24
The second cop showed up within thirty seconds, right on cue. Reacher saw the flare of flashing red lights a second before the Crown Vic burst around a distant corner. It fishtailed a little, then accelerated down the narrow street toward the restaurant, hard and fast and smooth.
Reacher let it get through one four-way, and another, and when it was thirty yards away he stamped on the gas and took off straight at it and smashed into it head-on. The two Crown Vics met nose to nose and their rear ends lifted off the ground and sheet metal crumpled and hoods flew open and glass burst and airbags exploded and steam jetted everywhere. Reacher was smashed forward against his seat belt. He had his hands off the wheel and his elbows up to fend off the punch of his airbag. Then the airbag collapsed again and Reacher was tossed back against the headrest. The rear of his car thumped back to earth and bounced once and came to rest at an angle. He pulled the Mossberg pump out of its between-the-seats holster and forced the door open against the crumpled fender and climbed out of the car.
The other guy hadn’t been wearing his seat belt.
He had taken the impact of his airbag full in the face and was lying sideways across the front bench with blood coming out of his nose and his ears. Both cars were wrecked as far back as the windshield pillars. The passenger compartments were basically OK. Full-sized sedans, five-star crash ratings. Reacher was pretty sure both cars were undrivable but he was no kind of an automotive expert and so he made sure by racking the Mossberg twice and firing two booming shots into the rear wheel wells, shredding the tires and ripping up all kinds of other small essential components. Then he tossed the pump back through the first Crown Vic’s window and walked over and climbed into Vaughan’s Chevy and backed away from all the wreckage. The waitress and the nine customers inside the restaurant were all staring out through the windows, mouths wide open in shock. Two of the customers were fumbling for their cell phones.
Reacher smiled.
Who are you going to call?
He K-turned the Chevy and made a right and headed north for Main Street and made another right and cruised east at a steady fifty. When he hit the lonely road after the gas station he kicked it up to sixty and kept one eye on the mirror. Nobody came after him. He felt the roughness under his tires but the roar was quieter than before. He was a little deaf from the airbags and the twin Mossberg blasts.
Twelve minutes later he bumped over the expansion joint and cruised into Hope, at exactly three o’clock in the afternoon.
He didn’t know how long Vaughan would sleep. He guessed she had gotten her head on the pillow a little after nine that morning, which was six hours ago. Eight hours’ rest would take her to five o’clock, which was reasonable for an on-deck time of seven in the evening. Or maybe she was already up and about. Some people slept worse in the daytime than the night. Habit, degree of acclimatization, circadian rhythms. He decided to head for the diner. Either she would be there already or he could leave her keys with the cashier.
She was there already.
He pulled to the curb and saw her alone in the booth they had used before. She was dressed in her cop uniform, four hours before her watch. She had an empty plate and a full coffee cup in front of her.
He locked the truck and went in and sat down opposite her. Up close, she looked tired.
“Didn’t sleep?” he asked.
“Is it that obvious?”
“I have a confession to make.”
“You went to Despair. In my truck. I knew you would.”
“I had to.”
“Sure.”
“When was the last time you drove out to the west?”
“I try to stay out of Despair.”
“There’s a military base just inside the line. Fairly new. Why would that be?”
Vaughan said, “There are military bases all over.”
“This was a combat MP unit.”
“They have to put them somewhere.”
“Overseas is where they need to put them. The army is hurting for numbers right now. They can’t afford to waste good units in the back of beyond.”
“Maybe it wasn’t a good unit.”
“It was.”
“So maybe it’s about to ship out.”
“It just shipped back in. It just spent a year under the sun. The guy I spoke to had squint lines like you wouldn’t believe. His gear was worn from the sand.”
“We have sand here.”
“Not like that.”
“So what are you saying?”
The waitress came by and Reacher ordered coffee. Vaughan’s cup was still full. Reacher said, “I’m asking why they pulled a good unit out of the Middle East and sent it here.”
Vaughan said, “I don’t know why. The Pentagon doesn’t explain itself to neighboring police departments.”
The waitress brought a cup for Reacher and filled it from a Bunn flask. Vaughan asked, “What does a combat MP unit do exactly?”
Reacher took a sip of coffee and said, “It guards things. Convoys or installations. It maintains security and repels attacks.”
“Actual fighting?”
“When necessary.”
“Did you do that?”
“Some of the time.”
