got one of them who was the other guy he was meeting with I said he stopped and shook his head I've told you way too much already he said I must be crazy they'll kill me who's on the inside of this thing I asked him don't you listen he said I'm not saying another word I don't want names I said is it a big deal it's huge he said biggest thing you ever heard of how many people I said he Shrugged and thought about it counted up in his head 10 people he said not counting me I looked at him and Shrugged 10 people doesn't sound like a big deal I said well there's hired help he said they're around when they're needed I mean a core of 10 people around here 10 people in the know not counting me it's very tight situation but believe me it's a big deal what about the guy you sent to meet with the investigator I said is he one of the 10 people Hubble shook his head I'm not counting him either he said so there's you and him and 10 others I said some kind of a big deal he nodded glumly biggest thing you ever heard of he said again and right now it's very exposed I asked him why because of this investigator poking him about Hubble shook his head again he was writhing around like my questions were tearing him up no he said for another reason altogether it's like a window of vulnerability is wide open right now and exposure it's been very risky getting worse all the time but now it could go either way if we get through it nobody will ever know anything but if we don't get through it it'll be the biggest sensation you ever heard of believe me either way it's going to be a close call I looked at him he didn't look to me much like the sort of guy who could cause the biggest sensation I ever heard of so how long is this exposure going to last I asked him it's nearly over he said maybe a week a week tomorrow is my guess next Sunday maybe I'll live to see it so after next Sunday you're not vulnerable anymore I said why not what's going to happen next Sunday he shook his head and turned his face away it was like if he couldn't see me I wasn't there asking him questions what does pbus mean I asked him he wouldn't answer just kept on shaking his head his eyes were screwed shut with terror is it a code for something I said he wasn't hearing me the conversation was over I gave it up and we lapsed back back into silence that suited me well enough I didn't want to know anything more I didn't want to know anything at all being an outsider and knowing Hubble's business didn't seem to be a very smart combination it hadn't done the tall guy with the shaved head a whole lot of good I wasn't interested in sharing the same fate as him dead at a warehouse gate partially hidden under some old cardboard two holes in my head all my bones smashed I just wanted to pass the time until Monday and then get the hell out by next Sunday I plan to be a very long way away indeed okay Hubble I said no more questions he Shrugged and nodded sat silent for a long time then he spoke quietly with a lot of resignation in his voice thanks he said it's better that way I was rolled over on the narrow cot trying to float away into some kind of limbo but Hubble was Restless he was tossing and turning and blowing tight size he was coming close to irritating me again I turned to face him I'm sorry he said I'm very uptight it was doing me good just to talk to somebody I'd go crazy in here on my own can't we talk about something else well what about you tell me about yourself who are you Reacher I Shrugged at him I'm nobody I said just a guy passing through I'll be gone on Monday nobody's nobody he said we've all got a story tell me so I talked for a while lying on my bed running through the last 6 months he lay on his bed looking at the concrete ceiling listening keeping his mind off his problems I told about leaving from the Pentagon Washington Baltimore Philadelphia New York Boston Pittsburgh Detroit Chicago Museums music cheap hotels bars buses and trains Solitude traveling through the land of my citizenship like a cheap tourist seeing most things for the first time looking at the history I'd learned in Dusty School rooms half a world away looking at the big things that had shaped the nation battlefields factories declarations revolutions looking for the Small Things birthplaces clubs roads Legends the big things and the small things which were supposed to represent home I'd found some of them I told Hubble about the long hop through the endless Plains and Deltas all the way down from Chicago to New Orleans sliding around the Gulf Coast as far as Tampa then the Greyhound blasting North toward Atlanta the crazy decision to bail out near margrave the long walk in the rain yesterday morning following a whim following some half-remembered note from my brother saying he'd been through some little place where blind Blake might have died over 60 years ago as I told him about it I felt pretty stupid Hubble was scuffling with a nightmare and I was following a meaningless pilgrimage but he understood the urge I did that once he said on our honeymoon we went to Europe we stopped off in New York and I spent half a day looking for the Dakota building you know where John lenon was shot then we spent three days in England walking around Liverpool looking for the cavern Club where the Beatles started out couldn't find it I guess they knocked it down he talked on for a while mostly about traveling he'd taken plenty of trips with his wife they'd enjoyed it been all over Europe Mexico the Caribbean all over the States and Canada had a great time together don't you get lonely he asked me traveling on your own all the time I told him no I enjoyed it I told him I appreciated the Solitude the anonymity like I was invisible how do you mean invisible he said he seemed interested I travel by Road I said always by Road Ro walk a bit and ride the buses sometimes trains always pay cash that way there's never a paper trail no credit card transactions no passenger manifests nothing nobody could trace me I never tell anybody my name if I stay in a hotel I pay cash and give them a madeup name why he said Who the hell's after you nobody I said it's just a bit of fun I like anonymity I feel like I'm beating the system and right now I'm truly pissed at the system I saw him fall back to thinking he thought a long time I could see him deflate as he struggled with the problems that wouldn't go away I could see his Panic come and go like a tide so give me your advice about Finley he said when he asked me about the confession I'll say I was stressed out because of some business situation I'll say there was some kind of rivalry threats against my family I'll say I don't know anything about the dead guy or anything about the phone number I'll deny everything then I'll just try to settle everything down what do you think I thought it sounded like a pretty thin plan tell me one thing I said without giving me any more details do you perform a useful function for them or are you just some kind of onlooker he pulled on his fingers and thought for a moment yes I perform a useful function for them he said crucial even and if you weren't there to do it I asked him would they have to recruit someone else yes they would he said and it would be moderately difficult to do that given the parameters of the function he was rating his chances of staying alive like he would rate a credit application up at his office okay I said your plan is as good as you're going to get go for it I didn't see what else he could do he was a small Cog and some kind of a big operation but a crucial Cog and nobody wrecks a big operation for no reason so his future was actually clear-cut if they ever figured it was him who had brought in the outside investigator then he was definitely dead but if they never found that out then he was definitely safe simple as that I figured he had a good enough chance because of one very persuasive fact he had confessed because he had thought prison was some kind of a safe Sanctuary where they couldn't get him that had been part of his thinking behind it it was bad thinking he'd been wrong he wasn't safe from Attack quite the reverse they could have got him if they wanted to but the other side of that particular coin was that he hadn't been attacked as it happened I had been not Hubble so I figured there was some kind of a proof there that he was okay they weren't out to get him because if they had wanted to kill him they could have killed him by now and they would have killed him by now but they hadn't even though they were apparently very uptight right now because of some kind of a temporary risk so it seemed like proof I began to think he'd be okay yes Hubble I said again go for it it's the best you can do the cell stayed locked all day the floor was silent we lay on our beds and drifted through the rest of the afternoon no more talking we were all talked out I was bored and wished I had brought that newspaper with me from the margrave Station House I could have read it all over again all about the president cutting crime prevention so he could get reelected saving a buck on the Coast Guard today so he could spend 10 bucks on prisons like this one tomorrow at about 7:00 the old orderly came by with dinner we ate he came back and picked up the tray we drifted through the empty evening at 10:00 the power banged off and we were in darkness Nightfall I kept my shoes on and slept lightly just in case Spivy had any more plans for me that's 7 in the morning the lights came back on Sunday I woke up tired but I forced myself to get up forced myself to do a bit of stretching to ease off my sore body Hubble was awake but silent he was vaguely watching me exercise still drifting breakfast arrived before 8 the same old guy dragging the meal cart I ate the breakfast and drank the coffee as I finished up the flask the gate lock clunked and sprang the door I pushed it open and stepped out and bumped into a guard aiming to come in it's your lucky day the guard said you're getting out I am I said you both are he said Reacher and Hubble released by order of the margrave PD be ready in 5 minutes okay I stepped back into the cell Hubble had hauled himself up onto his elbows he hadn't eaten his breakfast he looked more worried than ever I'm scared he said you'll be okay I said will I he said once I'm out of here they can get to me I shook my head it would have been easier for him to get you in here I said believe me if they were looking to kill you you'd be dead by now you're in the clear ubble he nodded to himself and sat up I picked up my coat and we stood together outside the cell waiting the guard was back within 5 minutes he walked us along a corridor and through two sets of locked Gates put us in a back elevator stepped in and used his key to send it down stepped out again as the doors began to close soong he said don't come back the elevator took us down to a Lobby and then we stepped outside into a hot concrete yard the prison door sucked shut and clicked behind us I stood face up to the Sun and breathed in the outside air I must to look like some guy in a corny old movie who gets released from a year in solitary there were two cars parked in the yard one was a big dark sedan an English Bentley maybe 20 years old but it looked brand new there was a blonde woman in it who I guessed was Hubble's wife because he was on his way over to her like she was the sweetest sight he ever saw the other car had officer Rosco in it she got out and walked straight over to me look looked wonderful out of uniform dressed in jeans and a soft cotton shirt leather jacket calm intelligent face soft dark hair huge eyes I thought she was nice on Friday I'd been right hello Rosco I said hello Reacher she said and smiled her voice was wonderful her smile was great I watched it for as long as it lasted which was a good long time ahead of us the hubbles drove off in the Bentley waving I waved back and wondered how things would turn out for them probably I would never know unless they got unlucky and I happened to read about it in a newspaper somewhere Rosco and I got into her car not really hers she explained just a department unmarked she was using a brand new Chevrolet something big smooth and quiet she'd kept the motor running and the air on and inside it was cool we wafted out of the concrete yard and shunted Through the Wire vehicle cages outside the last cage Rosco spun the wheel and we blasted away down the road the nose of the car rose up and the back end squatted down on the soft suspension I didn't look back I just sat there feeling good getting out of prison is one of Life's good feelings so is not knowing what tomorrow holds so was cruising silently down a sunny road with a pretty woman at the wheel so what happened I said after a mile tell me she told me a pretty straightforward story they'd started work on my alibi late Friday evening she and Finley a dark Squad room a couple of desk lights on pads of paper cups of coffee telephone books the two of them cradling phones and chewing pencils low voices patient inquiries a scene I'd been in myself a thousand times they'd called Tampa and Atlanta and by midnight they'd gotten hold of a passenger from my bus and the ticket clerk at the Tampa Depot both of them remembered me then they got the bus driver as well he confirmed he'd stopped at the margrave Cloverleaf to let me out 8:00 Friday morning by midnight my alibi was looking Rock Solid just like I'd said it would be Saturday morning a long facts was in from the Pentagon about my service record 13 years of my life reduced to a few curling facts Pages it felt like somebody else's life now but it backed my story Finley had been impressed by it then my prints came back from the FBI database they'd been matched by the tireless computer at 2:30 in the morning US Army printed on induction 13 years ago my alibi was solid and my background checked out Finley was satisfied Rosco told me you are who you say you are and midnight Thursday you were over 400 miles away that was nailed down he called the medical examiner again just in case he had a new opinion on the time of death but no midnight was still about right I shook my head Finley was one very cautious guy what about the dead guy I said did did you run his Prince again she concentrated on passing a farm truck the first vehicle we'd seen in a quarter hour then she looked across and nodded Finley told me you wanted me to she said but why they came back too quickly for a negative result I said too quickly she said you told me there was a pyramid system right I said the top 10 then the top 100 then the top thousand all the way down right she nodded again so take me as an example I said I'm in the database but I'm pretty low down in the pyramid you just said it took 14 hours to get down to me right right she said I sent your prints in about 12:30 at lunchtime and they were matched at 2:30 in the morning okay I said 14 hours so it takes 14 hours to reach nearly to the bottom of the pyramid it's got to take more than 14 hours to get all the way down to the bottom that's logical right right she said but what happened with this dead guy I said the body was found at 8:00 so the prince went in when 8:30 earliest but Baker was already telling me there was no match on file when they were talking to me at 2:30 I remember the time because I was looking at the clock that's only 6 hours if it took 14 hours to find out that I'm in there how could it take just 6 hours to say the dead guy is not in there God she said you're right Baker must have screwed up Finley took the prints and Baker sent them he must have screwed up the scan you got to be careful or it doesn't transmit clearly if the scan's not clear the database tries to decipher it then it comes back as unreadable Baker must have thought that meant a null result the codes are similar anyway I sent them again first thing we'll know soon enough we drove on East and Rosco told me she'd pushed Finley to get me out of War Burton right away yesterday afternoon Finley had grunted and agreed but there was a problem they'd had to wait until today because yesterday afternoon War Burton had been just about shut down they had told Finley there had been some trouble in a bathroom one convict was dead one had lost an eye and a fullscale riot had started black and white gangs at War I just sat there next to Rosco and watch The Horizon railing in I'd killed one guy and blinded another now I'd have to confront my feelings but I didn't feel much at all nothing in fact no guilt No Remorse none at all I felt like I'd chased two roaches around that bathroom and stomped on them but at least a roach is a rational reasonable evolved sort of creature those arens in that bath had been worse than Vermin I'd kicked one of them in the throat and he'd suffocated on his smashed larynx well tough [ __ ] he started it right attacking me was like pushing open a forbidden door what waited on the other side was his problem his risk if he didn't like it he shouldn't have pushed open the damn door I Shrugged and forgot about it looked over at Rosco thank you I said I mean it you worked hard to helped me out she waved away my thanks with a blush and a small gesture and just drove on I was starting to like her a lot but probably not enough to stop me getting the hell out of Georgia as soon as I could maybe I might just stay an hour or two and then get her to drive me to a bus depot somewhere I want to take you to lunch I said kind of a thank you thing she thought about it for a qu mile and then smiled across at me okay she said she jined the right turn onto the county road and accelerated South towards margrave drove past Eno's shiny new place and headed down to town chapter nine I got her to duck in at the station house and bring me out the property bag with my money in it then we drove on and she dropped me in the center of margrave and then I arranged to meet her up at the Station House in a couple of hours I stood on the sidewalk in the fierce Sunday morning heat and waved her off I felt a whole lot better I was back in motion I was going to check out the blind Blake story then take Rosco to lunch then get the hell out of Georgia and never come back so I spent a while wandering around looking at the Town doing the things I should have been doing on Friday afternoon there wasn't really much to the place the Old County Road ran straight through north to south and for about four blocks it was labeled Main Street those four blocks had small stores and offices facing each other across the width of the road separated by little service alleys which ran round to the back of the buildings I saw a small grocery a barber shop an Outfitters a doctor's office a lawyer's office and a dentist's office in back of the commercial buildings was Parkland with white picket fences and ornamental trees on the street the stores and offices had awnings over wide sidewalks there were benches set in the sidewalks but they were empty the whole place was deserted Sunday morning miles from anywhere Main Street ran North straight as a die past a few hundred yards of more Parkland up to the Station House and the firehouse and a half mile farther on than that was Eno's Diner a few miles Beyond Eno's was the turn west out to war Burton where the prison was north of that Junction there was nothing on the county road until you reached the warehouses and the highway Clover Leaf 14 empty miles from where I stood on the south edge of town I could see a little Village Green with a bronze statue and a residential street running away to the West I strolled down there and saw a discret green sign which read Beckman Drive Hubble Street I couldn't see any real distance down it because pretty much straight away it looped left and right around a wide grass square with a big white wooden Church set on it the church was ringed by cherry trees and the lawn was circled by cars with clean quiet paint parked in neat lines I could just about make out the growl of the organ and the sound of the people singing the statue on the Village Green was of a guy called Casper teal who'd done something or other about a hundred years ago more or less opposite Beckman Drive on the other side of the green was another residential street running East with a convenience store standing alone on the corner and that was it not much of a town not much going on took me less than 30 minutes to look over everything the place had to offer but it was the most Immaculate town I had ever seen it was amazing every single building was either brand new or recently refurbished the roads were smooth as glass and the sidewalks were flat and clean no potholes no cracks no heave the little offices and stores looked like they got repainted every week The Lawns and the plantings and the trees were clipped to Perfection the bronze statue of old Casper teal looked like somebody licked it clean every morning the paint on the church was so bright it hurt my eyes Flags flew everywhere Sparkling White and glowing red and blue in the son the whole place was so tidy it could make you nervous to walk around in case you left a dirty footprint somewhere the convenience store in the Southeastern Corner was selling the sort of stuff which gave it a good enough excuse to be open on a Sunday morning open but not busy there was nobody in there except the guy behind the register but he had coffee I sat up at the little counter and ordered a big mug and bought a Sunday newspaper the president was still on the front page now he was in California he was explaining to defense contractors why their gravy train was grinding to a halt after 50 glorious years the Aftershock from his Pensacola announcement about the Coast Guard was still rumbling on their boats were returning to their Harbors on Saturday night they wouldn't go out again without new funding the paper editorial guys were all stirred up about it I stopped reading and glanced up when I heard the door open a woman came in she took a stool at the opposite end of the counter she was older than me maybe 40 dark hair very slender expensively dressed in black she had very pale skin so pale it was almost luminous she moved with a kind of nervous tension I could see tendons like slim ropes in her wrists I could see some kind of an appalling strain in her face the counter guy slid over to her and she ordered coffee in a voice so quiet I could barely hear it even though she was pretty close by and it was a silent room she didn't stay long she got through half her coffee watching the window all the time then a big black pickup truck pulled up outside and she shivered it was a brand new truck and obviously it had never hauled anything worth hauling I caught a glimpse of the driver as he leaned over inside the to Spring the door he was a tough looking guy pretty tall broad shoulders and a thick neck black hair black hair all over long knotted arms maybe 30 years old the pale woman slid off her stool like a ghost and stood up swallowed once as she opened the shop door I heard the burble of a big motor idling the woman got into the truck but it didn't move away just sat there at the Cur herb I swiveled on my stool to face the counter guy who's that I asked him the guy looked at me like I was from another planet that's Mrs Kleiner he said you don't know the kiners I heard about him I said I'm a stranger in town Kleiner owns the warehouses up near the highway right right he said and a whole lot more besides big deal around here Mr Kleiner he is I said sure the guy said you heard about the foundation I shook my head finished my coffee and pushed the mug over for a refill Kleiner set up the Kleiner Foundation the guy said benefits the town in a lot of ways came here 5 years ago been like Christmas ever since I nodded is Mrs Kleiner okay I asked him he shook his head as he filled my mug she's sick woman he said very sick very pale right sort of Wan yeah very sick woman could be tuberculosis I've seen tuberculosis do that to folks oh she used to be a fine looking woman but now she looks like something grown in a closet right a very sick woman that's for damn sure who's the guy in the truck I said stepson he said kleiner's kid by his first wife wife Mrs Kleiner is second I've heard she don't get along so good with the kid he gave me the sort of Nod that terminates casual conversations moved away to wipe off some kind of a chromium machine behind the other end of the counter the black pickup was still waiting outside I agreed with the guy that the woman looked like something grown in a closet she looked like some kind of a rare Orchid starved of light and sustenance but I didn't agree with with him that she looked sick I didn't think she had tuberculosis I thought she was suffering from something else something I'd seen once or twice before I thought she was suffering from sheer terror Terror of what I didn't know Terror of what I didn't want to know not my problem I stood up and dropped a five on the counter the guy made change all in coins he had no dollar bills the pickup was still there stationary at the curb the driver was leaning up chest against the wheel looking sideways across his stepmother staring in straight at me there was a mirror opposite me behind the counter I looked exactly like a guy had' been on an all night bus and then spent two days in jail I figured I needed to get cleaned up before I took Rosco to lunch the counter guy saw me figuring try the barber shop he said on a Sunday I said the guy Shrugged air always in there he said never exactly closed never exactly open either I nodded and pushed out through the door I saw a small crowd of people coming out of the church and chatting on The Lawns and getting into their cars the rest of the town was still deserted but the black pickup was still at the curb right outside the convenience store the driver was still staring at me I walked North in the sun and the pickup moved slowly alongside keeping Pace the guy was still hunched forward staring sideways I stretched out a couple of steps and the truck sped up to keep station then I stopped dead and he overshot I stood there the guy evidently decided backing up wasn't on his agenda he floored it and took off with a roar I Shrugged and carried on reached the barber shop ducked under the striped Dawning and tried the door unlocked I went in like everything else in Mark grave the barber shop looked wonderful it gleamed with ancient chairs and fittings lovingly polished and maintained it had the kind of Barber Shop gear everybody tore out 30 years ago now everybody wants it back they pay a fortune for it because it recreates the way people want America to look the way they think it used to look it's certainly the way I thought it used to look I would sit in some schoolyard in Manila or Munich and Imagine Green Lawns and trees and flags and a gleaming Chrome Barber Shop like this one it was run by two old black guys they were just hanging out there not really open for business not really closed but they indicated they would serve me like they were there and I was there so why not and I guess I looked like an urgent case I asked them for the works a shave a haircut a hot towel and a shoe shine there were framed newspaper front pages here and there on the walls big headlines Roosevelt dies VJ Day JFK assassinated Martin Luther King murdered there was an old mahogany table radio thumping warmly away the new Sunday paper was crisply folded on a bench in the window the old guys mixed up soapy lather in a bowl stropped a straight razor rinsed a shaving brush they shrouded me with towels and got to work one guy shaved me with the old straight razor the other guy stood around not doing much of anything I figured maybe he came in to play later the busy guy started chatting away like Barbers do told me the history of his business the two of them had been buddies since childhood always lived here in margrave since way back started out as Barbers way before World War II apprenticed in Atlanta opened a shop together as young men moved it to this location when the old neighborhood was raised he told me the history of the county from a Barber's perspective listed the personalities who' been in and out of these