Vaughan opened her mouth and then closed it again as her mind supplied the answer to the question she was about to ask.
“Exactly,” Reacher said. “What’s to defend in Despair?”
“And you’re saying these MPs made you drive on through?”
“It was safer. They would have checked your plate if I hadn’t.”
“Did you get through OK?”
“Your truck is fine. Although it’s not exactly yours, is it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Who is David Robert Vaughan?”
She looked blank for a second. Then she said, “You looked in the glove box. The registration.”
“A man with a gun wanted to see it.”
“Good reason.”
“So who is David Robert?”
Vaughan said, “My husband.”
25
Reacher said, “I didn’t know you were married.” Vaughan turned her attention to her lukewarm coffee and took a long time to answer.
“That’s because I didn’t tell you,” she said. “Would you expect me to?”
“Not really, I suppose.”
“Don’t I look married?”
“Not one little bit.”
“You can tell just by looking?”
“Usually.”
“How?”
“Fourth finger, left hand, for a start.”
“Lucy Anderson doesn’t wear a ring either.”
Reacher nodded. “I think I saw her husband today.”
“In Despair?”
“Coming out of the rooming house.”
“That’s way off Main Street.”
“I was dodging roadblocks.”
“Terrific.”
“Not one of my main talents.”
“So how did they not catch you? They’ve got one road in and one road out.”
“Long story,” Reacher said.
“But?”
“The Despair PD is temporarily understaffed.”
“You took one of them out?”
“Both of them. And their cars.”
“You’re completely unbelievable.”
“No, I’m a man with a rule. People leave me alone, I leave them alone. If they don’t, I don’t.”
“They’ll come looking for you here.”
“No question. But not soon.”
“How long?”
“They’ll be hurting for a couple of days. Then they’ll saddle up.”
Reacher left her alone with her truck keys on the table in front of her and walked down to Third Street and bought socks and underwear and a dollar T-shirt in an old-fashioned outfitters next to a supermarket. He stopped in at a pharmacy and bought shaving gear and then headed up to the hardware store at the western end of First Street. He picked his way past ladders and wheelbarrows and wound through aisles filled with racks of tools and found a rail of canvas work pants and flannel shirts. Traditional American garments, made in China and Cambodia, respectively. He chose dark olive pants and a mud-colored check shirt. Not as cheap as he would have liked, but not outrageous. The clerk folded them up into a brown paper bag and he carried it back to the motel and shaved and took a long shower and dried off and dressed in the new stuff. He crammed his old gray janitor uniform in the trash receptacle.
Better than doing laundry.
The new clothes were as stiff as boards, to the point where walking around was difficult. Clearly the Far Eastern garment industry took durability very seriously. He did squats and bicep curls until the starch cracked and then he stepped out and walked down the row to Lucy Anderson’s door. He knocked and waited. A minute later she opened up. She looked just the same. Long legs, short shorts, plain blue sweatshirt. Young, and vulnerable. And wary, and hostile. She said, “I asked you to leave me alone.”
He said, “I’m pretty sure I saw your husband today.”
Her face softened, just for a second.
“Where?” she asked.
“In Despair. Looks like he’s got a room there.”
“Was he OK?”
“He looked fine to me.”
“What are you going to do about him?”
“What would you like me to do about him?”
Her face closed up again. “You should leave him alone.”
“I am leaving him alone. I told you, I’m not a cop anymore. I’m a vagrant, just like you.”
“So why would you go back to Despair?”
“Long story. I had to.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re a cop.”
“You saw what was in my pockets.”
“You left your badge in your room.”
“I didn’t. You want to check? My room is right here.”
She stared at him in panic and put both hands on the door jambs like he was about to seize her around her waist and drag her away to his quarters. The motel clerk stepped out of the office, forty feet to Reacher’s left. She was a stout woman of about fifty. She saw Reacher and saw the girl and stopped walking and watched. Then she moved again but changed direction and started heading toward them. In Reacher’s experience motel clerks were either nosy about or else completely uninterested in their guests. He figured this one was the nosy kind. He stepped back a pace and gave Lucy Anderson some air and held up his hands, palms out, friendly and reassuring.
“Relax,” he said. “If I was here to hurt you, you’d already be hurt by now, don’t you think? You and your husband.”
She didn’t answer. Just turned her head and saw the clerk’s approach and then ducked back to the inside shadows and slammed her door, all in one neat move. Reacher turned away but knew he wasn’t going to make it in time. The clerk was already within calling distance.