old chairs told me about all kinds of people so tell me about the kiners I said he was a chatty guy but that question shut him up he stopped work and thought about it can't help you with that inquiry that's for sure he said that's a subject we prefer not to discuss in here best if you ask me about somebody else all together I Shrugged under the shroud of towels okay I said you ever heard of blind Blake here I heard of that's for sure the old man said that's a guy we can discuss no problem at all great I said so what can you tell me oh he was here time to time way back he said born in Jacksonville Florida they say just over the state line used to kind of Trek on up from there you know through here through Atlanta all the way up north to Chicago and then Trek all the way back down again back through Atlanta back through here back home very different then you know no Highway no automobiles at least not for a poor black man and his friends all walking or riding on the freight cars you ever hear him play I asked him he stopped work again and looked at me man I'm 74 years old he said this was back when I was just a little boy we're talking about BL Blake here guys like that played in bars never was in no bars when I was a little boy you understand I would have got my beeh whooped real good if I had been oh you should talk to my partner here he's a whole lot older than I am he may have heard him play only he may not remember it because he don't remember much not even what he ate for breakfast am I right hey my old friend what you eat for breakfast the other old guy creaked over and leaned up on the next sink to mine he was an arold old fell the color of the mahogany radio I don't know what I ate for breakfast he said don't even know if I at any breakfast at all but listen up I may be an old guy but the truth is old guys remember stuff real well not recent things you understand but old things you got to imagine your memor is like an old bucket you know once it's filled up with old stuff there ain't no way to get new stuff in no way at all you understand so I don't remember any new stuff because my old Buck is all filled up with old stuff that happened way back you understand what I'm saying here sure I understand I said so way back did you ever hear him play oh he said I looked at both of them in turn I wasn't sure whether this was some kind of of a rehearsed routine blind Blake I said did you ever hear him play no I never heard him play the old guy said but my sister did got me a sister morning about 90 years older thereabouts may she be spared still alive she did a little singing way back and she sang with old blind Blake many a time she did I said she sang with him she sure did said the gnarled old guy she sang with just about anybody passing through you got to remember this Old Town lay right on the big road to Atlanta that old Cy Road out there used to come on down through here straight on South End of Florida it was the only route through Georgia north to south of course now you got the highway runs right by without stopping off and you got airplanes and all no importance to margrave now nobody coming on through anymore so blind Blake stopped off here I prompted him and your sister sang with him everybody used to stop off here he said north side of town was just pretty much a mess of bars and rooming houses to cater to the folks passing through all these fancy Gardens between here and the firehouse is where the bars and roing houses used to be all tore down now or else all fell down been no passing trade at all for a real long time but back then it was a different kind of a town alog together streams of people in and out the whole time workers crop Pickers drummers Fighters hobos truckers musicians all kinds of those guys used to stop off and play and my old sister would be right in there singing with them all and she remembers blind Blake I asked him she sure does the old man said used to think he was a greatest thing alive says he used to play real sporty real sporty indeed what happened to him I said do you know the old guy thought hard trolled back through his fading memories he shook his grizzled head a couple of times then he took a wet towel from a hot box and put it over my face started cutting my hair ended up shaking his head with some kind of finality can't rightly say he he said he came back and forth on the road time to time I remember that pretty well 3 4 years later he was gone I was up in Atlanta for a spell wasn't here to know heard tell somebody killed him maybe right here in mrave maybe not some kind of big trouble got him killed Stone dead I sat listening to their old radio for a while then I gave them a 20 off my roll of bills and hurried out onto Main Street stroe out north it was nearly noon and the sun was baking hot for September nobody else was out walking the Black Road blasted Heat at me blind Blake had walked this road maybe in the noon heat back when those old Barbers had been boys this had been the artery reaching North to Atlanta Chicago jobs hope money noon heat wouldn't have stopped anybody getting where they were going but now the road was just a smooth blacktop byway going nowhere at all it took me a few minutes in the heat to get up to the Station House I walked across its springy lawn past another bronze statue and pulled open the heavy glass entrance Door stepped into the chill inside Rosco was waiting for me leaning on the reception counter behind her in the squad room I could see Stevenson talking urgently into a telephone Rosco was pale and looking very worried we found another body she said where I asked her up at the warehouse again she said the other side of the road this time underneath the Clover Leaf where it's raised up who found it I said Finley she said he was up there this morning poking around looking for something to help us with the first one some help right all he find is another one do you know who this one is I asked her she shook her head unidentified she said same as the first one where's Finley now I asked her gone to get Hubble she said he thinks Hubble may know something about it I nodded how long was this one up there I said 2 or 3 days maybe she said Finley says it could have been a double homicide on Thursday night I nodded again Hubble did know something about it this was the guy he had sent to meet with the tall investigator with the shaved head he couldn't figure out how the guy had gotten away with it but the guy hadn't gotten away with it I heard a car in the lot outside and then the big glass door sucked open Finley stuck his head in more rasco he said you too Reacher we followed him back outside into the heat we all got into Rosco's unmarked sedan left Finley's car where he'd parked it Rosco drove I sat in the back Finley sat in the front passenger seat twisted around so he could talk to the both of us at once Rosco nosed out of the police lot and headed south I can't find Hubble Finley said looking at me there's nobody up at his place did he say anything to you about going anywhere no I said not a word we hardly spoke all weekend Finley grunted at me I need to find out what he knows about all this he said this is serious [ __ ] and he knows something about it that's for damn sure what did he tell you about it Reacher I didn't answer I wasn't entirely sure whose side I was on yet Finley's probably but if Finley started blundering around and whatever Hubble was mixed up in Hubble and his family were going to end up dead no doubt about that so I figured I should just stay impartial and then get the hell out of there as fast as possible I didn't want to get involved you try his mobile number I asked him Finley grunted and shook his head Switched Off he said some automatic voice came on and told me did he come by and pick up his watch I asked him is what he said his watch I said he left a $10,000 Rolex with Baker on Friday when Baker was cuffing us for the ride out to war Burton did he come pick it up no Finley said nobody said so okay I said so he's got some urgent business somewhere not even an [ __ ] like Hubble's going to forget about a $10,000 watch right what urgent business Finley said what did he tell you about it he didn't tell me diddly I said like I told you we hardly spoke Finley glared at me from the front seat don't mess with me Reacher he said until I get hold of Hubble I'm going to keep hold of you and sweat your ass for what he told you and don't make out he kept his mouth shut all weekend because guys like that never do I know that and you know that so don't mess with me okay I just Shrugged at him he wasn't about to arrest me again maybe I could get a bus from wherever the morg was I'd have to pass on lunch with Rosco pity so what's the story on this one I asked him pretty much the same as the last one Finley said looks like it happened at the same time shot to death probably the same weapon this one didn't get kicked around afterwards but it was probably part of the same incident you don't don't know who it is I said his name is Sherman he said apart from that no idea tell me about it I said I was asking out of habit Finley thought for a moment I saw him decide to answer like we were Partners unidentified white male he said same deal as the first one no ID no wallet no distinguishing marks but this one had a gold wristwatch engraved on the back two Sherman love Judy he was maybe 30 or 35 hard to tell because he'd been lying there for three nights and he was well gnawed by the small animals you know his lips are gone and his eyes but his right hand was okay because it was folded up under his body so I got some decent prints we ran them an hour ago and something may come of that if we're lucky gunshot wounds I asked him Finley nodded looks like the same gun he said small caliber softn shells looks like maybe the first shot only wounded him and he was able to run he got hit a couple more times but made it to cover under the highway he fell down and bled to death he didn't get kicked around because they couldn't find him that's how it looks to me I thought about it I'd walked right by there at 8:00 on Friday morning right between the two bodies and you figure he was called Sherman I said his name was on his watch Finley said might not have been his watch I said the guy could have stolen it could have inherited it bought it from a pawn shop found it in the street Finley just grunted again we must have been more than 10 miles south of margrave Rosco was keeping up a fast pace down the Old County Road then she slowed and slid down a left Fork which led straight to the distant Horizon where the hell are we going I said County Hospital Finley said down in Yellow Springs next but one town to the South not long now we drove on Yellow Springs became a smudge in the heat Haze on the horizon just inside the town limit was the county hospital standing more or less on its own put there back when diseases were infectious and sick people were isolated it was a big hospital a Warren of wide low buildings sprawled over a couple of Acres Rosco slowed and swung into the entrance Lane we wallowed over speed bumps and threaded our way around to a spread of buildings clustered on their own in back the mortuary was a long shed with a big rollup door standing open we stopped well clear of the door and left the car in the yard we looked at each other and went in a medical guy met us and led us into an office he sat behind a metal desk and waved Finley and Rosco to some stools I leaned on a counter between a computer terminal and a fax machine this was not a big budget facility it had been cheaply equipped some years ago everything was worn and chipped and untiy very different from the Station House up at margrave the guy at the desk looked tired not old not young maybe Finley's sort of age white coat he looked like the type of guy whose judgment you wouldn't worry about too much he didn't introduce himself just took it for granted we all knew who he was and what he was for what Can I Tell You Folks he said he looked at all three of us and turn waited we looked back was it the same incident Finley asked his deep Harvard tone sounded out of place in the shabby office the medical guy Shrugged at him I've only had the second corpse for an hour he said but yes I would say it's the same incident it's almost certainly the same weapon looks like small caliber soft noose bullets in both cases the bullets were slow looks like the gun had a silencer small caliber I said how small the doctor swiveled his tired gaze my way I'm not a Firearms expert he said but I'd vote for a 22 looks that small to me me I'd say we're looking at soft-nosed 22 gauge shells take the first guy's head for example two small splintery entry wounds and two big messy Exit Wounds characteristic of a small soft-nosed bullet I nodded that's what a soft-nosed bullet does it goes in and flattens out as it does so becomes a blob of lead about the size of a quarter tumbling through whatever tissue it meets rips a great big exit for itself and a nice slow soft-nosed 22 makes sense with a silencer no point using a silencer except with a subsonic muzzle velocity otherwise the bullet is making its own Sonic Boom all the way to the Target like a tiny fighter plane okay I said were they killed up there where they were found no doubt about it the guy said hypostasis is clear in both Corpses he looked at me wanted me to ask him what hypostasis was I knew what it was but I felt polite so I looked puzzled for him postmortem hypostasis he said lividity when you die your circulation stops right heart isn't beating anymore your blood obeys the law of gravity it settles to the bottom of your body into the lowest available vessels usually into the tiny capillaries and the skin next to the floor or whatever you've fallen down onto the red cells settle first they stain the skin red then they clot so the stain is fixed like a photograph after a few hours the stains are permanent the stains on the first guy are entirely consistent with his position on the warehouse for cord he was shot he fell down dead he was kicked around in some sort of mad frenzy for a few minutes then he lay there for around 8 hours no doubt about it what do you make of the kicking Finley asked him the doctor shook his head and Shrugged never seen anything like it he said I've read about it in the journals time to time some kind of a psychopathic thing obviously no way to explain it it didn't make any difference to the dead guy didn't hurt him because he was dead so it must have gratified the kicker somehow unbelievable Fury tremendous strength the injuries are Grievous what about the second guy Finley asked he ran for it the doctor said he was hit close up in the back with the first shot but it didn't drop him and he ran he took two more on the way one in the neck and the Fatal shot in the thigh blew away his femural artery he made it as far as the raised up section of Highway then lay down and bled to death no doubt about that if it hadn't rained all night Thursday I'm sure you'd have seen the trail of Blood on the road there must have been about a gallon and a half lying about somewhere because it's sure as hell isn't inside the guy anymore we all fell quiet I was thinking about the second guy's desperate Sprint across the road trying to reach cover while the bullets smashed into his flesh hurling himself under the highway ramp and dying amid the quiet scuffling of the small night animals okay Finley said so we're safe to assume the two victims were together the shooter is in a group of three he surprises them shoots the first guy in the head twice meanwhile the second guy takes off and gets hit by three shots as he runs right you're assuming there were three asants the doctor said Finley nodded across to me it was my theory so I got to explain it three separate person ality characteristics I said a competent shooter a frenzied maniac and an incompetent concealer the doctor nodded slowly not by that he said the first guy was hit at Point Blank Range so maybe we should assume he knew the As salant and allowed them to get next to him Finley nodded had to be that way he said five guys meeting together three of them attacked the other two this is some kind of a big deal right do we know who the asants were the doctor asked we don't even know who the victims were Rosco said got any theories on the victims Finley asked the doctor not on the second guy apart from the name on his watch the doctor said I only just got him on the table an hour ago so you got theories on the first guy Finley said the doctor started shuffling some notes on his desk but his telephone rang he answered it and then held it out to Finley for you he said Finley crouched forward on his stool and took the call listened for a moment okay he said into the phone just print it out and fax it to us here will you then he passed the phone back to the doctor and rocked back on his stool he had the beginnings of a smile on his face that was Stevenson up at the station house he said we finally got a match on the first guys Prince seems like we did the right thing to run them again Stevenson's faxing it through to us here in a minute so tell us what you got Doug and we'll put it all together the tired guy in the white coat Shrugged and picked up a sheet of paper the first guy he he said I haven't got much at all the body was in a hell of a mess he was tall he was fit he had a shaved head the main thing is the dental work looks like the guy got his teeth fixed all over the place some of it is American some of it looks American some of it is foreign next to my hip the fax machine started beeping and worrying a sheet of thin paper fed itself in so what do we me think of that Finley said the guy was foreign or an American who lived abroad or what the thin sheet of paper fed itself out covered in writing then the machine stopped and went quiet I picked up the paper and glanced at it then I read it through twice I went cold I was gripped by an icy paralysis and I couldn't move I just couldn't believe what I was seeing on that piece of fact paper the sky crashed in on me I stared at the doctor and spoke he grew up abroad I said he had his teeth fixed wherever he was living he broke his right arm when he was eight and had it set in Germany he had his tonsils out in the hospital and soul the doctor looked up at me they can tell all that from his fingerprints he said I shook my head the guy was my brother I said chapter 10 once I saw Navy film about Expeditions in the frozen Arctic he could be walking over a solid Glacier suddenly the ice would heave and shatter some kind of unimaginable stresses in the flows a whole new ography would be forced up massive escarpments where it had been flat huge Ravines behind you a new Lake in front of you the world all changed in a second that's how I felt I sat there rigid with shock on the counter between the fax machine and the computer terminal and felt like an Arctic guy whose whole world changes in a single step they walked me through Dre to the cold store and back to make a formal identification of his body his face had been blown away by the gunshots and all his bones were broken but I recognized the star-shaped scar on his neck he'd got it when we were messing with a broken bottle 29 years ago then they took me back up to the Station House in margrave Finley drove Rosco sat with me in the back of the car and held my hand all the way way it was only a 20-minute ride but in that time I lived through two whole lifetimes his and mine my brother Joe two years older than me he was born on a base in the Far East right at the end of the Eisenhower era then I'd been born on a base in Europe right at the start of the Kennedy era then we'd grown up together all over the world in inside that tight isolated transience that service families create for themselves life was all about moving on at random and unpredictable intervals it got so that it felt weird to do more than a semester and a half in any one place several times we went years without seeing a winter we'd get moved out of Europe at the start of the fall and go down to the Pacific somewhere and summer would begin all over again our friends kept just disappearing some unit would get shipped out somewhere and a bunch of kids would be gone sometimes we saw them again months later in a different place plenty of them we never saw again nobody ever said hello or goodbye you were just either there or not there then as Joe and I got older we got moved around more the Vietnam thing meant the military started shuffling people around the world fast F and faster life became just a blur of bases we never owned anything we were only allowed one bag each on the transport planes we were together in that blur for 16 years Joe was the only constant thing in my life and I loved him like a brother but that phrase has a very precise meaning a lot of those stock sayings do like when people say they slept like a baby do they mean they slept well or do they mean they woke up every 10 minutes screaming I love Joe like a brother which meant a lot of things in our family the truth was I never knew for sure if I loved him or not and he never knew for sure if he loved me or not either we were only two years apart but he was born in the 50s and I was born in the 60s that seemed to make a lot more than 2 years worth of a difference to us and like any pair of brothers two years apart we irritated the hell out of each other we fought and bickered and sullenly waited to grow up and get out from under most of those 16 years we didn't know if we loved each other or hated each other but we had the thing that Army families have your family was your unit the men on the bases were taught total loyalty to their units it was the the most fundamental thing in their lives the boys copied them they translated that same intense loyalty onto their families so time to time you might hate your brother but you didn't let anybody mess with him that was what we had Joe and I we had that unconditional loyalty we stood back to back in every new schoolyard and punched our way out of trouble together I watched out for him and he watched out for me like brothers did for 16 years not much of a normal childhood but it was the only childhood I was ever going to get and Joe was just about the beginning and end of it and now somebody had killed him I sat there in the back of the police Chevrolet listening to a tiny voice in my head asking me what the hell I was going to do about that fin drove straight through margrave and parked up outside the Station House right at the curb opposite the big plate glass entrance doors he and Rosco got out of the car and stood there waiting for me just like Baker and Stevenson had 48 hours before I got out and joined them in the noon time heat we stood there for a moment and then Finley pulled open the heavy door and we went inside walked back through the empty Squad room to the big Rosewood office Finley sat at the desk I sat in the same chair I'd used on Friday Rosco pulled the chair up and put it next to mine Finley rattled open the desk drawer took out the tape recorder went through his routine of testing the microphone with his fingernail then he sat still and looked at me I'm very sorry about your brother he said I nodded didn't say anything I'm going to have to ask you a lot of questions I'm afraid he said I just nodded again I understood his position I'd been in his position plenty of times myself who would be his nextkin he asked I am I said unless he got married without telling me do you think he might have done that Finley asked me we weren't close I said but I doubt it your parent dead I nodded Finley nodded wrote me down as next of kin what was his full name Joe Reacher I said no middle name is that short for Joseph no I said it was just Joe like my name is Just Jack we had a father who liked simple names okay Finley said older or younger older I said I gave him Joe's date of birth 2 years older than me so he was 38 I nodded Baker had said the victim had been maybe 40 maybe Joe hadn't worn well do you have a current address for him I shook my head no I said Washington DC somewhere like I said we weren't close okay he said again when did you last see him about 20 minutes ago I said in the morg Finley nodded gently before that 7 years ago I said our mother's funeral have you got a photograph of him you saw the stuff in the property bag I said I haven't got a photograph of anything he nodded again went quiet he was finding this difficult can you give me a description of him before he got his face shot off it might help you know Finley said we need to find out who saw him around when and where I nodded he looked like me I guess I said maybe an inch taller maybe 10 lbs lighter that would make him what about 66 he asked right I said about 200 lb maybe Finley wrote it all down and he shaved his head he said not the last time I saw him I said he had hair like anybody else 7 years ago right Finley said I Shrugged maybe he started going bald I said maybe he was Vain about it Finley nodded what was his job he asked last I heard he worked for the treasury Department I said doing what I'm not sure what was his background he asked was he in the service too I nodded Military Intelligence I said quit after a while then he worked for the government he wrote you that he had been here right he asked he mentioned the blind Blake thing I said didn't say what brought him down here but it shouldn't be difficult to find out Finley nodded we'll make some calls first thing in the morning he said until then you're sure you got no idea why he should be down here I shook my head I had no idea at all why he had come down here but I knew Hubble did Joe had been the tall investigator with the shav head in the code name Hubble had brought him down here and Hubble knew exactly why first thing to do was to find Hubble and ask him about it did you say you couldn't find Hubble I asked Finley can't find him anywhere he said he's not up at his place on Beckman Drive and nobody's seen him around town Hubble knows all about this right I just Shrugged I felt like I wanted to keep some of the cards pretty close to my chest if I was going to have to squeeze Hubble for something he wasn't very happy to talk about then I wanted to do it in private I didn't particularly want Finley watching over my shoulder while I was doing it he might think I was squeezing too hard and I definitely didn't want to have to watch anything over Finley's shoulder I didn't want to leave the squeezing to him I might think he wasn't squeezing hard enough and anyway Hubble would talked to me faster than he would talk to a policeman he was already halfway there with me so exactly how much Hubble knew was going to stay my secret just for now no idea what Hubble knows I said you're the one claims he fell apart Finley just grunted again and looked across the desk at me I could see him settling into a new train of thought I was pretty sure what it was I'd been waiting for it to the surface there's a rule of thumb about homicide it comes from a lot of statistics and a lot of experience the rule of thumb says when you get a dead guy first you take a good look at his family because a hell of a lot of homicide gets done by relatives husbands wives sons and brothers that was the theory Finley would have seen it in Action a 100 times in his 20 years up in Boston now I could see him trying it out in his head down in margrave I needed to run interference on it I didn't want him thinking about it I didn't want to waste any more of my time in a Cell I figured I might need that time for something else you're happy with my alibi right I said he saw where I was going like we were colleagues on a naughty case he flashed me a brief grin it held up he said you were in Tampa when this was going down okay I said and is Chief Morrison comfortable with that he doesn't know about it Finley said he's not answering his phone I don't want any more convenient mistakes I said the fat [ __ ] said he saw me up there I want him to know that won't fly anymore Finley nodded picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number I heard the faint purr of the ringtone from the ear ear piece it rang for a long time and cut off when Finley put the phone back down not at home he said Sunday right then he pulled the phone book out of a drawer opened it to H looked up Hubble's number on Beckman Drive dialed it and got the same result a lot of ringtone and nobody home then he tried the mobile number an electronic voice started to tell him the phone was switched off he hung up before it finished I'm going to bring Hubble in when I find him Finley said he knows stuff he should be telling us until then not a lot I can do right I Shrugged he was right it was a pretty cold Trail the only spark that Finley knew about was the Panic Hubble had shown on Friday what are you going to do rer he asked me I'm going to think about that I said Finley looked straight at me not unfriendly but very serious like he was trying to communicate an order and an appeal with a single Stern eye to eye gaze let me deal with this okay he said you're going to feel pretty bad and you're going to want to see Justice done but I don't want any independent action going on here okay this is Police business you're a civilian let me deal with it okay I Shrugged and nodded stood up and looked at them both I'm going for a walk I said I left the two of them there and strolled through the squad room pushed out through the glass doors into the hot afternoon wandered through the parking lot and cross the wide lawn in front over as far as the bronze statue it was another tribute to Casper teal whoever the hell he had been same guy as on the Village Green on the southern edge of town I leaned up against his warm metal flank and thought the United States is a giant country millions of square miles best part of 300 million people I hadn't seen Joe for seven years and he hadn't seen me but we'd ended up in exactly the same tiny spot 8 hours apart I'd walked within 50 yards of where his body had been lying that was one hell of a big coincidence it was almost unbelievable so Finley was doing me a big favor by treating it like a coincidence he should be trying to tear my alibi apart maybe he already was maybe he was already on the phone to Tampa checking again but he wouldn't find anything because it was a coincidence no point going over and over it I was only in margrave because of a crazy last minute whim if I'd taken a minute longer looking at the guy's map the bus would have been past the Clover Leaf and I'd have forgotten all about margrave I'd have gone on up to Atlanta and never known anything about Joe it might have taken another s years before the news caught up with me so there was no point getting all stirred up about the coincidence the only thing I had to do was to decide what the hell I was going to do about it I was about 4 years old before I caught on to the Loyalty thing I suddenly figured I was supposed to watch out for Joe the way he was watching out for me after a while it became second nature like an automatic thing it was always in my head to scout around and check he was okay plenty of times I would run out into some new schoolyard and see a bunch of kids trying it on with the tall skinny newcomer I'd Trot over there and haul them off and bust a few heads then I'd go back to my own buddies and play ball or whatever we were doing Duty done like a routine it was a routine which lasted 12 years from when I was four right up to the time Joe finally left home 12 years of that routine must have left faint tracks in my mind because forever afterwards I always carried a faint echo of the question where's Joe once he was grown up and a away it didn't much matter where he was but I was always aware of the faint echo of that old routine deep down I was always aware I was supposed to stand up for him if I was needed but now he was dead he wasn't anywhere I leaned up against the statue in front of the Station House and listen to the tiny voice inside my head saying you're supposed to do something about that the Station House door sucked open I squinted through the Heat and saw Rosco step out the sun was behind her and it lit her hair like a Halo she scanned around and saw me leaning on the statue in the middle of the lawn started over toward me I pushed off the warm bronze you okay she asked me I'm fine I said you sure she said I'm not falling apart I said maybe I should be but I'm not I just feel numb to be honest it was true I wasn't feeling much of anything maybe it was some kind of a weird reaction but that was how I felt no point in denying it okay Rosco said can I give you a ride somewhere maybe Finley had sent her out to keep track of me but I wasn't about to put up a whole lot of objections to that she was standing there in the sun looking great I realized I liked her more every time I looked at her want to show me where Hubble lives I asked her I could see her thinking about it shouldn't we leave that to Finley she said I just want to see if he's back home yet I said I'm not going to eat him if he's there we'll call Finley right away okay okay she said she Shrugged and smiled let's go we walked together back over the lawn and got into her Police Chevy she started it up and pulled out of the lot turned left and rolled South through the perfect little town it was a gorgeous September Day the bright Sun turned it into a fantasy the brick sidewalks were glowing and the white paint was blinding the whole place was quiet and basking in the Sunday heat deserted Rosco hung a right at the Little Village Green and made the turn into Beckman Drive skirted around the square with the church on it the cars were gone and the place was quiet worship was over Beckman opened out into a wide treelined red residential street set on a slight rise it had a rich feel cool and shady and prosperous it was what real estate people mean when they talk about location I couldn't see the houses they were set far back behind wide grassy shoulders Big Trees High Hedges their driveways wound out of sight occasionally I glimpsed a white Portico or a Red Roof the further out we got the bigger the lot became hundreds of yards between mailboxes enormous mature trees a solid sort of a place but a place with stories hiding behind the leafy facades in Hubble's case some sort of a desperate story which had caused him to reach out to my brother some sort of a story which had got my brother killed Rosco slowed at a white mailbox and turned left into the drive of number 25 about a mile from town on the left it's back to the afternoon sun it was the last house on the road up ahead Peach grov stretched into the haze we nosed slowly up a winding driveway around massed Banks of garden the house was not what I had imagined I had pictured a big white place like a normal house but bigger this was more Splendid a palace it was huge every detail was expensive expanses of gravel drive expanses of velvet lawn huge Exquisite trees everything shining and dappled in the blazing sun but there was no sign of the dark Bentley I'd seen up at the prison it looked like there was nobody home Rosco pulled up near the front door and we got out it was silent I could hear nothing except the heavy Buzz of afternoon heat we rang on the bell and knocked on the door no response from inside we Shrugged at each other and walked across a lawn around the side of the house there were Acres of grass and a blaze of some kind of flowers surrounding a garden room then a wide patio and a long lawn sloping down to a giant swimming pool the water was bright blue in the sun I could smell the chlorine hanging in the hot air some place Rosco said I nodded I was wondering if my brother had been there I hear a car she said we got back to the front of the house in time to see the big Bentley easing to a stop the blonde woman I'd seen driving away from the prison got out she had two children with her a boy and a girl this was Hubble's family he loved them like crazy but he wasn't there with them the blonde woman seemed to know know Rosco they greeted each other and Rosco introduced me to her she shook my hand and said her name was Charlene but I could call her Charlie she was an expensive looking woman tall slim good bones carefully dressed carefully looked after but she had a SE a spirit running through her face like a flaw enough Spirit there to make me like her she held onto my hand and smiled but it was a smile with a whole lot of strain behind it this hasn't been the best weekend of my life I'm afraid she said but it seems that I owe you a great deal of thanks Mr Reacher my husband tells me you saved his life in prison she said it with a lot of ice in her voice not aimed at me aimed at whatever circumstance it was forcing her to use the words husband and prison in the same sentence no problem I said where is he taking care of some business Charlie said I expect him back later I nodded that had been Hubble's plan he'd said he would spin her some kind of a yarn and then try to settle things down I wondered if Charlie wanted to talk about it but the children were standing silently next to her and I could see she wouldn't talk in front of them so I grinned at them I hoped they would get all shy and run off somewhere like children usually do with me but they just grinned back this is Ben Charlie said and this is Lucy they were Nic looking kids the girls still had that little girl chubbiness no front teeth fine Sandy hair and pigtails the boy wasn't much bigger than his little sister he had a slight frame and a serious face not a Rowdy hooligan like some boys are they were a nice pair of kids polite and quiet they both shook hands with with me and then Ste back to their mother's side I looked at the three of them and I could just about see the terrible Cloud hanging there over them if Hubble didn't take care he could get them all As Dead As he'd gotten my brother will you come in for some ice tea Charlie asked us she stood there her head cocked like she was waiting for an answer she was maybe 30 similar age to Rosco but she had a rich woman's ways 150 years ago she'd have been the Mistress of a big Plantation okay I said thanks the kids ran off to play somewhere and Charlie ushered Us in through the front door I didn't really want to drink any iced tea but I did want to stick around in case Hubble got back I wanted to catch him on my own for 5 minutes I wanted to ask him some pretty urgent questions before Finley started in with the Miranda warnings it was a fabulous house huge beautifully furnished light and fresh cool creams and sunny yellows flowers Charlie led us through to the Garden Room we' had seen from the outside it was like something from a magazine Rosco went off with her to help fix the tea left me alone in the room it made me uneasy I wasn't accustomed to houses 36 years old old and I'd never lived in a house lots of service accommodations and a terrible bare dormatory on the Hudson when I was up at the point that's where I'd lived I sat down like an ugly alien on a flowered cushion on a cane sofa and waited uneasy numb in that dead zone between action and reaction the two women came back with the tea Charlie was carrying a silver tray she was a handsome woman but she was nothing next to Rosco Rosco had a spark in her eyes so electric it made Charlie just about invisible then something happened Rosco sat down next to me on the cane sofa as she sat she pushed my leg to one side it was a casual thing but it was very intimate and familiar a numbed nerve end suddenly clicked in and screamed at me she likes you you too she likes you too it was the way she touched my leg I went back and looked at things in that new light her manner as she took the fingerprints and the photographs bringing me the coffee her smile and her wink her laugh working Friday night and Saturday so she could get me out of War burden driving all the way over there to pick me up holding my hand after I'd seen my brother's broken body giving me a ride over here she liked me too all of a sudden I was glad I had jumped off that damn bus glad I made that crazy last minute decision I suddenly relaxed felt better the tiny voice in my head quieted down right then there was nothing for me to do I'd speak to Hubble when I saw him until then I would sit on a sofa with a good-looking friendly dark-haired woman in a soft cotton shirt the trouble would start soon enough it always does Charlie hobble sat down opposite us and started pouring the iced tea from the pitcher the smell of lemon and spices drifted over she caught my eye and smiled the same stange smile she'd used before normally at this point I'd ask how you were enjoying your visit with us here in margrave she said looking at me strange smiling I couldn't think of a reply to that I just Shrugged it was clear Charlie didn't know anything she thought her husband had been arrested because of some kind of a mistake not because he was grabbed up in some kind of trouble which had just got two people murdered one of which was the brother of the stranger she was busy smiling at Rosco rescued the conversation and the two of them started passing the time of day I just sat there and drank the tea and waited for Hubble he didn't show up then the conversation died and we had to get out of there Charlie was fidgeting like she had things to do Rosco put her hand on my arm her touch burned me like electricity let's go she said I'll give you a ride back to town I felt bad I wasn't staying to wait for Hubble it made me feel disloyal to Jo but I just wanted to be on my own with Rosco I was burning up with it maybe some kind of repressed grief was intensifying it I wanted to leave Joe's problems until tomorrow I told myself I had no choice anyway Hubble hadn't shown up nothing else I could do so we got back in the Chevy together and nose down the winding driveway cruise down Beckman the buildings thickened up at the bottom of of the mile we jined around the church the Little Village Green with the Statue of old Casper teal was ahead Reacher Rosco said you'll be around for a while right until we get this thing about your brother straightened out I guess I will I said where are you going to stay she asked I don't know I said she pulled over to the curb near the lawn nudged the selector into Park she had a tender look on her face I want you to come home with me she said I felt like I was out of my mind but I was burning up with it so I pulled her to me and we kissed that fabulous first kiss the new and unfamiliar mouth and hair and taste and smell she kissed hard and long and held on tight we came up for air a couple of times before she took off again for her place she blasted a quar mile down the street which opened up opposite Beckman Drive I saw a blur of greenery in the Sun as she swooped into her driveway the tires chirped as she stopped we more or less tumbled out and ran to the door she used her key and we went in the door swung shut and before it clicked she was back in my arms we kissed and stumbled through to her living room she was a foot shorter than me and her feet were off the ground we tore each other's clothes off like they were on fire she was gorgeous firm and strong and a shape like a dream skin like Silk she pulled me to the floor through bars of hot sunlight from the window it was frantic we were rolling and nothing could have stopped us it was like the end of the world we shuddered to a stop and lay gasping we were bathed in sweat totally spent we lay there clasped and caressing then she got off me and pulled me up we kissed again as we staggered through to her bedroom she pulled back the covers on the bed and we collapsed in held each other and fell into a deep Afterglow stuper I was wrecked I felt like all my bones and Senus were rubber I lay in the unfamiliar bed and drifted away to a place far beyond relaxation I was floating Rosco's warm heft was snuggled beside me I was breathing through her hair our hands were lazily caressing unfamiliar Contours she asked me if I wanted to go find a motel or to stay there with her I laughed and told her the only way to get rid of me now would be to go fetch a shotgun from the Station House and chase me away I told her even that might not work she giggled and pressed even closer I wouldn't fetch a shotgun she whispered I'd fetch some handcuffs I'd chain you to the bed and keep you here forever we dozed through the afternoon I called the Hubble place at 7 in the evening he still wasn't back I left Rosco's number with Charlie and told her to have Hubble call me as soon as he got in then we drifted on through the rest of the evening fell fast asleep at midnight Hubble never called Monday morning I was vaguely aware of Rosco getting up for work I heard the shower and I know she kissed me tenderly and then the house was hot and quiet and still I slept on until after 9: the phone didn't ring that was okay I needed some quiet thinking time I had decisions to make I stretched out in Rosco's warm bed and started answering the question the tiny voice in my head was asking me again what was I going to do about Joe my answer came very easily I knew it would I knew it had been waiting there since I first stood next to Joe's broken body in the morg it was a very simple answer I was going to stand up for him I was going to finish his business whatever it was whatever it took I didn't foresee any major difficulties Hubble was the only link I had but Hubble was the only link I needed he would cooperate he depended on Joe to help him out now he'd depend on me he'd give me what I needed his Masters were vulnerable for a week what did he said a window of exposure wide open until Sunday I'd use it to tear them apart my mind was made up I couldn't do it any other way I couldn't leave it to Finley Finley wouldn't understand all those years of History Finley wouldn't sanction the sort of punishments that were going to be necessary Finley couldn't understand the simple truth I'd learned at the age of four you don't mess with my brother so this was my business it was between me and Joe it was Duty I lay there in Rosco's warm bed and scoped it out it was going to be a simple process about as simple as you could get getting hold of Hubble wasn't going to be difficult I knew where he lived I knew his phone number I stretched and smiled and filled with Restless energy got out of bed and found coffee there was a note propped against the pot the note said early lunch at Enos 11:00 leave Hubble to Finley okay the note was signed with lots of kisses and a little drawing of a pair of handcuffs I read it and smiled at the drawing but I wasn't going to leave Hubble to Finley no way Hubble was my business so I looked up the number again and called Beckman Drive there was nobody home I poured a big mug of coffee and wandered through the living room the sun was blinding outside it was another hot day I walked through the house it was a small place a living room an eatin kitchen two bedrooms one and a half baths very new very clean decorated in a cool simple way what I would expect from Rosco a cool simple style some nice Navajo art some bold rugs White Walls she must have been to New Mexico and liked it it was still and quiet she had a St IO a few records and tapes more sweet and melodic than the howl and Buzz that I Call Music I got more coffee from her kitchen went out back there was a small yard out there a neat coar lawn and some recent Evergreen planting shredded bark to smother weeds and rough Timber edging against the planted areas I stood in the sun and sipped the coffee then I ducked back inside and tried Hubble's number again no reply I showered and dressed Rosco had a small shower stall the head set low feminine soaps in the dish I found a towel in a closet and a comb on a vanity no razor I put my clothes on and rinsed out the coffee mug tried Hubble's number again from the kitchen phone I let it ring for a long time nobody home I figured I'd get a ride up there from Rosco after lunch this thing wasn't going to wait forever I relocked the back door and went out the front it was about 10:30 a mile and a quarter up to Eno's place a gentle half hour stroll in the sun it was already very hot well into the80s glorious fall weather in the South I walked the quarter mile to Main Street up a gently winding rise everything was beautifully manicured there were towering magnolia trees everywhere and late blossom in the shrubs I turned at the convenience store and strolled up Main Street the sidewalks had been swept I could see Crews of gardeners in the little park areas they were setting up Sprinklers and barrowing stuff out of smart green trucks marked Kleiner foundation and gold a couple of guys were painting the picket fence I waved in at the two old barbers in their shop they were leaning up inside their doorway like they were waiting for custom they waved back and I strolled on Enos came into sight the polished aluminum siding gleamed in the sun Rosco's Chevrolet was in the lot standing next to it on the gravel was the black pickup I'd seen the day before outside the coffee shop I reached the diner and pushed in through the door I had been proted out through it on Friday with Stevenson's shotgun pointed at my gut I had been in handcuffs I wondered if the diner people would remember me I figured they probably would margrave was a very quiet place not a whole lot of strangers passing through Rosco was in a booth the same one I'd used on Friday she was back in uniform and she looked like the sexiest thing on earth I stepped over to her she smiled a tender smile up at me and I bent to kiss her mouth she slid over the vinyl to the window there were two cups of coffee on the table I passed hers across the driver from the black pickup was sitting at the lunch counter the Kleiner boy the pale woman's stepson he'd spun the stool and his back was against the counter he was sitting legs apart elbows back head up eyes blazing staring at me again I turned my back on him and kissed Rosco again is this going to ruin your Authority I asked her to be seen kissing a vagrant who got arrested in here on Friday probably she said but who cares so I kissed her again the Kleiner kid was watching I could feel it in the back of my neck I turned to look back at him he held my gaze for a second then he slid off his stool and left stopped in the doorway and glared at me one last time then he hustled over to his pickup and took off I heard the Roar of the motor and then the diner was quiet it was more or less empty just like on Friday a couple of old guys and a couple of waitresses they were the same women as on Friday both Blonde one taller and heavier than the other waitress uniforms the shorter one wore eyeglasses not really alike but similar like sisters or cousins the same jeans in there somewhere small town miles from anywhere I made a decision I said I have to find out what happened with Joe so I just want to apologize in advance in case that gets in the way okay Rosco Shrugged and smiled a tender smile looked concerned for me it won't get in the way she said no reason why it should I sipped my coffee it was good coffee I remembered that from Friday we got an ID on the second body she said his Prince matched with an arrest two years ago in Florida his name was Sherman staller that name mean anything at all to you I shook my head never heard of them I said then her beeper started going it was a little black pager thing clipped to her belt I hadn't seen it before maybe she was only required to use it during working hours it was beeping away she reached around and clicked it off damn she said I've got a call in sorry I'll use the phone in the car I slid out of the booth and Ste back to let her byy order me some food okay she said I'll have whatever you have okay I said which one is our waitress the one with the glasses she said she walked out of the diner I was aware of her leaning into her car using the phone then she was gesturing to me from the park parking lot miming urgency miming that she had to get back miming that I should stay put she jumped into the car and took off South I waved vaguely after her not really looking because I was staring at the waitresses instead I had almost stopped breathing I needed Hubble and Rosco had just told me Hubble was dead chapter 11 I stared blankly over at the two blonde waitresses one was perhaps 3 inches taller than the other perhaps 15 lb heavier a couple of years older the smaller woman looked petite in comparison better looking she had longer lighter hair nicer eyes behind the glasses as a pair the waitresses were similar in a superficial kind of a way but not alike there were a million differences between them no way were they hard to distinguish one from the other I'd asked Rosco which was our waitress and how had she answered she hadn't said the smaller one or the one with the long hair or the blonder one or the Slimmer one or the prettier one or the younger one she'd said the one with glasses one was wearing glasses the other wasn't ours was the one with glasses wearing glasses was the major difference between them it overrode all the other differences the other differences were matters of degree taller heavier longer shorter smaller prettier darker younger the glasses were not a matter of degree one woman wore them the other didn't an absolute difference no confusion our waitress was the one with glasses that's what Spivy had seen on on Friday night Spivy had come into the reception bunker a little after 10:00 with a shotgun and a clipboard in his big red Farmer's hands he had asked which one of us was Hubble I remembered his high voice in the Stillness of the bunker there was no reason for his question why the hell should Spivy care which one of us was which he didn't need to know but he'd asked Hubble had raised his hand SPI had looked him over with his little Snake Eyes he had seen that Hubble was smaller shorter lighter sandier balder younger than me but what was the major difference he had hung on to Hubble wore glasses I didn't the little gold rims an absolute difference spiv had said to himself that night hubbles the one with glasses but the next morning I was the one with with glasses not Hubble because Hubble's gold rims had been smashed up by the red boys outside our cell first thing in the morning the little gold rims were gone I had taken some shades from one of them as a trophy taken them and forgotten about them I'd leaned up against the sink in that bathroom inspecting my tender forehead in the steel mirror I'd felt those Shades in my pocket I'd pulled them out and put them on they weren't dark because they they were supposed to react to sunlight they looked like ordinary glasses I'd been standing there with them on when the arens came trolling into the bathroom Spivy had just told them find the new boys and kill the one with glasses they'd tried hard they' tried very hard to kill Paul Hubble they had attacked me because the description they'd been given was suddenly the wrong description Spivy had reported that back long ago whoever had set him on Hubble hadn't given up they'd made a second attempt and the second attempt had succeeded the whole Police Department had been summoned up to Beckman Drive up to number 25 because somebody had discovered an appalling scene there Carnage he was dead all four of them were dead tortured and butchered my fault I hadn't thought hard enough I ran over to the cter spoke to our waitress the one with glasses can you call me a taxi I asked her the cook was watching from the kitchen hatch maybe he was Eno himself short stocky dark balding older than me no we can't he called through what do you think this place is a hotel this ain't the wall door for story a pal you want a taxi you find it yourself you ain't particularly welcome here pal you're trouble I gazed back at him bleakly too drained for any reaction but the waitress just laughed at him put her hand on my arm don't pay no mind to Eno she said he's just a grumpy old thing I'll call you the taxi just wait out in the parking lot okay I waited out on the road 5 minutes the taxi drove up brand new and Immaculate like everything else in margrave where too sir the driver asked I gave him Hubble's address and he made a wide slow turn shoulder-to-shoulder across the county