“Excuse me,” she said.
Reacher stopped. Turned back. Said nothing.
The woman said, “You should leave that girl alone.”
“Should I?”
“If you want to stay here.”
“Is that a threat?”
“I try to maintain standards.”
“I’m trying to help her.”
“She thinks the exact opposite.”
“You’ve talked?”
“I hear things.”
“I’m not a cop.”
“You look like a cop.”
“I can’t help that.”
“You should investigate some real crimes.”
Reacher said, “I’m not investigating any kind of crimes. I told you, I’m not a cop.”
The woman didn’t answer.
Reacher asked, “What real crimes?”
“Violations.”
“Where?”
“At the metal plant in Despair.”
“What kind of violations?”
“All kinds.”
“I don’t care about violations. I’m not an EPA inspector. I’m not any kind of an inspector.”
The woman said, “Then you should ask yourself why that plane flies every night.”
26
Reacher got halfway back to his room and saw Vaughan’s old pick-up turn in off the street. It was moving fast. It bounced up over the curb and headed through the lot straight at him. Vaughan was at the wheel in her cop uniform. Incongruous. And urgent. She hadn’t taken time to go fetch her official cruiser. She braked hard and stopped with her radiator grille an inch away from him. She leaned out the window and said, “Get in, now.”
Reacher asked, “Why?”
“Just do it.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“None at all.”
“Really?”
“I’m not kidding.”
“Are you arresting me?”
“I’m prepared to. I’ll use my gun and my cuffs if that’s what it takes. Just get in the car.”
Reacher studied her face through the windshield glass. She was serious about something. And determined. That was for sure. The evidence was right there in the set of her jaw. So he climbed in. Vaughan waited until he closed his door behind him and asked, “You ever done a ride-along with a cop before? All night? A whole watch?”
“Why would I? I
was
a cop.”
“Well, whatever, you’re doing one tonight.”
“Why?”
“We got a courtesy call. From Despair. You’re a wanted man. They’re coming for you. So tonight you stay where I can see you.”
“They can’t be coming for me. They can’t even have woken up yet.”
“Their deputies are coming. All four of them.”
“Really?”
“That’s what deputies do. They deputize.”
“So I hide in your car? All night?”
“Damn straight.”
“You think I need protection?”
“My town needs protection. I don’t want trouble here.”
“Those four won’t be any trouble. One of them is already busted up and one was throwing his guts up the last time I saw him.”
“So you could take them?”
“With one hand behind my back and my head in a bag.”
“Exactly. I’m a cop. I have a responsibility. No fighting in my streets. It’s unseemly.” She pulled a tight U-turn in the motel lot and headed back the way she had come. Reacher asked, “When will they get here?”
“The plant shuts down at six. I imagine they’ll head right over.”
“How long will they stay?”
“The plant opens up again at six tomorrow morning.”
Reacher said, “You don’t want me in your car all night.”
“I’ll do what it takes. Like I said. This is a decent place. I’m not going to let it get trashed, either literally or metaphorically.”
Reacher paused and said, “I could leave town.”
“Permanently?” Vaughan asked.
“Temporarily.”
“And go where?”
“Despair, obviously. I can’t get in trouble there, can I? Their cops are in the hospital and their deputies will be here all night.”
Vaughan made a right and a left and headed down Second Street toward the diner. She stayed quiet for a moment and then she said, “There’s another one in town today.”
“Another what?”
“Another girl. Just like Lucy Anderson. But dark, not blonde. She blew in this afternoon and now she’s sitting around and staring west like she’s waiting for word from Despair.”
“From a boyfriend or a husband?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly a dead boyfriend or husband, Caucasian, about twenty years old, five-eight and one-forty.”
“Possibly.”
“I should go there.”
Vaughan drove past the diner and kept on driving. She drove two blocks south and came back east on Fourth Street. No real reason. Just motion, for the sake of it. Fourth Street had trees and retail establishments behind the north sidewalk and trees and a long line of neat homes behind the south. Small yards, picket fences, foundation plantings, mailboxes on poles that had settled to every angle except the truly vertical.
“I should go there,” Reacher said again.
“Wait until the deputies get here. You don’t want to pass them on the road.”
“OK.”
“And don’t let them see you leave.”
“OK.”
“And don’t make trouble over there.”
“I’m not sure there’s anybody left to make trouble with. Unless I meet the judge.”