road headed back to town we passed the firehouse and the police headquarters the lot was empty Rosco's Chevy wasn't there no Cruisers they were all out up at hubbles we made the right at the Village Green and swung past the silent Church headed up Beckman in a mile I would see a cluster of vehicles outside number 25 the Cruisers with their light bars flashing and popping unmarked cars for Finley and Rosco an ambulance or two the coroner would be there up from his shabby office and Yellow Springs but the street was empty I walked into Hubble's driveway the taxi turned and drove back to town then it was silent that heavy silence you get in a quiet street on a hot quiet day I rounded the big Banks of garden there was nobody there no police cars no ambulances no shouting no clattering gurns no gasps of horror no police photographers no tape sealing off the access the big dark Bentley was parked up on the gravel I walked past it on my way to the house the front door crashed open Charlie Hubble ran out she was screaming she was hysterical but she was alive hubs disappeared she screamed she ran over the gravel stood right in front of me hub's gone she screamed he's disappeared I can't find him it was just Hubble on his own they'd taken him and dumped him somewhere someone had found the body and called the police a screaming gagging phone call the cluster of cars and ambulances was there not here on Beckman somewhere else but it was just Hubble on his own something's wrong Charlie wailed this prison thing something's gone wrong at the bank it must be that hub's been so uptight now he's gone he's disappeared Something's Happened I know it she screwed her eyes tight shut started screaming she was losing it getting more and more hysterical I didn't know how to a handle her he got back late last night she screamed he was still here this morning I took Ben and Lucy to school now he's gone he hasn't gone to work he got a call from his office telling him to stay home and his briefcase is still here his phone is still here his jacket is still here his wallet is still here his credit cards are in it his driver's license is in it his keys are in the kitchen the front door was standing wide open he hasn't gone to work he's just disappeared I Stood Still paralyzed he'd been dragged out of there by force and killed charlyy sagged in front of me then she started whispering to me the whispering was worse than the screaming his car is still here she whispered he can't have walked anywhere he never walks anywhere he always takes his Bentley she waved vaguely toward the back of the house hubs Bentley is green she said it's still in the garage I checked you've got to help us you've got to find him Mr Reacher please I'm asking you to help us hubs in trouble I know it he's vanished he said you might help you saved his life he said you knew how to do things she was hysterical she was pleading but I couldn't help her she would know that soon enough Baker or Finley would come up to the house very soon they would tell her the shattering news probably Finley would handle it probably he was very good at it probably he had done it a thousand times in Boston he had dignity and gravity he would break the news gloss over the details drive her down to the morg to identify the body the morg people would shroud the corpse with heavy gauze to hide the falling wounds will you help us Charlie asked me I decided not to wait with her I decided to go down to the Station House find out details like where and when and how but I'd come back with Finley this was my fault so I should come back you stay here I said you'll have to lend me a car okay she rooted in her bag and pulled out a big bunch of keys handed them to me the car key had a big letter B embossed on it she nodded vaguely and stayed where she was I stepped over to the Bentley and slid into the driver's seat backed it up and swung it down the curving driveway glided down Beckman in silence made the left on to Main Street up toward the Station House there were Cruisers and unmarked units sprawled right across the police parking lot I left Charlie's Bentley at the curb and stepped inside they were all Milling around the open area I saw Baker Stevenson Finley I saw Rosco I recognized the backup team from Friday Morrison wasn't there nor was the desk guy the long counter was unattended everybody was stunned they were all vague and staring horrified distracted nobody would talk to me they looked over bleakly didn't really look away it was like they didn't see me at all it was total silence finally Rosco came over she'd been crying she walked up to me pressed her face against my chest she was burning up she put her arms around me and held on it was horrible she said wouldn't say anymore I walked her around to her desk and sat her down squeezed her shoulder and stepped over towards Finley he was sitting on a desk looking blank I nodded him over to the big office in back I needed to know and Finley was the guy who would tell me he followed me into the office sat down in the chair in front of the desk where I had sat in handcuffs on Friday I sat behind the desk rolls reversed I watched him for a while he was really shaken up I went cold inside all over again Hubble must have been left in a hell of a mess to be getting a reaction like that from Finley he was a 20-year man from a big city he must have seen all there is to see but now he was really shaken up I sat there and burned with shame sure Hubble i' said you look safe enough to me so what's the story I said he lifted his head up with an effort and looked at me why should you care he said what was he to you a good question one I couldn't answer Finley didn't know what I knew about Hubble I'd kept quiet about it so Finley didn't see why Hubble was so important to me just tell me what happened I said he was pretty bad he said wouldn't go on he was worrying me my brother had been shot in the head two big messy Exit Wounds had removed his face then somebody had turned his corpse into a bag of Pulp but Finley hadn't Fallen apart over that the other guy had been all gnawed up by rats there wasn't a drop of blood left in him but Finley hadn't Fallen apart over that either Hubble was a local guy which made it a bit worse I could see that but on Friday Finley hadn't even known who Hubble was and now Finley was acting like he'd seen a ghost so it must have been some pretty spectacular work which meant that there was some kind of a big deal going down in margrave because there's no point in spectacular work unless it serves a purpose the threat of it beforehand works on the guy himself it had certainly worked on he had taken a lot of notice of it that's the point of a threat but to actually carry out something like that has a different point a different purpose carrying it out is not about the guy himself it's about backing up the threat against the next guy in line it says see what we did to that other guy that's what we could do to you so by doing some spectacular work on Hubble somebody had just revealed there was a high state game going down with other guys waiting next in line right there in the locality tell me what happened Finley I said again he leaned forward cued his mouth and nose with his hands and sighed heavily into them okay he said it was pretty horrible one of the worst I've ever seen and I've seen a few let me tell you I've seen some pretty bad bad ones but this was something else he was naked they nailed him to the wall six or seven big carpentry nails through his hands and up his arms through the fleshy Parts they nailed his feet to the floor then they sliced his balls off just hacked them off blood everywhere pretty bad let me tell you then they slit his throat ear to ear bad people Reacher these are bad people as bad as they come I was numb Finley was waiting for a comment I couldn't think of anything I was thinking about Charlie she would ask if I'd found anything out Finley should go up there he should go up there right now and break the news it was his job not mine I could see why he was reluctant difficult news to break difficult details to gloss over but it was his job I'd go with him because it was my fault no point running away from that yes I said to him it sounds pretty bad he leaned his head back and looked around blew another sigh up at the ceiling a somber man that's not the worst of it he said you should have seen what they did to his wife his wife I said what the hell do you mean I mean his wife he said it was like a butcher's shop for a moment I couldn't speak the world was spinning backwards but I just saw her I said 20 minutes ago she's okay nothing happened to her you saw who Finley said Charlie I said who the hell is Charlie he asked Charlie I said blankly Charlie Hubble his wife she's okay they didn't get her what's Hubble got to do with this he said I just stared at him who are we talking about I said who got killed Finley looked at me like I was crazy I thought you knew he said Chief Morrison the chief of police Morrison and his wife chapter 12 I was watching Finley very carefully trying to decide how far I should trust him it was going to be a life or death decision in the end I figured his answer to one simple question would make up my mind for me are they they going to make you Chief now I asked him he shook his head no he said they're not going to make me Chief you sure about that I said I'm sure he said whose decision is it I asked him the Mayors Finley said town mayor appoints the chief of police he's coming over guy named teal some kind of an old Georgia family some ancestor was a railroad baron who owned everything in sight around here is that the guy you've got statues of I said Finley nodded Casper teal he said he was the first they've had teals here ever since this mayor must be the great grandson or something I was in a Minefield I needed to find a clear Lane through what's the story with this guy teal I asked him Finley Shrugged tried to find a way to explain it he's just a southern [ __ ] he said old Georgia family probably a long line of Southern [ __ ] they've been the Mayors around here since the beginning I dare say this one's no worse than the others was he upset I said when you called him about Morrison worried I think the Finley said he hates mess why won't he make you Chief I said you're the senior guy right he just won't Finley said why not is my business I watched him for a moment longer life or death somewhere we can go to talk I said he looked over the desk at me you thought it was Hubble got killed right he said why Hubble did get killed I said fact that Morrison got killed as well doesn't change it we walked down to the convenience store sat side by side at the empty counter near the window I sat at the same place the pale Mrs Kleiner had used when I was in there the day before that seemed like a long time ago the world had changed since then we got tall mugs of coffee and a big plate of Donuts didn't look at each other directly we looked at each other in the mirror behind the counter why won't you get the promotion I asked him his reflection Shrugged in the mirror he was looking puzzled he couldn't see the connection but he'd see it soon enough I should get it he said I'm better qualified than all the others put together I've done 20 years in a big city a real police department what the hell have they done look at Baker for instance he figures himself for a smart boy but what has he done 15 years in the sticks in this Backwater what the hell does he know so why won't you get it I said it's a personal matter he said you think I'm going to sell it to the newspaper I asked him it's a long story he said so tell it to me I said I need to know he looked at me in the mirror took a deep breath I finished in Boston in March he said done my 20 years unblemished record eight commendations I was one hell of a detective Reacher I had retirement on full pension to look forward to but my wife was going crazy since last fall she was getting agitated it was so ironic we were married all through those 20 years I was working my ass off Boston PD was a mad house we were working seven days a week all day and all night all around me guys were seeing their marriages fall apart they were all getting divorced one after the other he stopped for a long pull on his coffee took a bite of donut but not me he said my wife could take it never complained never once she was a miracle never gave me a hard time he lapsed back into silence I thought about 20 years in Boston working around the clock in that busy Old City grimming 19th century precincts overloaded facilities constant pressure an endless parade of freaks villains politicians problems Finley had done well to survive it started last fall he said again we were within 6 months of the end it was all going to be over we were thinking of a cabin somewhere maybe vacations plenty of time together but she started panicking she didn't want plenty of time together she didn't want me to retire she didn't want me at home she said she woke up to the fact that she didn't like me didn't love me didn't want me around she'd loved the 20 years didn't want it to change I couldn't believe it it had been my dream 20 years and then retire at 45 then maybe another 20 years enjoying ourselves together before we got too old you know it was my dream and I'd worked towards it for 20 years but she didn't want it she ended up saying the thought of 20 more years with me in a cabin in the woods was making her flesh crawl it got really bitter we fell apart I was a total basket case he tailed off again we got more coffee it was a sad story stories about wrecked dreams always are so obviously we got divorced he said nothing else to do she demanded it it was terrible I was totally out of it then in my last month in the department I started reading the union vacancy lists again saw this job down here I called an old buddy in Atlanta FBI and asked him about it he warned me off he said forget it he said it was a Mickey Mouse Department in a town that wasn't even on the map the job was called the chief of detectives but there was only one detective the previous guy was a weirdo who hanged himself the department was run by a fat [ __ ] the town was run by some old Georgia type who couldn't remember slavery had been abolished my friend up in Atlanta said forget it but I was so screwed up I wanted it I thought I could bury myself down here as a punishment you know a kind of penance also I needed the money they were offering top dollar and I was looking at alimon and lawyer bills you know so I applied for it and came down it was mayor teal and Morrison who saw me I was a basket case Reacher I was a wreck I couldn't string two words together it had to be the worst job application in the history of the world I must have come across as an idiot but they gave me the job I guess they needed a black guy to look good I'm the first black cop in margraves history I turned on the stool and looked straight at him so you figure you're just a token I said that's why teal won't make you Chief it's obvious I guess he said he's got me marked down as a token and an idiot not to be promoted further makes sense in a way can't believe they gave me the job in the first place token a not I waved to the counter guy for the check I was happy with Finley's story he wasn't going to be Chief so I trusted him and I trusted Rosco it was going to be the three of us against whoever I shook my head at him in the mirror you're wrong I said that's not the real reason you're not going to be Chief because you're not a criminal I paid the check with a 10 and got all quarters for change the guy still had no dollar bills then I told Finley I needed to see the Morrison Place told him I needed all the details he just Shrugged and led me outside we turned and walked South passed by the Village Green and put the town behind us I was the first one there he said about 10: this morning I hadn't seen Morrison since Friday and I needed to up date the guy but I couldn't get him on the phone it was the middle of the morning on a Monday and we hadn't done anything worth a damn about a double homicide from last Thursday night we needed to get our asses in gear so I went up to his house to start looking for him he went quiet and walked on revisiting in his mind the scene he'd found front door was standing open he said maybe a half inch it had a bad feel I went in found them upstairs in the master bedroom it was like a butcher shop blood everywhere he was nailed to the wall sort of hanging off both of them sliced up him and his wife it was terrible about 24 hours of decomposition warm weather very unpleasant so I called in the whole crew and we went over every inch and pieced it all together literally I'm afraid he tailed off again just went quiet so it happened Sunday morning I said he nodded Sunday papers on the kitchen table he said couple of sections opened out and the rest untouched breakfast things on the table medical examiner says about 10:00 Sunday morning any physical evidence left behind I asked him he nodded again grimly footprints in the blood he said the place was a lake of blood gallons of it partly dried up now of course they left Footprints all over but they were wearing rubber over shoes you know like you get for the winter up north no chance of tracing them they must sell millions every year they had come prepared they'd known there was going to be a lot of blood they'd brought over shoes they must have brought overalls like the nylon bodysuits they wear in the slaughterhouse on The Killing Floor big white nylon suits hooded the white nylons splashed and smeared with bright red blood they wore gloves too he said there are rubbery smears in the blood on the walls how many people I asked him I was trying to build up a picture four he said the footprints are confused but I think I can see four I nodded four sounded right about the minimum I reckoned Morrison and his wife would have been fighting for their lives it would take four of them at least four out of the 10 Hubble had mentioned transport I said can't really tell Finley said gravel driveway washed into ruts here and there there I saw some wide ruts which looked new maybe could have been wide tires maybe a big four-wheel drive or a small truck we were a couple hundred yards south of where Main Street had petered out we turned West up a gravel driveway which must have been just about parallel with Beckman Drive at the end of the driveway was Morrison's house it was a big formal Place White columns at the front symmetrical evergreen trees dotted about the there was a new Lincoln parked near the door and a lot of police tape strung at waist height between the columns we going in Finley asked may as well I said we ducked under the tape and pushed in through maron's front door the house was a wreck gray metallic fingerprint powder everywhere everything tossed and searched and photographed you won't find anything Finley said we went over the whole place I nodded and headed for the staircase went up and found the master bedroom stopped at the door and peered in there was nothing to see except the Ragged outline of the nail holes in the wall and the massive blood stains the blood was turning black it looked like somebody had flung buckets of tar around the carpet was crusty with it on the parket in the doorway I could see the Footprints from the overshoes I could make out the intricate pattern of the Treads I headed back downstairs and found Finley leaning on a porch column out front Okay he asked me terrific I said you search the car he shook his head that's Morrison's he said we just look for stuff The Intruders might have left behind I stepped over to the Lincoln and tried the door unlocked inside there was a strong new car smell and not much else this was a Chief's car it wasn't going to be full of cheeseburger wrappings and soda cans like a patrolman's would be but I checked it out poked around in the door pockets and under the seats found nothing at all then I opened the glove box and found something there was a switchblade in there it was a handsome thing Ebon handle with Morrison's name and gold filled engraving I popped the blade double-edged 7 in Japanese surgical steel looked good brand new never been used I closed it up and slipped it into my pocket I was unarmed and facing big trouble Morrison's switchblade might make a difference I slid out of the Lincoln and rejoined Finley on the gravel find anything he asked no I said let's go we crunched back down the driveway together and turned North on the county road headed back to town I could see the church steeple and the bronze statue in the distance waiting for us chapter 13 something I need to check with you I said Finley's p patience was running thin he looked at his watch you better not be wasting my time Reacher he said we walked on North the sun was dropping away from overhead but the heat was still Fierce I didn't know how Finley could wear a tweed jacket and a mle skin vest I led him over to the Village Green we cross the grass and leaned up on the Statue of old Casper teal side by side they cut his balls off right I said he nodded looked at me waiting okay I said so the question is this did you find his balls he shook his head no he said we went over the whole place ourselves and the medical examiner they weren't there his testicles are missing he smiled as he said it he was recovering his cop's sense of humor okay I said that's what I needed to know his smile widened reached his eyes why he said do you know where they are when's the autopsy I asked him he was still smiling his autopsy won't help he said they were cut off they're not connected to him anymore they weren't there they're missing so how can they find them at his autopsy not his autopsy I said her autopsy his wife's when they check what she ate Finley stopped smiling went quiet just looked at me talk Rea he said okay I said that's why we came out here remember so answer another question for me how many homicides have they had in margrave he thought about it Shrugged none he said at least not for maybe 30 years or so not since voter registration days I guess and now you've had four in four days I said and pretty soon you'll find the Fifth Fifth he said who's the fifth Hubble I said my brother this Sherman staller guy the two Morrison in Hubble makes five no homicides in 30 years and now you've got five all at once that can't be any kind of a coincidence right no way he said of course not they're linked right I said now I'll tell you some more links but first of all you got to understand something right I was just passing through here on Friday and Saturday and Sunday right up to the time those Prince came through on my brother I wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to anything at all I was just figuring I'd wait around and get the hell out of here as soon as possible so he said so I was told stuff I said Hubble told me things in war Burton but I didn't pay a lot of attention I wasn't interested in him okay he told me things and I didn't follow them up with them and I probably don't recall some of them like what things Finley said so I told him the things I remembered I started the same way Hubble had started trapped inside some kind of a racket terrorized by a threat against himself and his wife a threat consisting of the same things word for word that Finley had just seen for himself that morning you sure about that he said exactly the same word for word I said totally identical nailed to the wall balls cut off the wife forced to eat the balls then they get their throats cut word for word identical Finley so unless we got two threateners at the same time in the same place making the exact same threat that's another link so Morrison was inside the same scam as Hubble he said owned and operated by the same people I said then I told him Hubble had been talking to an investigator and I told him the investigator had been talking to Sherman staller whoever he had been who was the investigator he asked and where does Joe fit in Joe was the investigator I said Hubble told me the tall guy with the shaved head was an investigator trying to get him free what sort of an investigator was your brother Finley said who the hell was he working for don't know I said last I heard he was working for the treasury Department Finley pushed off the statue and started walking back North I got to make some calls he said time to go to work on this thing walk slow I said I haven't finished yet Finley was on the sidewalk I was in the road staying clear of the low awnings in front of every store there was no traffic on the street to worry about Monday 2:00 in the afternoon and the town was deserted how do you know Hubble's dead Finley asked me so I told him how I knew he thought about it he agreed with me because he was talking to an investigator he said I shook my head stopped outside the barber shop no I said they didn't know about that if they had they'd have got to him much earlier Thursday at the latest I figured they took the decision to waste him Friday about 5:00 because you pulled him in with the phone number in Joe's shoe they figured he couldn't be allowed to talk to cops or prison guards so they set it up with Spivy but spivey's boys blew it so they tried over again his wife said he got a call to wait at home today they were setting him up for a second attempt looks like it worked Finley nodded slowly [ __ ] he said he was the only link we had to exactly what the hell is going on here you should have hit on him while you had the chance Reacher thanks Finley I said if I'd known the dead guy was Joe I'd have hit on him so hard you'd have heard him yelling all the way over here he just grunted we moved over and sat together on the bench under the barber shop window I asked him what pbus was I said he wouldn't answer he said there were 10 local people involved in the scam plus hired help in from the outside when necessary and he said the scam is vulnerable until something happens on Sunday exposed somehow what happens on Sunday Finley asked he didn't tell me I said and you didn't press him he asked I wasn't very interested I said I told you that and he gave you no idea what the scam is all about he asked no idea I said did he say who these 10 people are he asked no I said Christ Reacher you're a big help you know that he said I'm sorry Finley I said I thought Hubble was just some [ __ ] if I could go back and do it again I'd do it a lot different believe me 10 people he said again not counting himself I said not counting Sherman's Stoler either but I assume he was counting Chief Maris great Finley said that only leaves me another nine to find you'll find one of them today I said the black pickup I'd last seen leaving Eno's parking lot pulled up short at the opposite curb it waited there motor running the minor kid leaned his head on his forearm and stared out of the window at me from across the street Finley didn't see him he was looking down at the sidewalk you should be thinking about Morrison I said to him what about him he said he's dead right but dead how I said what should that be saying to you he Shrugged somebody making an example of him he said a message correct Finley I said but what had he done wrong screwed something up I guess he said correct Finley I said again he was told to cover up what went down at the warehouse Thursday night that was his task for the day he was up there at midnight you know he was Finley said you said that was a [ __ ] story no I said he didn't see me up there that part was the [ __ ] story but he was up there himself he saw Joe he did Finley said how do you know that first time he saw me was Friday right I said in the office he was staring at me like he'd seen me before but he couldn't place where that was because he'd seen Joe he noticed a resemblance Hubble said the same thing he said I reminded him of his investigator so Morrison was there Finley said was he the shooter can't figure it that way I said Joe was a reasonably smart guy he wouldn't let a fat idiot like Morrison shoot him the shooter must have been somebody else I can't figure Morrison for the maniac either that much physical exertion would have dropped him with a heart attack I think he was the third guy the cleanup guy but he didn't search Joe's shoes and because of that Hubble got hauled in that got somebody mad it meant they had to waste Hubble so Morrison was wasted as a punishment some punishment Finley said also a message I said so think about it think about what he said wasn't a message for me so who was it a message for I said who is any such message for he said the next guy in line right I nodded see why I was worried who was going to be the next chief I said Finley dropped his head again and stared at the sidewalk Christ he said you think the next chief will be in the scam got to be I said why would they have Morrison inside not for his wonderful personality right they had him inside because they need the chief on board because that's useful to them in some particular way so they wouldn't waste Morrison unless they had a replacement ready and whoever it is we're looking at a very dangerous guy he'll be going in there with Morrison's examples staring him in the face somebody will have just whispered to him see what we did to Morrison that's what we'll do to you if you screw up the way he did so who is it Finley said who's going to be the new Chief that's what I was asking you I said we sat quiet on the bench outside the barber shop for a moment enjoyed the sun creeping in under the edge of the striped Dawning it's you me and Rosco I said right now the only safe thing is to assume everybody else is involved why Rosco he said lots of reasons I said but mainly because she worked hard to get me out of warb Burden Morrison wanted me in there as a Fall Guy for Thursday night right so if Rosco was inside the scam she'd have left me in there but she got me out she pulled in the exact opposite direction from Morrison so if he was bent she isn't he looked at me grunted only three of us he said you're a cautious guy Reacher you bet your ass I'm a cautious guy Finley I said people are getting killed here one of them was my only brother brother we stood up from the bench on the sidewalk across the street the Kleiner kid killed his motor and got out of the pickup started walking slowly over Finley rubbed his face with his hands like he was washing without water so what now he said you got things to do I said you need to get Rosco on one side and fill her in with the details okay tell her to take a lot of care then you need need to make some calls and find out from Washington what Joe was doing down here okay Finley said what about you I nodded across at the Kleiner kid I'm going to have a talk with this guy I said he keeps looking at me two things happened as the Kleiner kid came near first Finley left in a hurry he just stro off North without another word second I heard the barber shop blinds coming down and in the window behind me I glanced around there could have been nobody else on the planet except for me and the Kleiner kid up close the kid was an interesting study he was no lightweight probably 6'2 maybe one90 shot through with some kind of a Restless energy there was a lot of intelligence in his eyes but there was also some kind of an eerie light burning in there his eyes told me this probably wasn't the most rational character I was ever going to meet in my whole life he came close and stood in front of me just stared at me you're trespassing he said this is your sidewalk I said it sure is the kid said my daddy's Foundation paid for every inch of it every brick but I'm not talking about the sidewalk I'm talking about Miss Rosco She's Mine She's mine right from when I first saw her she's waiting for me 5 years she's been waiting for me until the time is right I gazed back at him you understand English I said the kid tensed up he was just about hopping from foot to foot I'm a reasonable guy I said first time Miss Rosco tells me she wants you instead of me I'm out of here until then you back back off understand that the kid was boiling but then he changed it was like he was operated by a remote control and somebody had just hit a button and switched the channel he relaxed and Shrugged and smiled a wide boyish smile okay he said no hard feelings right he stuck out his hand to shake on it and he nearly fooled me right at the last Split Second I pulled my own hand back a fraction and closed around his knuckles not his palm it's an old Army trick they go to shake your hand but they're aiming to crush it some big Macho ritual the way out is to be ready you pull back a fraction and you squeeze back you're squeezing their Knuckles not the meat of their Palm their grip is neutralized if you catch it right you can't lose he started crushing but he never stood a chance he was going for the steady squeeze so he could stare into my eyes while I sweated it out but he never got near I crunched his knuckles once and twice a little harder and then I dropped his hand and turned away I was a good 60 yards north before I heard the truck start up it rumbled south and its noise was lost in the buzz of the Heat eat chapter 14 back at the station house there was a big white Cadillac parked right across the entrance brand new fully loaded full of puffy black leather and fake wood it looked like a Vegas wh house after the stern Walnut and old Hyde and Charlie hubbles Bentley took me five strides to get around its Hood to the door inside in the chill everybody was Milling around a tall old guy with silver hair he was in an old-fashioned suit bootlace tie with a silver clasp looked like a real [ __ ] some kind of a politician the Cadillac driver he must have been about 75 years old and he was limping around leaning on a thick cane with a huge silver knob at the top I guessed this was mayor teal Rosco was coming out of the big office in back she'd been pretty shaken up after being at the morson place wasn't looking too good now but she waved and tried a smile gestured me over wanted me to go into the office with her I took another quick glance at Mar teal and walked over to her you okay I said I've had better days she said you up to speed I asked her Finley give you the spread she nodded Finley told me everything she said we ducked into the big Rosewood office Finley was sitting at the desk under the Old Clock it showed a quarter of four Rosco closed the door and I looked back and forth between the two of them so who's getting it I said who's the new Chief Finley looked up at me from where he was sitting shook his head nobody he said mayor teal is going to run the depart himself I went back to the door and cracked it open an inch peered out and looked at teal across the squad room he had Baker pinned up against the wall looked like he was giving him a hard time about something I watched him for a moment so what do you make of that I asked them everybody else in the department is clean Rosco said looks that way I guess I said but it proves teal himself is on board Teal's their replacement so Teal's their boy how do we know he's just their boy she said maybe he's the big boss maybe he's running the whole thing no I said the big boss had Morrison carved up as a message if teal was the big boss why would he send a message to himself he belongs to somebody he's been put in here to run interference that's for sure door Finley said started already told us Joe and staler are going on the back burner we're throwing everything at the morison thing doing it ourselves no outside help no FBI no nothing he says the pride of the department is at stake and he's already driving us up a blind alley says it's obvious Morrison was killed by somebody just out of prison somebody Morrison himself put away a long time ago out for revenge and it's a hell of a blind alley Rosco said we've got to tr through 20 years of old files and cross check every name and every file against parole records from across the entire country it could take us months he's pulled Stevenson in off the road for it until this is over he drives a desk so do I it's worse than a blind alley Finley said it's a coded warning nobody in our files looks good for violent Revenge never had that sort of crime I'm here we know that and teal knows we know that but we can't call his bluff right can't you just ignore him I said just do what needs doing he leaned back in his chair blew a s at the ceiling and shook his head no he said we're working right under the enemy's nose right now Teal's got no reason to think we know anything about any of this and we've got to keep it that way we we've got to play dumb and act innocent right that's going to limit our scope but the big problem is authorization if I need a warrant or something I'm going to need his signature and I'm not going to get it am I I Shrugged at him I'm not planning on using warrants I said did you call Washington they're getting back to me he said just hope teal doesn't grab the phone before I can I no what you need is somewhere else to work I said what about that buddy of yours up in Atlanta FBI the one you told me about could you use his office as a kind of private facility Finley thought about it nodded not a bad idea he said I'll have to go off the record I can't ask teal to make a formal request right I'll call from home tonight guy called Picard nice guy you like him he's from the quarter down in New Orleans he did a spell in Boston about a million years ago great big guy very smart very tough tell him we need it kept very quiet I said we don't want his agents down here until we're ready what are you going to do about teal Rosco asked me he works for the guys who killed your brother I Shrugged again depends how involved he was I said he wasn't the shooter he wasn't Rosco said how do you know that not fast enough I said limps around with a cane in his hand too slow to pull a gun too slow to get Joe anyway he wasn't the kicker either too old not vigorous enough and he wasn't the Gopher that was Morrison but if he starts messing with me then he's in deep [ __ ] otherwise to hell with them so what now she said I Shrugged at her didn't reply I think Sunday is the thing Finley said Sunday is going to solve some kind of a problem for them teal being put in here feels so temporary you know the guy's 75 years old he's got no police experience it's a temporary fix to get them through until Sunday the buzzer on the desk went off Stevenson's voice came over the intercom asking for Rosco they had files to check I opened the door for her but she stopped She just thought of something what about Spivy she said over at War Burton He was ordered to arrange the attack on Hubble right so he must know who gave him the order you should go ask him might lead somewhere maybe I said closed the door behind her waste of time Finley said to me you think Spivy is just going to to tell you a thing like that I smiled at him if he knows he'll tell me I said to him a question like that it's how you ask it right take care Reacher he said they see you getting close to what Hubble knew they'll waste you like they wasted him Charlie and her kids flashed into my mind and I shivered they would figure Charlie was close to what Hubble had known that was inevitable maybe even his kids as well a cautious person would assume kids could have overheard something it was 4:00 the kids would be out of school there were people out there who had loaded up with rubber overshoes nylon bodysuits and surgical gloves and sharp knives and a bag of nails and a hammer Finley call your buddy peard right now I said we need his help we've got to put Charlie Hubble somewhere safe and her kids right now Finley nodded Gravely he saw it he understood for sure he said get your ass up to Beckman right now stay there I'll organize peard you don't leave until he shows up okay he picked up the phone dialed an Atlanta number from memory Rosco was back at her desk mayor teal was handing her a thick wad of file folders I stepped over to her and pulled up a spare chair sat down next to her what time do you finish I said about 6 I guess she said bring some handcuffs home okay I said you're a fool Jack Reacher she said teal was watching so I got up and kissed her hair went out into the afternoon and headed for the Bentley the sun was dropping away and the heat was gone Shadows were lengthening up felt like the fall was on its way behind me I heard a shout mayor teal had followed me out of the building he called me back I stayed where I was made him come to me he limped over tapping his Cane smiling stuck out his hand and introduced himself said his name was Grover teal he had that politic I's neck of fixing you with a look and a smile like a search light like he was thrilled to bits just to be talking to me glad I caught you he said Sergeant Baker brought me up to date on the warehouse homicides it all seems pretty clear to me we made a clumsy mistake in apprehending you and we're all very sorry indeed about your brother and we'll certainly let you know just as soon as we get to any conclusions so before you get get on your way I'd be grateful if you'd kindly accept my apology on behalf of this department I wouldn't want you to take away a bad impression of us may we just call it a mistake okay teal I said but why do you assume I'm leaving he came back smoothly not more than a tiny hesitation I understood you were just passing through he said we have no Hotel here in margrave and I imagined you would find no opportunity to stay I'm staying I said I received a generous offer of hospitality I understand that's what the south is famous for right Hospitality he beamed at me and grasped his embroidered lapel oh undoubtedly that's true sir he said the South as a whole and Georgia in particular is indeed famous for the warmth of its welcome however as you know just at the present time we find ourselves in a most awkward predicament in the circumstances a motel in Atlanta or Mak would really suit you much better but naturally we would keep in close touch and we would extend you every assistance in arranging your brother's funeral when that sad time comes here in mrave I'm afraid we're all going to be very busy it'll be boring for you officer Rosco is going to have a lot of work to do she shouldn't be distracted just at the moment don't you think I won't distract her I said evenly I know she's doing vital work he looked at me an expressionless gaze eye to eye but he wasn't really tall enough he'd get a cck in his scrawny old neck and if he kept on staring at me like that he'd get his scrawny old neck broken I gave him a winry smile and stepped away to the Bentley unlocked it and got in gunned the big motor and wor the window down see you later teal I called as I drove away the end of the school day was the busiest I'd ever seen the town I passed two people on Main Street and saw another four in not near the church some kind of an afternoon Club maybe reading the Bible or bottling peaches for the winter I drove past them and hustled the big car up the Sumptuous mile of Beckman Drive turned in at the hubbles white mailbox and spun the old bite steering wheel through the driveway [Music] curves the problem with trying to warn Charlie was I didn't know how much I wanted to tell her certainly I wasn't about to give her the details did didn't even feel right to tell her Hubble was dead at all we were stuck in some kind of a limbo but I couldn't keep her in the dark forever she needed to know some context or else she wouldn't listen to the warning I parked her car at the door and rang her Bell the children dashed around from somewhere as Charlie opened up and let me in she was looking pretty tired and strained The Children looked happy enough they hadn't picked up on their mother's worries She chased them off and I followed her back to the kitchen it was a big modern room I got her to make me some coffee I could see she was anxious to talk but she was having trouble getting started I watched her fiddling with the filter machine don't you have a made I asked her she shook her head I don't want one she said I like to do things myself it's a big house I said I like to keep busy I guess she said then we were silent Charlie switched on the coffee machine and it started with a faint hiss I sat at a table in a window Nook it overlooked an acre of velvet lawn she came and sat opposite me folded her hands in front of her I heard about the Morrison she said at last is my husband involved in all of this I tried to think exactly what I could say to her she waited for an answer the coffee machine burbled away in the big silent Kitchen yes Charlie I said I'm afraid he was but he didn't want to be involved okay some kind of blackmail was going on she took it well she must have figured it out for herself anyway must have run every possible speculation through her head this explanation was the one which fit that was why she didn't look surprised or outraged she just nodded then she relaxed she looked like it had done her good to hear someone else say it now it was out in the open it was acknowledged it could be dealt with I'm afraid that makes sense she said she got up to pour the coffee kept talking as she went that's the only way I can explain his behavior she said is he in danger Charlie I'm afraid I have no idea where he is I said she handed me a mug of coffee sat down again on the kitchen counter is he in danger she asked again I couldn't answer couldn't get any words out she moved off the counter and came to sit opposite me again at the table in the window she cradled her Cup in front of her she was a fine looking woman blonde and pretty Perfect Teeth good bones slim athletic a lot of spirit I had seen her as a plantation type what they call a bell I had said to myself that 150 years ago she would have been a slave owner I began to change that opinion I felt a crackle of toughness coming from her she enjoyed being rich and I sure Beauty parlors and lunch with the girls in Atlanta the Bentley and the gold cards the big kitchen which cost more than I ever made in a year but if it came to it here was a woman who might get down in the dirt and fight maybe 150 years ago she would have been on a wagon train heading west she had enough Spirit she looked hard at me across the table I panicked this morning she said said that's not really like me at all I must have given you a very bad impression I'm afraid after you left I calmed down and thought things out I came to the same conclusion you've just described hubs blunted into something and he's got all tangled up in it so what am I going to do about it well I'm going to stop panicking and start thinking I've been a mess since Friday and I'm ashamed of it that's not the real me at all so I did something and I hope you'll forgive me for it go on I said I called Dwight Stevenson she said he had mentioned he had seen a facts from the Pentagon about your service as a military policeman I asked him to find it and read it to me I thought it was an excellent record she smiled at me hitched her chair in closer so what I want to do is to hire you she said I want to hire you in a private capacity to solve my husband's problem would you consider doing that for me no I said I can't do that Charlie can't or won't she said there would be a sort of a conflict of interest I said it might mean I couldn't do a proper job for you a conflict she said in what way I paused for a long moment tried to figure out how to explain it your husband felt bad okay I said he got hold of some kind of an investigator a government guy and they were trying to fix the situation but the government guy got killed and I'm afraid my interest is in the government guy more than your husband she followed what I was saying and nodded but why she asked you don't work for the government the government guy was my brother I told her just a crazy coincidence I know but I'm stuck with it she went quiet she saw where the conflict could lie I'm very sorry she said you're not saying Hub betrayed your brother no I said that's the very last thing he would have done he was depending on him to get him out from under something went wrong is all may I ask you a question she said why do you refer to my husband in the past tense I looked straight at her because he's dead I said I'm very sorry Charlie hung in there she went p and clenched her hands until her Knuckles Shone waxy white but she didn't fall apart I don't think he's dead she whispered I would know I would be able to feel it I think he's just hiding out somewhere I want you to find him I'll pay you whatever you want I just slowly shook my head at her please pleas she said I won't do it Charlie I said I won't take your money for that I would be exploiting you I can't take your money because I know he's already dead I'm very sorry but there it is there was a long silence in the kitchen I sat there at the table nursing the coffee she'd made for me would you do it if I didn't pay you she said maybe you could just look around for him while you find out about your brother I thought about it couldn't see how I could say no to that okay I said I'll do that Charlie but like I say don't expect miracles I think we're looking at something very bad here I think he's alive she said I would know if he wasn't I started worrying about what would happen when his body was found she was going to come face to face with reality the same way a runaway truck comes face to face with the side of a building you'll need expense money Charlie said I wasn't sure about taking it but she passed me a thick envelope will that do she asked I looked in the envelope there was a thick wad of $100 bills in there I nodded that would do and please keep the car she said use it as long as you need it I nodded again thought about what else I needed to say and forced myself to use the present tense where does he work I asked her Sunrise International she said it's a bank she reeled off an Atlanta address okay Charlie I said now let me ask you something else it's very important did your husband ever use the word pluris she thought about it and Shrugged plaus she said isn't that something to do with politics like on the podium when the president gives a speech I never heard Hub talking about it he graduated in banking studies you never heard him use that word I asked her again not on the phone not in his sleep or anything never she said what about next Sunday I asked her did he mention next Sunday anything about what's going to happen next Sunday she repeated I don't think he mentioned it why what's going to happen next Sunday I don't know I said that's what I'm trying to find out she pondered it again for a long moment but just shook her head and Shrugged Palms upward like it meant nothing to her I'm sorry she said don't worry about it I said now you've got to do something what do I have to do she said you've got to get out of here I said her knuckles were still white but she was saying in control I've got to run and hide she said but where too an FBI agent is coming here to pick you up I said she stared at me in panic FBI she said she went paler still this is really serious isn't it it's deadly serious I said you need to get ready to leave right now okay she said slowly I can't believe this is happening I walked out of her kitchen and into the Garden Room where we had drunk ice tea the day before stepped through the French doors and strolled a slow circuit outside the house down the driveway through the banks of greenery out onto Beckman Drive leaned up on the white mailbox on the shoulder it was silent I could hear nothing at all except the dry rustle of the grass cooling under my feet then I could hear a car coming West out of town it slowed just before the crest of the rise and I heard the a automatic box slur a change down as the speed dropped the car rose up over the crest into view it was a brown Buick very plain two guys in it they were small dark guys Hispanic loud shirts they were slowing drifting to the left of the road looking for the Hubble mailbox I was leaning on the Hubble mailbox looking at them their eyes met mine the car accelerated again and swer away blasted on into the empty Peach country I stepped out and watched them go I saw a dust plume Rising as they drove off margraves Immaculate black top onto the dusty rural roadway then I sprinted back up to the house I wanted Charlie to hurry she was inside flustered chattering away like a kid going on vacation making lists out loud some kind of a mechanism to burn off the panic she was feeling on Friday she'd been a rich idle Woman married to a banker now on Monday a stranger who said the banker was dead was telling her to hurry up and run for her life take the mobile phone with you I called to her she didn't reply I just heard a worried silence footsteps and closet doors banging I sat in her kitchen with the rest of the coffee for most of an hour then I heard a car horn blow and the crunch of heavy steps on the gravel a loud knock on the front door I put my hand in my pocket and closed it around the ebony handle of Morrison's switchblade walked out into the hallway and opened up there was a neat blue sedan next to the Bentley and a gigantic black guy standing back from the doorstep he was as tall as me maybe even taller but he must have outweighed me by at least 100 lb must have been 310 320 next to him I was a featherweight he stepped forward with the easy elastic Grace of an athlete reach him the giant said pleased to meet you I'm Picard FBI he shook hands with me he was enormous he had a casual competence about him which made me glad he was on my side he looked like my type of a guy like he could be very useful in a tight corner I suddenly felt the flood of encouragement I stood aside to let him into Charlie's house okay Picard said to me I got all the details from Finley real sorry about your brother my friend real sorry somewhere we can talk I leted him through to the kitchen he loped beside me and covered the distance in a couple of strides glanced around and poured himself the drgs of the stewed coffee then he stepped over next to me and dropped his hand on my shoulder felt like somebody had hit me with a bag of cement ground rules he said this old thing is off the Record right I nodded his voice matched his bulk it was a low Rumble it was what a brown bear would sound like if it learned to talk I couldn't tell how old the guy was he was one of those big fit men whose Peak years stretch on for decades he nodded and moved away rested his giant against the counter this is a huge problem for me he said Bureau can't act without a call from the responsible official in local jurisdiction that would be this guy teal right and from what Finley tells me I assume old Teal's not going to be making that call so I could end up with my big ass in a sling for this but I'll bend the rules for Finley we go back quite a ways but you got to remember this is all unofficial okay I nodded again I was happy with that very happy unofficial help suited me fine it would get the job done without hanging me up on procedure I had five clear days before Sunday this morning 5 days had seemed more than generous but now with Hubble gone I felt like I was very short of time much too short of time to waste any of it on procedure where you going to put them I asked him safe house up in Atlanta piard said Bureau Place we've had it for years they'll be secure there but I'm not going to say exactly where it is and I'm going to have to ask you not to press Mrs Hubble about it afterwards okay I got to watch my back on this thing I blow a safe house I'm in really deep [ __ ] okay peard I said I won't cause you a problem and I appreciate ated he nodded Gravely like he was way out on a limb then Charlie and the kids burst in they were burdened down with badly packed bags Picard introduced himself I could see that Charlie's daughter was terrified by the size of the guy the little boy's eyes grew round as he gazed at the FBI Special Agent Shield peard was holding out then the five of us carried the bags outside and piled them in the blue sedan's trunk I shook hands with peard and Charlie then they all got in the car peard drove them away I waved after them chapter 15 I headed over to warber Burton a dam site faster than the prison driver had and I was there in less than 50 minutes it was a hell of a sight there was a storm coming in quickly from the west and shaft of low afternoon sun were escaping the clouds and hidden the place the glittering metal towers and turrets were catching the orange Rays I slowed up and pulled into the prison approach stopped outside the first vehicle cage I wasn't going in there I'd had enough of that Spivy was going to have to come out to me I got out of the Bentley and walked over to the guard he seemed friendly enough Spivy on duty I asked him you want him the guard said tell them Mr Reacher's here I said the guy ducked under a ppc's hood and made a call ducked back out again and shouted over to me he don't know any Mr Reacher he said tell him Chief Morrison sent me I said over from margrave the guy went under the perspects thing again and started talking after a minute he was back out okay drive on through he said Spivy will meet you at reception tell him he's got to come out here I said meet me on the road I walked away and stood in the dust on the edge of the black top it was a battle of nerves I was betting Spivy would come on out I'd know in 5 minutes I waited I could smell rain coming out of the West in an hour it was going to roll right over us I stood and waited Spivy came out I heard the grills on the vehicle cage grinding across I turned and saw a dirty Ford driving through it came out and stopped next to the Bentley Spivy heaved himself out he walked over big guy sweating red face and hands his uniform was dirty remember me I asked him his small Snake Eyes flicked around found he was a drift and worried y Reacher he said so what right I said I'm Reacher from Friday what was the deal he shifted from foot to foot he was going to play hard to get but he'd already showed his hand he'd come out to meet me he'd already lost the game but he didn't speak what was the deal on Friday I said again Marson is dead he said then he Shrugged and clamped his thin lips wouldn't say anymore I stepped casually to my left just a foot or so to put Spivy bulk between me and the gate guard so the gate guard couldn't see Morrison's switch plate appeared in my hand I held it up at Spivy eye level for a second just long enough for him to read the gold filled engraving in the ebony then the blade popped out with a loud click Spivy small eyes were fixed on it you think I use this on Marson I said he was staring at the blade it Shone blue in the stormy Sun it wasn't you he said but maybe you had good reason I smiled at him he knew it was wasn't me who killed Morrison therefore he knew who had therefore he knew who Morrison's bosses were simple as that three little words and I was getting somewhere I moved the blade of fraction closer to his big red face want me to use this on you I said Spivy looked around wildly saw the gate guard 30 yards away he's not going to help you I said he hates your useless fat guts he's just a guard you sucked ass and got promotion he wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire why should he so what do you want Spivy said Friday I said what was the deal and if I tell you he said I Shrugged at him depends what you tell me I said you tell me the truth I'll let you go back inside want to tell me the truth he didn't reply we were just standing there by the road a battle of nerves his nerves were shot to hell so he was losing his little eyes were darting about they always came back to the blade okay I'll tell you he said time to time I helped Morrison out he called me Friday said he was sending two guys over names meant nothing to me never heard of you the other guy I was supposed to get the Hubble guy killed that's all nothing was supposed to happen to you I swear it so what went wrong I asked him my guy screwed up he said that's all I swear it it was the other guy we were after nothing was supposed to happen to you you got out of there right no damage done right so why give me a hard time I flashed the blade up real quick and nicked his chin in he froze in shock a moment later a fat worm of dark blood welled out of the cut what was the reason I asked him there's never a reason he said I just do what I'm told you do what you told I said I do what I'm told he said again I don't want to know any reasons so who told you what to do I said Morrison he said Morrison told me what to do do and who told Morrison what to do I asked him I held the blade an inch from his cheek he was just about whimpering with fear I stared into his small Snake Eyes he knew the answer I could see that far back in those eyes he knew who told Morrison what to do who told him what to do I asked him again I don't know he he said I swear it grave of my mother I stared at him for a long moment shook my head wrong Spivy I said you do know you're going to tell me now Spivy shook his head his big red face jerked from side to side the blood was running down his chin onto his slabby jows they'll kill me if I do he said I flicked a knife at his belly slit his greasy shirt I'll kill you if you don't I said guy like Spivy he thinks short term if he told me he'd die tomorrow if he didn't tell me he'd die today that's how he thought short term so he set about telling me his throat started working up and down like it was too dry to speak I stared into his eyes he couldn't get any words out he was like a guy in a movie who crawls up a desert Dune and tries to call for water but he was going to tell me then he wasn't over his shoulder I saw a dust plume far in the east then I heard the faint Roar of a diesel engine then I made out the gray shape of the prison bus rolling in Spivy snapped his head around to look at his salvation the gate guard wandered out to meet the bus Spivy snapped his head back to look at me there was a mean gleam of Triumph in his eyes the bus was getting closer who was it Spivy I said tell me now or I'll come back for you but he just backed off and turned and hustled over to his dirty Ford the bus roared in and blew dust all over me I closed up the switchblade and put it back in my pocket jogged over to the Bentley and took off the coming storm chased me all the way back East I felt I had more than a storm after me I was sick with frustration this morning I had been just one conversation away from knowing everything now I knew nothing the situation had suddenly turned sour I had no backup no facilities no help I couldn't rely on Rosco or Finley I couldn't expect either of them to agree with my agenda and they had troubles of their own up at the Station House what had Finley said working under the enemy's nose and I couldn't expect too much from peard he was already way out on a limb I couldn't count on anybody but myself on the other hand I had no laws to worry about no inhibitions no distractions I wouldn't have to think about Miranda probable cause constitutional rights I wouldn't have to think about Reasonable Doubt or Rules of Evidence no appeal to any higher authority for these guys was that fair you bet your ass these were bad people they'd stepped over the line a long time ago bad people what had Finley said as bad as they come and they had killed Joe Reacher I rolled the Bentley down the slight Hill to Ros 's house parked on the road outside her place she wasn't home the Chevrolet wasn't there the big Chrome clock on the Bentley's Dash showed 10 of six 10 minutes to wait I got out of the front seat and got into the back stretched out on the big old car's leather bench I wanted to get away from margrave for the evening I wanted to get out of Georgia all together I found a map in a pocket on the back of the driver's seat seat I peered at it and figured if we went West for an hour hour and a half back past War Burton again we'd cross the state line into Alabama that's what I wanted to do blast West with Rosco into Alabama and pull into the first live music bar we came to put my troubles on hold until tomorrow eat some cheap food drink some cold beer hears some dirty music with Rosco my idea of a hell of an evening I settled back to wait for her the dark was gathering in I felt a faint chill in the evening air about 6:00 huge drops started hammering on the roof of the Bentley it felt like a big evening thunderstorm was moving in but it never really arrived it never really let loose just the big early drops spattering down like the sky was straining to unload but wouldn't let go it went very dark and the heavy car rocked gently in The Damp wind Rosco was late the storm had been threatening for about 20 minutes before I saw her Chevy winding down the rise her headlights swept and arked left and right they washed over me as she swung into her driveway they blazed against her garage door then died as she cut the power I got out of the Bentley and stepped over to her we held each other and kissed then we went inside you okay I asked her I guess she said hell of a day I nodded it had been upset I asked her she was moving around switching lamps on pulling drapes this morning was the worst thing I've ever seen she said by far the worst thing but I'm going to tell you something I would never tell anyone else I wasn't upset not about mors you can't get upset about a guy like that but I'm upset about his wife bad enough living with a guy like marison without dying because of him too right what about the rest of it I asked her teal I'm not surprised she said that whole family has been scumbags for 200 years I know all about them his family and my family go way back together why should he be any different but God I'm glad everybody else in the department turned out clean I was dreading finding out one of those guys had been in it too I don't know if I could have faced that she went into the kitchen and I followed she went quiet she wasn't falling apart but she wasn't happy she pulled open the refrigerator door it was a gesture which said the cupboard is be she smiled a tired smile at me you want to buy me dinner she said sure I said but not here in Alabama I told her what I wanted to do she liked the plan she brightened up and went to take a shower I figured I could use a shower too so I went with her but we hit a delay because as soon as she started to unbutton her crisp uniform shirt my priorities shifted The Lure of an Alabama bar receded and the shower could wait too she was wearing black underwear beneath the uniform not very substantial items we ended up in a frenzy on the bedroom floor the thunderstorm was finally breaking outside the rain was lashing the Little House lightning was Blazing and the Thunder was crashing about we finally made it to the shower by then we really needed it afterwards I lay on the bed while Rosco dressed she put on faded denims and a silky shirt we turned off the lamps again and locked up and took off in the Bentley it was 7:30 and the storm was drifting off to the east heading for Charleston before boiling out over the Atlantic might hit Bermuda tomorrow we headed West toward a Pinker Sky I found the road back out to war Burton cruise down the farm roads between the endless dark fields and blasted past the prison it squatted glowering and its ghastly yellow light a half hour after War Burton we stopped to fill the old car's gigantic tank threaded through some tobacco country and crossed the chattah huchi by an old River Bridge in Franklin then a Sprint down to the state line we were in Alabama before 9:00 we agreed to take a chance and stop at the first bar we saw an old Roadhouse maybe a mile later pulled into the parking lot and got out looked okay big enough place wide and low built from [ __ ] boards plenty of neon plenty of cars in the lot and I could hear music the sign at the door said the pond live music s nights a week at 9:30 Rosco and I held hands and walked in we were hit by bar noise and jukebox music and a blast of beer air we pushed through to the back and found a wide ring of booths around a dance floor with a stage Beyond Pond the stage was really just a low concrete platform it might once have been some kind of a loading Bay the ceiling was low and the light was dim we found an empty booth and slid in watched the band setting up while we waited for service The Waitresses were rushing around like basketball centers one dived over and we ordered beers cheeseburgers fries onion rings pretty much right away she ran back with a tin tray with our stuff on it we ate and drank and ordered more so what are you going to do about Joe Rosco asked me I was going to finish his business whatever it was whatever it took that was the decision I had taken in her warm bed that morning but she was a police officer she was sworn to uphold all kinds of laws laws that were designed to get in my way I didn't know what to say but didn't wait for me to say anything I think you should find out who it was killed him she said and then what I asked her but that was as far as we got the band started up we couldn't talk anymore Rosco gave an apologetic smile and shook her head the band was loud she Shrugged saying sorry for the fact that I couldn't hear her talking she sketched me a tell you later gesture across the table and we turned to face the stage I wished I could have heard her reply to my question the bar was called the pond and the band was called Pond life they started pretty well a classic Trio guitar bass drums firmly into the Stevie Ray vaugh thing since Stevie Ray died in his helicopter up near Chicago it seemed like you could count up all the white men under 40 in the southern states divide by three and that was the number of Stevie rayon tribute bands everybody was doing it because it didn't require much didn't matter what you looked like didn't matter what gear you had all you needed was to get your head down and play the best of them could match Stevie Rays on a dime changes from loose bar Rock to the Old Texas Blues this lot was pretty good Pond life they lived up to their IR IR onic name the bass and the drums were big messy guys lots of hair all over fat and dirty the guitar player was a small dark guy not unlike old Stevie Ray himself the same gappy grin he could play too he had a black Les Paul copy and a big Marshall stack good oldfashioned sound the loose heavy strings and the big pickups overloading the ancient Marshall tubes given that glorious fat buzzy scream you couldn't get any other way we were having a good time we drank a lot of beer sat tight together in the booth then we danced for a while couldn't resist it the band played on and on the room got hot and crowded the music got louder and faster the waitresses sprinted back and forth with long neck bottles Rosco looked great her silky shirt was damp she wasn't wearing anything underneath it I could see that because of the way the damp silk stuck to her skin I was in heaven I was in a plain old bar with a stunning woman and a decent band Joe was on hold until tomorrow margrave was a million miles away I had no problems I didn't want the evening to end the band played on until pretty late must have been way past midnight we were Juiced up and sloppy couldn't face the drive back it was raining again lightly didn't want to drive an hour and a half in the rain not so full of beer might end up in a ditch or in jail there was a sign to a motel a mile further on Rosco said we should go there she was giggly about it like we were eloping or something like I'd transported her across the state line for that exact purpose I hadn't specifically but I wasn't about to put up a whole lot of objections so we stumbled out of the bar with ringing ears and got into the Bentley we rolled the big old car cautiously and slowly down the streaming Road for a mile saw the motel up ahead a long low old place like something out of a movie I pulled into the lot and went into the office roused the night guy at the desk gave them the money and arranged an early morning call got the key and went back out to the car I pulled it around to our cabin and we went in it was a decent Anonymous Place could have been anywhere in America but it felt warm and snug with the rain pattering on the roof and it had a big bed I didn't want Rosco to catch a chill she ought to get out of that damp shirt that's what I told her she giggled at me said she hadn't realized I had medical qualifications I told her we'd been taught enough for basic B emergencies is this a basic emergency she giggled it will be soon I laughed if you don't take that shirt off so she did take it off then I was all over she was so beautiful so provocative she was ready for anything afterwards we lay in an exhausted tangle and talked about who we were about what we'd done about who we wanted to be and what we wanted to do she told me about her family it was a bad luck story stretching back Generations they sounded like decent people Farmers people who had nearly made it but never did people who had struggled through the hard times before chemicals before Machinery hostages to the power of nature some old ancestor had nearly made it big but he lost his best land when mayor Teal's great-grandfather mother built the railroad then some mortgages were called in and The Grudge rolled on down the years so that now she loved margrave but hated to see teal walking around like he owned it which he did and which Teal's always had I talked to her about Joe I told her things I'd never told anybody else all the stuff I'd kept to myself all about my feelings for him and why I felt driven to do something about his death and how I was happy to do it we went through a lot of personal stuff talked for a long time and fell asleep in each other's arms seemed like more or less straight away the guy was banging on the door with the early morning call Tuesday we got up and staggered around the early Sun was struggling against a damp Dawn within 5 minutes we were back in the Bentley rolling East the r ing sun was blinding in The Dewy screen slowly we woke up we crossed the state line back into Georgia across the river in Franklin settled into a fast cruise through the empty farming country the fields were hidden under a floating quilt of Morning Mist it hung over the red earth like steam the sun climbed up and set about burning it off neither of us spoke we wanted to preserve the quiet intimate kak [ __ ] as long as possible arriving back in margrave was going to burst the bubble soon enough so I guided the big stately car down the country roads and hoped hoped there'd be plenty more nights like that one and quiet mornings like this one Rosco was curled up on the big hide chair beside me lost in thought she looked very content I hoped she was we blasted past War Burton again the prison floated like an alien City on the carpet of low Mist we passed the little Cops I'd seen from the prison bus pass the rows of bushes invisible in the fields reached the junction and turned South onto the county road past Eno's Diner and the Station House and the firehouse down onto Main Street we turned left at the Statue of the man who took good land for the railroad down the slope to Rosco's place I parked at the curb and we got out yawning and stretching we grinned briefly at each other we'd had fun we walked hand in hand down the driveway her door was open not wide open but an inch or two a jar it was a jar because the lock was smashed someone had used a crowbar on it the tangle of broken lock and splinters wouldn't allow the door to close all the way Rosco put her hand to her mouth and gave gave a silent gasp her eyes were wide they slid from the door to me I grabbed her elbow and pulled her away we stood flat against the garage door crouched down stuck close to the walls and circled right around the house listened hard at every window and risked ducking our heads up for a quick glance into every room we arrived back at the smashed front door we were wet from kneeling on the soaked ground and from brushing against the dripping evergreens we stood up looked at each other and Shrugged pushed the door open and went inside we checked everywhere there was nobody in the house no damage no disturbance nothing was stolen the stereo was still there the TV was still there Rosco checked her closet the police revolver was still on her belt she checked her drawers in her Bureau nothing had been touched nothing had been searched nothing was missing we stood back in the hallway and looked at each other then I noticed something that had been left behind the low Morning Sun was coming in through the open door and playing a shallow beam over the floor I could see a line of footprints on the park a a lot of footprints several people had tracked through from the front door into the living room the line of prints disappeared on The Bold living room rug reappeared on the wood floor leading into the bedroom came back out through the living room back to the front door they had been made by people coming in from the Rainy Night a slight film of Muddy rainwater had dried on the wood leaving faint prints faint but perfect I could see at least four people in and out I could see the tread patterns they had left behind they had been wearing rubber over shoes like you get for the winter up north chapter 16 they had come for us in the night they had come expecting a lot of blood they had come with all their gear their Rubber overshoes and their nylon body suits their knives their Hammer their Bag of Nails they had come to do a job on us like they'd done on Morrison and his wife they had pushed open the Forbidden door they had made a second fatal mistake now they were dead men I was going to hunt them down and smile at them as they died because to attack me was a second attack on Joe he was no longer here to stand up for me it was a second challenge a second humiliation this wasn't about self-defense this was about honoring Joe's memory Rosco was following the trail of footprints showing a classic reaction denial four men had come to butcher her in the night she knew that but she was ignoring it closing it out of her mind dealing with it by not dealing with it not a bad approach but she'd fall off the Highwire before long until then she was making herself busy tracing the faint footprints on her floors they had searched the house for us they had split up in the bedroom and looked around then they had regrouped in the bedroom and left we looked for tracks outside on the road but there was nothing the smooth tarmac was wet and steaming we went back inside no evidence at all except the wrenched Lock And The Faint Footprints throughout the house neither of us spoke I was burning with anger still watching Rosco waiting for the dam to break she'd seen the Morrison corpses I hadn't Finley had sketched in the details for me that was bad enough he'd been there he'd been shaken by the whole thing Rosco had been there too she'd seen exactly what somebody wanted to do to the two of us so who were they after she said at last me you both of us they were after both of us I said they figure Hubble talk to me in prison they figure I've told you all about it so they think you and I know whatever it was Hubble knew she nodded vaguely then she moved away and leaned up near her back door looking out at her neat Evergreen Garden I saw her go pale she shuddered the defenses crashed down she pressed herself into the corner by the door tried to flatten herself onto the wall stared into space like she was seeing all the nameless Horrors started crying like her heart was broken I stepped over and held her tight pressed her against me and held her as she cried out the fear and the tension she cried for a long time she felt hot and weak my shirt was soaked with her tears thank God we weren't here last night she whispered I knew I had to sound confident fear wouldn't get her anywhere fear would just sap her energy she had to face it down and she had to face down the dark and the quiet again tonight and every other night of her life I wish we had been here I said we could have gotten a few answers she looked at me like I was crazy shook her head what would you have done she said killed four men only three I said the fourth would have given us the answers I said it with total certainty total conviction like absolutely no other possibility existed she looked at me I wanted her to see this huge guy a soldier for 13 long years a bare knuckle killer icy blue eyes I was given it everything I had I was willing myself to project all the invincibility all the implacability all the protection I felt I was doing the hard no- blink stare that used to shrivel up drunken Marines two at a time I wanted Rosco to feel safe after what she was giving me I wanted to give her that I didn't want her to feel afraid it's going to take more than four little country boys to get me I said who are they kidding I've [ __ ] better opponents than that they come in here again they'll go out in a bucket and I'll tell you what Rosco someone even thinks about hurting you they die before they finish thinking it was working I was convincing her I needed her to be bright tough self-confident I was willing her to pick it up it was working her amazing eyes were filling with spirit I mean it Rosco I said stick with me and you'll be okay she looked at me again pushed her hair back promise she said you got it babe I said held my breath she sighed a ragged sigh pushed off the wall and stepped over tried a brave smile the crisis was gone she was up and running now we get the hell out of here I said we can't stay around like sitting targets so throw what you need into a bag okay she said are we going to fix my door first I thought about her question it was an important tactical issue no I said if we fix it it means we've seen it if we've seen it it means we know where under attack better if they figure we don't know we're under attack because then they'll figure they don't need to be too careful next time so we don't react at all we make out we haven't been back here we make out we haven't seen the door we carry on acting dumb and innocent if they think we're dumb and innocent they'll get careless easier to spot them coming next time okay she said she didn't sound convinced but she was agreeing so throw what you need into a b bag I said again she wasn't happy but she went off to gather up some stuff the game was starting I didn't know exactly who the other players were I didn't even know exactly what the game was but I knew how to play opening move was I wanted them to feel like we were always one step behind should I go to work today Rosco asked got to I said can't do anything different from normal and we need to speak with Finley he's expecting the call from Washington and we need what we can get on Sherman's staller but don't worry they're not going to gun us down in the middle of the squad room they'll go for somewhere quiet and isolated probably at night Teal's the only bad guy up there so just don't be on your own with him stick around Finley or Baker or Stevenson okay she nodded went to get showered and dressed for work with in 20 minutes she came out of the bedroom in her uniform patted herself down ready for the day she looked at me promise she said the way she said it was like a question an apology a reassurance all in one word I looked back at her you bet your ass I said and winked she nodded winked back we were okay we went out the front door and left it slightly open just like we'd found it I hid the Bentley in her garage to maintain the illusion that we hadn't been back to her house then we got in her Chevy and decided to start with breakfast up at enos's she took off and gunned the car up the hill it felt loose and low after the upright old Bentley coming down the hill toward us was a panel van smart dark green very clean brand new it looked like a utility van but on the side was sign in fancy gold script it said Kleiner Foundation the same as I'd seen the gardeners using what's that truck I said to Rosco she wafted through the right at the coffee shop up onto Main Street foundation's got a lot of trucks she said what is it they do I asked her big deal r here she said old man Kleiner the town sold him the land for his warehouses and part of the deal was he set up a community program teal runs it out of the mayor's office teal runs it I said Teal's the enemy he runs it because he's the mayor she said not because he's teal the program assigns a lot of money spends it on public things roads Gardens the library local business grants gives the police department a hell of a a lot gives me a mortgage subsidy just because I'm with the Department gives teal a lot of power I said and what's the story with a Kleiner boy he tried to warn me off you made out he had a prior claim she shuddered he's a jerk she said I avoid him when I can you should do the same she drove on looking edgy kept glancing around startled like she felt under threat like someone was going to jump out in front of the car and gun us down her quiet life in the Georgia Countryside was over four men in the night up at her house had shattered that we pulled into Eno's gravel lot and the big Chevy Rock gently on its soft Springs I slid out of the low seat and we crunched across the gravel together to Eno's door it was a gray day the night rain had chilled the air and left Rags of cloud all over the sky the siding on the diner reflected the dullness it was cold it felt like a new season we went in the place was empty we took a booth and the woman with glasses brought us coffee we ordered eggs and bacon with all kinds of extras on the side a black pickup was pulling into the lot outside same black pickup as I'd seen three times before different driver not the Kleiner kid this was was an older guy maybe approaching 60 but bone hard and lean iron gray hair shaved close to his scalp he was dressed like a rancher in denim looked like he lived outdoors in the sun even through Eno's window I could sense his power and feel the glare in his eyes Rosco nudged me and nodded at the guy that's Kleiner she said the old man himself he pushed in through the door and stood for a moment looked left looked right and moved into the Lunch Counter Eno came around from the kitchen the two of them talked quietly heads bent together then Kleiner stood up again turned to the door stopped and looked left looked right rested his Gaze on Rosco for a second his face was lean and flat and hard his mouth was a line carved into it then he moved his eyes onto me I felt like I was being illuminated by a search light his lips parted in a curious smile he had amazing teeth long canines caned Inward and flat square incizors yellow like an old wolf his lips closed again and he snapped his gaze away pulled the door and crunched over the gravel to his truck took off with the Roar of a big motor and a spray of small stones I watched him go and turned to Rosco so tell me more about these Kleiner people I said she still looked edgy why she said we're fighting for our lives here and you want to talk about the kiners I'm looking for information I said piner's name crops up everywhere he looks like an interesting guy his son is a piece of work and I saw his wife she looked unhappy I'm wondering if all that's got anything to do with anything she Shrugged and shook her head I don't see how she said they're newcomers only been here 5 years the family made a fortune in Cotton processing Generations back over in Mississippi invented some kind of a new chemical thing some kind of a new formula chlorine or sodium something I don't know for sure made a huge Fortune but they ran into trouble with the EPA over there you know about 5 years ago pollution or something there were fish dying all the way down to New Orleans because of dumping into the river so what happened I asked her Kleiner moved the whole plant she said the company was his by then he shut down the whole Mississippi operation and set it up again in Venezuela or somewhere then he tried to diversify he turned up here in Georgia 5 years ago with this Warehouse thing consumer goods Electronics or something so they're not local I said never saw them before 5 years ago she said don't know much about them but I never heard anything bad kleiner's probably a tough guy maybe even ruthless but he's okay as long as you're not a fish I guess so why is his wife so scared I said Rosco made a face she's not scared she said she's sick maybe she's scared because she's sick she's going to die right that's not kleiner's fault the waitress arrived with the food we ate and silence the portions were huge the fried stuff was great the eggs were delicious this guy Eno had a way with eggs I washed it all down with pints of coffee I had the waitress running back and forth with the refill jug pubus means nothing at all to you Rosco asked you guys never knew anything about some pbus thing when you were kids I thought hard and shook my head is it Latin she asked it's part of the United States motto right I said e pluris Unum it means out of many one one nation built out of many former colonies so pubus means many she said did Joe know Latin I Shrugged I've got no idea I said probably he was a smart guy he probably knew bits and pieces of Latin I'm not sure okay she said you got no other ideas at all why Joe was down here money maybe I said that's all I can think of Joe worked for the treasury Department as far as I know worked for a bank their only thing in common would be money maybe we'll find out from Washington if we don't we're going to have to start from the beginning okay she said you need anything I'll need that arrest report from Florida I said for Sherman staller she said that's 2 years old got to start somewhere I said okay I'll ask for it she Shrugged I'll call Florida anything else I need a gun I said she didn't reply I dropped a 20 on the laminate tabletop and we slid out and stood up walked out to the unmarked car I need a gun I said again this is a big deal right so I'll need a weapon I can't just go to the store and buy one no IDE no address okay she said I'll get you one I've got no permit I said you'll have to do it on the quiet okay she nodded that's okay she said there's one nobody else knows about we kissed a long hard kiss in the Station House lot then we got out of the car and went in through the heavy glass door more or less bumped into Finley rounding the reception counter on his way out got to go back to the morg he said you guys come with me okay we need to talk lot to talk about so we went back out into the dull morning got back into Rosco's Chevy same system as before she drove I sat across the back Finley sat in the front passenger seat twisted around so he could look at the both of us at once Rosco started up and headed south long call from the treasury Department Finley said must have been 20 minutes maybe a half hour I was nervous about teal what did they say I asked him nothing he said they took a half hour to tell me nothing nothing I said what the hell does that mean they wouldn't tell me anything he said they want a shitload of formal authorization from teal before they say word one they confirmed your work there right I said sure they went that far far he said he came from military intelligence 10 years ago they head hunted him recruited him specially what for I asked him Finley just Shrugged they wouldn't tell me he said he started some new project exactly a year ago but the whole thing is a total secret he was some kind of a very big deal up there Reacher that's for sure you should have heard the way they were all talking about him like talking about God I went quiet for a while I had known nothing about Joe nothing at all so that's it I said is that all you got no he said I kept pushing until I got a woman called Molly Beth Gordon you ever heard that name no I said should I have sounds like she was very close to Joe Finley said sounds like they may have had a thing going she was very upset floods of Tears so what did she tell you I asked him nothing Finley said not authorized but she promised to tell you what she can she said she'll step out of line for you because you're Joe's little brother I nodded okay I said that's better when do I speak to her call her about 1:30 he said lunch break when her office will be empty she's taking a big risk but she'll talk to you you that's what she said okay I said again she say anything else she let one little thing slip Finley said Joe had a big debrief meeting scheduled for next Monday morning Monday I said as in the day after Sunday correct he said looks like Hubble was right something is due to happen on or before Sunday whatever the hell he was doing it looks like Joe knew he would have won or lost by then but she wouldn't say anything more she was out of line talking to me at all and she sounded like she was being overheard so call her but don't pin your hopes on her Reacher she may not know anything left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing up there big time secrecy right bureaucracy I said who the hell needs it okay we have to assume we're on our own here at least for a while we're going to need peard again Finley nodded he'll do what he can he said he called me last night the hubbles are secure right now he's sitting on it but he'll stand up for us if we need him he should start tracing Joe I said Joe must have used a car probably flew down from Washington into Atlanta got a hotel room rented a car right we should look for the car he must have driven it down here Thursday night it must have been been dumped somewhere in the area it might lead us back to the hotel maybe there would be something in Joe's hotel room files maybe Picard can't do that Finley said FBI isn't equipped to go looking for abandoned rental cars and we can't do it ourselves not with teal around I Shrugged we'll have to I said no other way you can sell teals story you can Double Bluff him tell him you figure the escaped con who says he did the Morrison thing must have been in a rental car tell him you need to check it out he can't say no to that or else he's undermining his own cover story right okay Finley said I'll try it might work I guess Joe must have had phone numbers I said the number you found in his shoe was torn off a computer printout right so where's the rest of the print out I bet it's in his hotel room just sitting there covered with phone numbers with Hubble's number torn off the top so you find the car then you twist Picard's arm to trace the hotel through the rental company okay okay he said I'll do my best in Yellow Springs we slipped into the hospital entrance Lane and slowed over the speed bumps nosed around to the loton back parked near the morg door I didn't want to go inside Joe was still in there I I started to think vaguely about funeral arrangements I'd never had to do it before the Marine Corps handled my father's Joe arranged my mother's but I got out of the car with the two of them and we walked through the chill air to the door found our way back to the shabby office the same doctor was at the desk still in a white coat still looking tired he waved Us in and we sat down I took one of the stools I didn't want to sit next to the fax machine again the doctor looked at all of us in turn we looked back at him what have you got for us Finley said the tired man at the desk prepared to answer like preparing for a lecture he picked up three files from his left and dropped them on his blotter opened the top one pulled out the second one and open that too marrison he said Mr and M he glanced around the three of us again Finley nodded to him tortured and killed the pathologist said the sequence is pretty clear the woman was restrained two men I'd say one on each arm gripping and twisting heavy bruising on the far arms and the upper arms some ligament damage from twisting the arms up her back obviously the bruising continued to develop from the time she was first seized and until the time she died the bruising stops developing when the circulation stops you understand we nodded we understood I'd put it at about 10 minutes he said 10 minutes beginning to end so the woman was being held the man was being nailed to the wall I'd guess both were naked by then they were in nightwear before the attack right robes Finley said they were having breakfast okay the robes came off early on the doctor said the man was nailed to the wall technically to the floor also through the feet his genital area was attacked the scrotum was severed postmortem evidence suggest that the woman was persuaded to swallow the amputated testicles the office was silent silent as a tomb Rosco looked at me stared at me for a while then she looked back at the doctor I found them in her stomach the doctor said Rosco was as white as the guy's coat I thought she was going to pitch forward off her stool she closed her eyes and hung on she was hearing about what somebody had planned for us last night and Finley said the woman was mutilated the doctor said breast severed genital area attacked throat cut then the man's throat was cut that was the last wound inflicted you could see the arterial spray from his neck overlaying all the other blood stains in the room there was dead silence in the room lasted quite a while weapons I asked the guy at the desk swiveled his tired gaze towards me something sharp obvious ious ly he said a slight grin straight maybe 5 in Long a razor I said no he said certainly something as sharp as a razor but rigid not folding and double-edged why I said there's evidence it was used back and forth the guy said he swished his hand back and forth in a tiny Arc like this on the woman's breasts cutting both ways like fill it in a salmon I nodded Rosco and Finley was silent what about the other guy I said staller the pathologist pushed the two morson files to one side and opened up the third glanced through it and looked across at me the third file was thicker than the first two his name was stala he said we've got him down as John Doe Rosco looked up we sent you a fax she said yesterday morning we traced his prins the pathologist rooted around on the messy desk found a curled up fax read it and nodded crossed out John Doe on the folder and wrote in Sherman staller gave us his little grin again I've had him since Sunday he said been able to do a more thorough job you know a bit chewed up by the rats but not pulped like the first guy and altogether a lot less mess than the Marson so what can you tell us I said we've talked about the bullets right he said nothing more to add about the exact cause of death so what else do you know I asked him the file was too thick for just the shooting and running and bleeding to death bits this guy clearly had more to tell us I saw him put his fingers on the pages and press lightly like he was trying to get vibrations or read the file in Braille he was a truck driver he said he was I said I think so the guy said sounded confident Finley looked up he was interested he loved the process of deduction it fascinated him like when I'd scored with those long shots about Harvard is divorce quitting smoking go on he said okay briefly the pathologist said I found certain persuasive factors a sedentary job because his musculature was slack his posture poor and flabby buttocks slightly rough hands a fair bit of old diesel fuel ingrained in the skin also traces of old diesel fuel on the soles of his shoes internally a poor diet high in fat plus a bit too much hydrogen sulfide in the blood gases and the tissues this guy spent his life on the road sniffing other people's catalytic converters I make him a truck driver because of the diesel fuel Finley nodded I nodded stuller had come in with no ID no history nothing but his watch this guy was pretty good he watched us nod our approval looked pleased Ed looked like he had more to say but he's been out of work for a while he said why Finley asked him because all that evidence is old the doctor said looks to me like he was driving a lot for a long period but then he stopped I think he's done very little driving for 9 months maybe a year so I make him a truck driver but an unemployed truck driver okay doc good work Finley said you got copies of all that for us the doctor slid a large envelope across the desk Finley stepped over and picked it up then we all stood up I wanted to get out I didn't want to go back to the cold store again I didn't want to see any more damage Rosco and Finley sensed it and nodded we hustled out like we were 10 minutes late for something the guy at the desk let us go he'd seen lots of people rushing out of his office like they were 10 minutes late for something we got into Rosco's car Finley opened the big envelope and pulled out the stuff on Sherman's staller folded it into his pocket that's ours for the time being he said it might get us somewhere I'll get the arrest report from Florida Rosco said and we'll find an address for him somewhere got to be a lot of paperwork on a trucker right Union medical licenses should be easy enough to do we rode the rest of the way back to margrave in Silence the Station House was deserted apart from the Des eyy lunch break in margrave lunch break in Washington DC same time zone Finley handed me a scrap of paper from his pocket and stood guard on the door to the Rosewood office I went inside to call the woman who may have been my brother's lover the number Finley had handed me reached Molly Beth Gordon's private line she answered on the first ring I gave her my name it made her cry you sound so much like Joe she said I didn't reply I didn't want to get into a whole lot of reminiscing neither should she not if she was stepping out of line and was in danger of being overheard she should just tell me what she had to tell me and get off the line so what was Joe doing down here I asked her I heard her sniffing and then her voice came back clear he was running an investigation she said into what I don't know specifically but what sort of a thing I asked her what was his job don't you know she said no I said we found it very hard to keep in touch I'm afraid you'll have to start from the beginning for me there was a long pause on the line okay she said I shouldn't tell you this not without clearance but I will it was counterfeiting he ran the treasury's anti-counterfeiting operation counterfeiting I said counterfeit money yes she said he was head of the department ran the whole show he was an amazing guy Jack but why was he down here in Georgia I asked her I don't know she said I really don't what I aim to do is find out for you I can copy his files I know his computer password there was another pause now I knew something about Molly Beth Gordon I'd spent a lot of time on computer passwords any military cop does I'd studied the psychology most users make bad choices a lot of them write the damn word on a Post-It note and stick it on the monitor case the ones who are too smart to do that use their spouse's name or their dog's name or their favorite car or ball player or the name of the island where they took their honeymoon or bald their secretary the ones who think they're really smart use figures not words but they choose their birthday or their wedding anniversary or something pretty obvious if you can find something out about the user you've normally got a better than even chance of figuring their password but that would never work with Joe he was a professional he'd spent important years in Military Intelligence his password would be a random mixture of numbers letters punctuation marks upper and lower case his password would be unbreakable If Molly Beth Gordon knew what it was Joe must have told her no other way he had really trusted her he had been really close to her so I put some tenderness into my voice Molly that' be great I said I really need that information I know you do she said I hope to get it tomorrow I'll call you again soon as I can soon as I know something is there counterfeiting going on down here I asked her is that what this could be all about no she said it doesn't happen like that not inside the states all that stuff about little guys with green ey Shades down in secret sellers printing dollar bills is all nonsense sense just doesn't happen Joe stopped it your brother was a genius Jack he set up procedures years ago for the special paper sales and the inks so if somebody starts up he gets nailed within days 100% foolproof printing money in the states just doesn't happen anymore Joe made sure of that it all happens abroad any fakes we get here are shipped in that's what Joe spent his time chasing International stuff why he was in Georgia I don't know I really don't but I'll find out tomorrow I promise you that I gave her the Station House number and told her to speak to nobody except me or Rosco or Finley then she hung up in a hurry like somebody had just walked in on her I sat for a moment and tried to imagine what she looked like teal was back in the Station House and old man Kleiner was inside with him they were over by the reception counter heads tock together Kleiner was talking to teal like I'd seen him talking to Eno at the diner Foundation business maybe Rosco and Finley were standing together by the cells I walked over to them stood between them and talked low counterfeiting I said this is about counterfeit money Joe was running the treasury Department's defense for them you know anything about that sort of a thing down here either of you they both Shrugged and shook their heads I heard the glass door suck open looked up Kleiner was on his way out teal was starting in toward us I'm out of here I said I brushed past teal and headed for the door Kleiner was standing in the lot next to the black pickup waiting for me he smiled Wolf's teeth showing sorry for your lws he said his voice had a quiet cultured tone educated a slight hiss on the sibilance not the voice to go with his sunbaked appearance you upset my son he said he looked at me something burning in his eyes I Shrugged the kid upset me first I said how Kleiner asked sharply he lived and breathed breed I said I moved on across the lot Kleiner slid into the black pickup fired it up and nosed out he turned North I turned South started the walk down to Rosco's place it was a half mile through the new fall chill 10 minutes at a Brisk Pace I got the Bentley out of the garage drove it back up the slope to town made the right onto Main Street and cruised along I was peering left and right in under the smart striped awnings looking for the clothes store found it three doors north of the barber shop left the Bentley on the street and went in paid out some of Charlie Hubble's expenses cash to a sullen middle-aged guy for a pair of pants a shirt and a jacket a light Fawn color pressed cotton as near to formal as I was prepared to go no tie I put it all on in the changing cubicle in the back of the store bagged up the old stuff and threw it in the Bentley's trunk as I passed I walked the three doors South to the barber shop the younger of the two old guys was on his way out of the door he stopped and put his hand on my arm what's your name son he asked me no reason not to tell him not that I could see Jack Reacher I said you got any Hispanic friends in town no I said well you got some now he said two guys looking all over for you I looked at him he scanned the street who were they I asked him never saw them before the old guy said little guys brown car fancy shirts been all over asking for Jack Reacher we told them we never heard of no Jack Reacher when was this I said this morning he said after breakfast I nodded okay I said thanks the guy held the door open for me go right in he said my partner will take care of you but he's a bit skittish this morning getting old thanks I said again see you around sure hope so son he said he strolled off down Main Street and I went inside his shop the older guy was in there the gnarled old man whose sister had sung with blind Blake no other customers I nodded to the old guy and sat down in his chair good morning my friend he said you remember me I said sure do he said you are our last customer nobody in between to muddle me up I asked him for a shave and he said about whipping up the lather I was your last customer I said that was Sunday today is Tuesday business always that bad the old guy paused and gestured with the razor been that bad for years he said old May teal won't come in here and what the old M won't do nobody else white will do neither except old Mr grave from the Station House came in here regular Clockwork three four times a week until he went and hung himself got rest his soul you're the first white face in here since last February yes sir that's for sure why won't teal come in here I asked him man's got a problem the old guy said I figure he don't like to sit all SED up in the towel where there's a black man standing next to him with a razor maybe worried some bad might happen to him might something bad happen to him I said he laughed a short laugh I figure there's a serious risk he said [ __ ] so you got enough Black customers to make a living I asked him he put the towel around my shoulders and started brushing on the lather man we don't need customers to make a living he said you don't I said why not we got the community money he said you do I said what's that $1,000 he said who gives you that I asked him he started scraping my chin his hand was shaking like old people do ker Foundation he whispered the community program it's a business grant all the merchants get it been getting it 5 years I nodded that's good I said but 1,000 bucks a year won't keep you it's better than a poke in the eye but you need customers too right I was just making conversation like you do with Barbers but it set the old guy off he was shaking and cack ing he had a whole lot of trouble finishing the shave I was staring into the mirror after last night it would be a hell of a thing to get my throat cut by accident man I shouldn't tell you about it he whispered but seeing as you're a friend of my sisters I'm going to tell you a big secret he was getting confused I wasn't a friend of his sisters didn't even know her he told me about her was all he was standing there with the razor we were looking at each other in the mirror like with Finley in the coffee shop it's not $1,000 a year he whispered then he bent close to my ear it's $1,000 a week he started stomping around chuckling like a demon he filled the sink and dabbed off the spare lather patted my face down with a hot wet clth then he whipped the towel off my shoulders like a conjurer doing a trick that's why we don't need no customers he cackled I paid him and got out the guy was crazy say hello to my sister he called after me chapter 17 the trip to Atlanta was the best part of 50 miles took nearly an hour the highway swept me right into the city I headed for the tallest buildings soon as I started to see marble foyes I dumped the car and walked to the nearest corner and asked a cop for the commercial District he gave me a half mile walk after which I found one bank after another Sunrise International had its own building it was a big glass tower set back behind a Piaza with a fountain that part looked like Milan but the entrance way at the base of the tower was clad in heavy Stone trying to look like Frankfurt to London trying to look like a big heavyduty Bank foyer full of dark carpet and leather receptionist behind a mahogany counter could have been a quiet Hotel I asked for Paul Hubble's office and the receptionist flipped through a directory she said she was sorry but she was new in the job and she didn't recognize me so would I wait while she got clearance for my visit she dialed a number and started a low conversation then she covered the phone with her hand may I say what it's in connection with I'm a friend I said she resumed the phone call and then directed me to an elevator I had to go to reception on the 17th floor I got in the elevator and tapped the button stood there while it carried me up the 17th Floor looked even more like a gentleman's club than the entrance Foye had it was carpeted and panel and dim full of glowing Antiques and old pictures as I waited across the thick pile a door opened and a suit stepped out to meet me shook my hand and fussed me back into a little anti room he introduced himself as some sort of a manager and we sat down so how may I help you he asked I'm looking for Paul Hubble I said may I know why he's an old friend I said I remembered him saying he works here so I thought I'd look him up while I'm passing through the guy in the suit nodded dropped his gaze the thing is you see he said Mr Hubble doesn't work here anymore we had to let him go I'm afraid about 18 months ago go I just nodded blankly then I sat there in the Clubby little office and looked at the guy in the suit and waited a bit of Silence might set him talking if I asked him questions straight out he might clam up he might go all confidential like lawyers do but I could see he was a chatty type of a guy a lot of those managers are they love to impress the hell out of you given the chance so I said sat tight and waited then the guy started apologizing to me because I was Hubble's friend no fault of his own you understand he said he did an excellent job but it was in a field we moved out of a strategic business decision very unfortunate for the people concerned but there you are I nodded at him like I understood I haven't been in touch for a long time time I said I didn't know I didn't even really know what he did here I smiled at him tried to look amiable and ignorant didn't take much effort in a bank I gave him my best receptive look guaranteed to set a chatty guy talking it had worked for me plenty of times before he was part of our retail operation the guy said we closed it down I looked inquiringly at him retail I said over the counter banking he said you know cash checks loans personal customers and you close that down I said why too expensive he said big overhead small margin it had to go and Hubble was a part of that I asked him he nodded Mr Hubble was our currency manager he said it was an important position he was very good so what was his exact role I asked him the guy didn't know how to explain it didn't know where to start he made a couple of attempts and gave them up do you understand Cash He said I've got some I said I don't know if I understand it exactly he got to his feet and gave me a a fussy gesture wanted me to join him at the window we peered out together at the people on the street 17 floors down he pointed at a guy in a suit hurrying along the sidewalk take that gentleman he said let's make a few guesses shall we probably lives in the outer suburbs maybe has a vacation cabin somewhere two big mortgages two cars half a dozen mutual funds pension provision some blue chip stock College plans five or six credit cards store cards charge cards net worth about a half million shall we say okay I said but how much cash does he have the guy asked me no idea I said probably about $50 he said about $50 in a leather billfold which cost him $150 I looked at him I wasn't following his drift the guy changed gear became very patient with me the US economy is huge he said net assets and net liabilities are incalculably large trillions of dollars but almost none of it is actually represented by cash that gentleman had a net worth of a half million dollar but only 50 of it was in actual cash all the rest of it is on paper or in computers the fact is there isn't much actual cash around there's only about 130 billion actual cash dollars inside the whole us I Shrugged at him again sounds like enough to me I said the guy looked at me severely but how many people are there he asked me nearly three 00 million that's only about 450 actual cash dollars per head of population that's the problem a retail bank has to deal with day by day $450 is a very modest cash withdrawal but if everybody chose to make such a withdrawal the nation's Banks would run out of cash in the blink of an eye he stopped and looked at me I nodded okay I said I see that and most of that cash isn't in Banks he said it's in Vegas or at the racetrack it's concentrated in what we call Cash intensive areas of the economy so a good currency manager and Mr Hubble was one of the very best has a constant battle just to keep enough paper dollars on hand in our part of the system he has to reach out and find them he has to know where to locate them he has to sniff them out it's not easy in the end it was one of the factors which made retail so expensive for us one of the reasons why we pulled out we kept it going as long as we could but we had to close the operation eventually we had to let Mr Hubble go we were very sorry about it any idea where he's working now I said he shook his head I'm afraid not he said must be working somewhere right I said the guy shook his head again professionally he's dropped out of sight he said he's not working in banking I'm sure of that his Institute membership lapsed immediately and we've never had an inquiry for a recommendation I'm sorry but I can't help you if he was working anywhere in banking I'd know it I can assure you of that he must be in something else now I Shrugged Hubble's Trail was Stone Cold and the discussion with this guy was over his body language indicated it he was shifting forward ready to get up and get on I stood up with him thanked him for his time shook his hand stepped through the antique Gloom to the elevator hit the button for the street and walked out into the dull gray weather my assumptions had been all wrong I had seen Hubble as a banker doing a straight job maybe turning a blind eye to some peripheral con maybe with half a finger in some dirty pie maybe signing off on a few bogus figures with his arm Twisted way up his back involved useful tainted but somehow not Central but he hadn't been a banger not for a year and a half he'd been a criminal fulltime right inside the scam right at the center not peripheral at all I drove straight back to the margrave Station House parked up and went looking for Rosco teal was stalking around in the open area but the desk guy winked and nodded me back to a file room Rosco was in there she looked weary she had an arm full of old files she smiled hello Reacher she said come to take me away from all this what's new I said she dumped a stack of paper onto a cabinet top dusted herself off and flicked her hair back glanced at the door couple of things she said Teal's got a foundation board meeting in 10 minutes I'm getting the facts from Florida as soon as he's out of here and we do a call from the state police about Abandoned cars where's the gun you got for me I asked her she paused bit her lip she was remembering why I needed one it's in a box she said in my desk we'll have to wait until teal is gone and don't open it here okay nobody knows about it we stepped out of the file room and walked over toward the Rosewood office the squad room was quiet the two backup guys from Friday they were paging through computer records neat stacks of files were everywhere the bogus hunt was on for the chief's killer I saw a big new bulletin board on the wall it was marked Morrison it was empty not much progress was being made we waited in the Rosewood office with Finley 5 minutes 10 then we heard a knock and Baker ducked his head around the door he grinned in at us I saw his gold tooth again Teal's gone he said we went out into the open area Rosco turned on the fax machine and picked up the phone to call Florida Finley dialed the state police for news on abandoned rental cars I sat down at the desk next to Rosco and called Charlie Hubble I dialed the mobile number that Joe had printed out and hidden in his shoe I got no answer just an electronic sound and a recorded voice telling me the phone I was calling was switched off I looked across at Rosco she's got the damn mobile Switched Off I said Rosco Shrugged and moved over to the fax machine Finley was still talking to the state police I saw Baker hanging around On The Fringe of the triangle the three of us were making I got up and went to join Rosco does Baker want in on this I asked her he seems to she said Finley's got him acting as a kind of a lookout should we get him involved I thought about it for a second but shook my head no I said smaller the better a thing like this right I sat down again at the desk I was borrowing and tried the mobile number again same result same patient electronic voice telling me it was switched off damn I said to myself can you believe that I needed to know where Hubble had spent his time for the last year and a half Charlie might have given me some idea the time he left home in the morning the time he got home at night toll receipts restaurant bills things like that and she might have remembered something about Sunday or something about pabus it was possible she might have come up with something useful and I needed something useful I needed it very badly and she'd switched the damn phone off Reacher Rosco said I got the stuff on Sherman staller she was holding a couple of fact Pages densely typed great I said let's take a look Finley got off the phone and stepped over State guys are calling back he said they may have something for us great I said again maybe we're getting somewhere we all went back into the Rosewood office spread the Sherman staller stuff out on the desk and bent over it together it was an arrest report from the police department in Jacksonville Florida blind Blake was born in Jacksonville I said did you know that who's blind Blake Rosco asked singer Finley said guitar player Finley I said Sherman staller had been flagged down by a sector car for exceeding the speed limit on the river bridge between Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach at a quarter to midnight on a September night 2 years ago he had been driving a small panel truck 11 M an hour to fast he had become extremely agitated and abusive toward the sector car crew this had caused them to arrest him for suspected DUI he had been printed and photographed at Jacksonville Central and both he and his vehicle had been searched he had given an Atlanta address and stated his occupation as truck driver the search of his person produced a negative result his truck was searched by hand and with dogs and produced a negative result the truck contained nothing but a cargo of 20 new air conditioners boxed for export from Jacksonville Beach the boxes were sealed and marked with the manufacturer's logo and each box was marked with a serial number after being mirandized staler had made one phone call within 20 minutes of the call a lawyer named Perez from the respected Jacksonville firm of Zacharias Perez was in attendance and within a further 10 minutes staller had been released from being flagged down to walking out with the lawyer 55 minutes had elapsed interesting Finley said the guy's 300 mil from home it's midnight and he gets lawyered up within 20 minutes with a partner from a respected firm staler was some kind of a truck driver that's for sure you recognize his address I asked Rosco she shook her head not really she said but I could find it the door cracked open and Baker stuck his head in again State Police on the line he said sounds like they got a car for you Finley checked his watch decided there was time before teal got back okay he said punch it through here Baker Finley picked up the phone on the big desk and listened scribbled some notes and grunted a thank you hung the phone up and got out of his chair okay he said let's go take a look we all three filed out quickly we needed to be well clear before teal got back and started asking questions Baker watched us go called out after us what should I tell teal he said tell him we trace the car Finley said the one the crazy X con used to get down to Morrison's Place tell him we're making some real progress okay this time Finley drove he was using an unmarked Chevy identical to Rosco's issue he bounced it out of the lot and turned South accelerated through the little town the first few miles I recognized as the route down toward Yellow Springs but then we swung off onto a track which struck out due east it led out toward the highway and ended up in a kind of Maintenance area right below the roadway there were piles of asphalt and tar barrels lying around and a car it had been rolled off the highway and it was lying on its roof and it was burned out they noticed it Friday morning Finley said wasn't here Thursday they're sure about that it could have been Joe's we looked it over very carefully wasn't much left to see it was totally burned out everything that wasn't steel had gone we couldn't even tell what make it had been by the shape Finley thought it had been a General Motors product but we couldn't tell which division it had been a midsize sedan and once the plastic trim is gone you can't tell a Buick from a Chevy from a Pontiac I got Finley to support the front fender and I crawled under the upside down Hood looked for the number they stamp on the Scuttle I had to scrape off some scorched flakes but I found the little aluminum strip and got most of the number crawled out again and recited it to Rosco she wrote it down so do you think Finley asked could be the one I said say he rented it Thursday evening up at the airport in Atlanta full tank of gas drove it to the warehouses at the margrave Cloverleaf then somebody drove it on down here afterward couple of gallons gone maybe two and a half plenty left to burn Finley nodded makes sense he said but they'd have to be local guys this is a great spot to dump a car right pull onto the shoulder up there wheels in the dirt push the car off the edge scramble down and torch it then jump in with your buddy who's already down here in his own car waiting for you and you're away but only if you knew about this little maintenance track and only a local guy would know about this little maintenance track right we left the wreck there drove back up to the Station House the desk sergeant was waiting for Finley teal want you in the office he said Finley grunted and was heading back there but I caught his arm keeping talking a while I said give Rosco a chance to phone in that number from the car he nodded and carried on to the back Rosco and I headed over to her desk she picked up the phone but I stopped her give me the gun I whispered before te is through with Finley she nodded and glanced around the room sat down and unclipped the keys from her belt unlocked her desk and rolled open a deep drawer knotted down to a shallow cardboard box I picked it out it was an office storage box about 2 in deep for holding papers the cardboard was printed with elaborate wood grain someone had written a name across the top gray I tucked it under my arm and nodded to Rosco she rolled the drawer shut and locked it again thanks thanks I said now make those calls okay I walked down to the entrance and levered the heavy glass door open with my back carried the box over to the Bentley I set the Box on the roof of the car and unlocked the door dumped the Box on the passenger seat and got in pulled the box over onto my lap saw a brown sedan slowing up on the road about 100 yards to the north two Hispanic men in it the same car I'd seen outside Charlie Hubble's place the day before the same guys no doubt about that their car came to a stop about 75 yd from the Station House I saw it settle like the engine had been turned off neither of the guys got out they just sat there 75 yards away watching the Station House parking lot seemed to me they were looking straight at the Bentley it seemed to me my new friends had found me they'd looked all morning now they didn't have to look anymore they didn't move just sat there watching I watched them back for more than 5 minutes they weren't going to get out I could see that they were settled there so I turned my attention back to the box it was empty apart from a box of bullets and a gun a hell of a weapon it was a desert eagle automatic I'd used one before they come from Israel we used to get them in exchange for all kinds of stuff we sent over there I picked it up very heavy 14in barrel more than a foot and a half long front to back I clicked out the magazine this was the eight shot 44 version takes 8 44 Magnum shells not what you would call a subtle weapon the bullet weighs about twice as much as the 8 in a police revolver it leaves the barrel going way faster than the speed of sound it hits the target with more Force than anything this side of a train wreck not subtle at all ammunition is a problem you got a choice if you load up with a hardnose bullet it goes right through the guy you're shooting and probably right on through some other guy 100 yards away so you use a soft noose bullet and it blows a hole out of your guy about the size of a gar can your choice the bullets in the Box were all soft nose okay with me I checked the weapon over brutal but in fine condition everything worked the grip was engraved with a name gray same as the file box the dead detective the guy before Finley hanged himself last February must have been a gun collector this wasn't his service piece no Police Department in the world would authorize the use of a cannon like this on the job altogether too heavy I loaded the dead detective's big handgun with eight of his shells put the spares back in the box and left the Box on the floor of the car [ __ ] the gun and click the safety catch on cocked and locked we used to call it saves you a split second before your first shot saves your life maybe I put the gun in the Bentley's Walnut glove compartment it was a tight fit then I sat for a moment and watched the two guys in their car they were still watching me we looked at each other from 75 yards away they were relaxed un comfortable but they were watching me I got out of the Bentley and locked it up again stepped back to the entrance and pulled the door glanced back toward the brown sedan still there still watching Rosco was at her desk talking on the phone she waved looked excited held her hand up to tell me to wait I watched the door to the Rosewood office hoped teal wouldn't come out before she finished her call he came out just as she hung up he was all red in the face looked mad started stamping around the squad room banging his heavy stick on the floor glaring up at The Big Empty bullettin board Finley stuck his head out of the office and nodded me in I Shrugged at Rosco and went to see what Finley had to say what was that all about I asked him he laughed I was winding him up he said he asked what we'd been doing looking at a car I said we weren't said we'd told Baker we weren't going far but he'd misheard it as we're looking at a car take care Finley I said they're killing people this is a big deal he Shrugged it's driving me crazy he said got to have some fun right he'd survived 20 years in Boston he might survive this what's happening with peard I asked him you heard from him nothing he said just standing by no possibility he might have put a couple of guys on on surveillance I said Finley shook his head looked definite about it no way he said not without telling me first why there's a couple of guys watching this place I said got here about 10 minutes ago plain brown sedan they were at hubbles yesterday and around town this morning asking after me he shook his head again they're not bards he said he'd have told me Rosco came in and shut the door held it shut with her hand like teal might try to burst in after her I called Detroit she said it was a Pontiac delivered four months ago big Fleet order for a rental company DMV is tracing the registration I told them to get back to Picard up in Atlanta the rental people might be able to give him the story about where it was rented we might be getting somewhere I felt I was getting closer to Joe like I was hearing a faint Echo great I said to her good work Rosco I'm out of here meet you back here at 6 you two stick close together okay watch your backs where are you going Finley said I'm going for a drive in the country I said I left them there in the office and walked back to the entrance pushed the door open and stepped outside scanned North up the road the plane sedan was still there 75 yds away the two guys were still in it still watching I walked over to the Bentley unlocked the door and got in nosed out of the parking lot and pulled out onto the county road wide and slow drove slowly past the two guys and carried on North in the mirror I saw the plane sedan start up saw it pull out and turn in the road it accelerated North and fell in behind me like I was Towing it on a long invisible rope I slowed it slowed I sped up It sped up like a game chapter 18 I drove past Eno's Diner and rolled on North away from town the plane sedan followed 40 yards back no attempt to hide the two guys just cruised behind me gazing forward I swung West on the road to war Burton slowed to a cruise the plain sedan followed still 40 yards back we cruised West we were the only things moving in that vast landscape I could see the two guys in the mirror gazing at me they were spotlit by the low afternoon sun the low brassy light made them Vivid young guys Hispanic loud shirts black hair very neat very similar their car sat steadily in my wake I cruised seven or eight miles I was looking for a place there were bumpy Earth Tracks off to the left and right every half mile or so they led into the fields looped around aimlessly I didn't know what they were for maybe they led to Gathering points where Farmers parked machinery for the Harvest whenever that was I was looking for a particular track I'd seen before it let around behind a small stand of trees on the right hand side of the road the only cover for Miles I'd seen it from the prison bus on Friday seen it again driving back in from Alabama a sturdy stand of trees this morning it had been floating on the Mist a little oval cops next to the road on the right an Earth Track looping behind it then joining up with the road again I saw it a couple of Miles Ahead the trees were a smudge on the Horizon I drove on towards it snapped the glove compartment open and lifted the big automatic out wedged it between the squabs on the seat next to me the two guys followed still 40 yards back a quarter mile from the woods I slammed the selector into second and floored the pedal the old car gulped and shot forwards at the track I hauled the wheel around and bounced and slewed the Bentley off the road hurled it around to the back of the the cops jammed it to a stop grabbed the gun and jumped left the driver's door swinging open like I'd tumbled out and dive straight left into the trees but I went the other way I went to the right I danced around the hood and hurled myself 15 ft into the peanut field and flattened into the ground crawled through the bushes and put myself on a level with where their car would have to stop on the track behind the Bentley pressed myself up against the the bronny stalks Low Down Under the leaves on The Damp red Earth then I waited I figured they'd dropped off maybe 60 or 70 yards they hadn't tracked my sudden acceleration I snicked the safety catch off then I heard their brown Buick I caught the noise of the motor and the groan of the suspension it bounced into view on the track in front of me it stopped behind the Bentley framed against the trees it was about 20 ft away from me they were reasonably Smart Guys not at all the worst I'd ever seen the passenger had gotten out on the road before they turned in he thought I was in the woods he thought he was going to come at me from behind the driver scrambled across inside the car and rolled out of the passenger door on the far side from the trees right in front of me he was holding a gun and he knelt down in the dirt his back turned to me hidden from where he thought I was by the Buick looking through the car at the woods I'd have to make him move I didn't want him to stay next to the car the car had to stay drivable I didn't want it damaged they were wary of the cops that had been the idea why would I drive all the way to the only Woods for miles and then hide in a field a classic diversion they'd fallen for it without even thinking the guy by the car was staring through at the woods I was staring at his back I had the Desert Eagle lined up on him breathing low his partner was creeping slowly through the trees looking for me pretty soon he'd come right out into view he arrived after about 5 minutes he was holding a gun out in front of him he dodged around the back of the Buick kept distance between between himself and the Bentley he crouched down next to his partner and they exchanged shrugs then they started peering at the Bentley worried that I was lying on the floor or crouching behind the stately Chrome radiator the guy had just come out of the woods crawled along in the dirt keeping the Buick between himself and the trees right in front of me staring under the Bentley looking for my feet he crawled the whole length of the Bentley I could hear him grunting and gasping as he hauled himself Along on his elbows then he crawled all the way back and knelt up again beside his partner they both shuffled sideways and slowly stood up next to the Buick's Hood they stepped over and checked inside the bentle they walked together to the edge of the cops and peered into the darkness they couldn't find me then they came back and stood together on the rough track away from the Cars framed against the arm Orange Sky staring at the trees their backs to the field their backs to me they didn't know what to do they were City Boys maybe from Miami they wore Florida clothes they were used to Neon alleys and construction sites they were used to action under raised highways and the trash filled Lots the tourists never saw they didn't know what to do about a small cop standing alone in a I Acres of peanuts I shot them both in the back as they stood there two quick shots aimed high up between their shoulder blades the big automatic made a sound like hand grenades going off Birds wheeled into the air from all around the twin crashes rolled over the countryside like thunder the recoils pounded my hand the two guys were hurled forward off their feet landed on their faces sprawled against the trees and the far side of the Earth Track I raised my head and peered over they had that slack empty look that is Left Behind when life has departed I held on to the gun and stepped over to them they were dead I'd seen a lot of dead people and these two were As Dead As any of them the big Magnum shells had caught them high up on their backs where the big arteries and veins are going on up into the head the bullets had made quite a mess I looked down at the two guys in the silence and thought about Joe then I had things to do I stepped back to the Bentley clicked the safety on and toss the Desert Eagle back on the seat stepped over to their Buick and yanked the keys out popped the trunk I guess I was hoping to find something in there I didn't feel bad about the two boys but I was going to feel better still if I found something in there like a silence 22 automatic or like four pairs of rubber overshoes and four nylon bodysuits a few 5-in blades things like that but I didn't find things like that I found Spivy he'd been dead a few hours he'd been shot through the forehead with a 38 from close range the revolver Barrel must have been about in from his head I rubbed my thumb across the skin around the Bullet Hole looked at it there was no soot but there were tiny gunpowder particles blasted into the skin they wouldn't rub off that kind of tattooing means a fairly close range 6 in will do it maybe eight somebody had suddenly raised a gun and the slow heavy assistant Warden hadn't been quick enough to duck there was a a scab on his chin where I'd cut him with Morrison's Blade the small snake eyes were open he was still in his greasy uniform his white hairy belly showed through where I had slashed at his shirt he had been a big guy to fit him in the trunk they'd broken his legs probably with a shovel they'd broken them and folded them sideways at the knee to get his body in I gazed at him and felt angry he'd known and he hadn't told me but they'd killed him anyway the fact that he hadn't told me hadn't counted for anything they were panicking they were silencing everybody while the clock ticked slowly around to Sunday I gazed into Spivy dead eyes like there was information still in there then I ran back to the bodies on the edge of the cops and search them two wallets and a car rental agreement a mobile phone that was all the rental agreement was for the Buick rented at the Atlanta airport Monday morning at