A Wanted Man

FORTY-THREE

SORENSON SAID, ‘THEY took it the other way. They didn’t take it nuclear. They made it a black hole instead. They’re erasing it from history. A CIA demand, presumably. Or State. Something squirrelly. Some kind of national security bullshit.’ Then her phone rang again before Reacher could reply. She checked the incoming number and asked, ‘Where is the 405 area code?’

‘Southwestern Oklahoma,’ Reacher said. ‘Lawton, probably. It’s the army.’

She answered and listened for a spell and thanked whoever she was talking to. She clicked off and said, ‘Mother Sill confirms she had a Peter James King on active duty in 1991. He was a fister. Which I’m sure isn’t what I think it is.’

‘Fire support team,’ Reacher said. ‘Not just a dagby after all. I sold him short. Probably a forward observer. Smart guys, most of them. The 13F MOS. Which means he manoeuvred with the lowly infantry or the humble armoured divisions, rather than the kings of battle themselves. Did they confirm a brother named Alan?’

‘No. Didn’t deny one, either. But they’ll need paperwork.’

‘What happened to Peter?’

‘He quit as a gunnery sergeant in 1997.’

‘Same year as me. Where is he now?’

‘Mother Sill doesn’t know for sure. Last she heard he was working with a security company in Denver, Colorado. Which happens to be exactly where the dead guy flew into.’

‘Coincidence,’ Reacher said. ‘Alan King said they don’t talk.’

‘Did you believe him?’

‘He told the truth about Peter’s name and service, apparently. Why wouldn’t he be telling the truth about not talking to him too?’

‘How many people live in Denver?’

‘About six hundred thousand,’ Reacher said. ‘Between two and a half and three million in the metro area, depending on how you measure it. Too small and too big to match King’s million and a half.’

‘How do you know stuff like that? Area codes and populations?’

‘I like information. I like facts. Denver was named after James W. Denver, who was governor of the Kansas Territory at the time. It was a kiss-ass move by a land speculator called Larimer. He hoped the governor would move a county seat there and make him rich. What he didn’t know was that the governor had already resigned. Mails were slow in those days. And then the new place became part of Colorado anyway, not Kansas. Area code is 303.’

‘Get in the car,’ Sorenson said.

‘Want me to drive the rest of the way?’

‘No, I don’t. I can’t arrive with you at the wheel. It’s bad enough having you in the front.’

‘I’m not going to ride in the back.’

Sorenson didn’t reply to that. They climbed aboard, into their accustomed positions. Sorenson backed out of the motel lot and threaded her way back to the highway. She took the ramp and accelerated. There were rain clouds in the east. The weather was chasing them all the way. Sorenson fumbled her phone up into its cradle, where it beeped once to acknowledge it was charging, and then immediately it started to ring again, no longer thin and reedy, but loud and powerful through the sound system. Sorenson accepted the call and Reacher heard a man’s voice say he was en route for the location south and east of Des Moines, Iowa, as instructed.

Sorenson clicked off and said, ‘My forensics team, heading for Delfuenso.’

Reacher said, ‘Who is what we should be talking about here. How can the Bureau shut down a case where an innocent bystander died?’

‘Such a thing has happened before.’

‘But facts don’t just go away.’

‘We don’t dispute Delfuenso died. Lots of people die every day.’

‘How did she die?’

‘No one knows. She drove her own car to a neighbouring state. It set on fire. Suicide, maybe. Maybe she took some pills and smoked a last cigarette. And dropped the cigarette. We’ll never know for sure, because the evidence was lost in the fire. The pill bottle, and so on.’

‘That’s your boss’s script?’

‘It’s a local matter now. Sheriff Goodman will deal with it. Except he won’t, because someone will sit on him too, for sure.’

‘What about the missing eyewitness? Is he erased too?’

Sorenson shrugged at the wheel. ‘A no-account local farm worker, with a history of drinking and a rented house and no stable relationships? People like that wander off all the time. Some of them come back, and some of them don’t.’

‘That’s all in the script too?’

‘Everything will have a plausible explanation. Not too precise, not too vague.’

Reacher said, ‘If the case was closed twenty minutes ago, why are you still getting calls? Like just now, from Mother Sill, and your forensics guy?’

Sorenson paused a beat. She said, ‘Because they both had my cell number. They called me direct. They didn’t go through the field office. They haven’t gotten the memo yet.’

‘When will they?’

‘Not soon, I hope. Especially my forensics guys. I need to know how King and McQueen kept Delfuenso in the back seat. I mean, would you just sit still for that? They set the car on fire, and you just sit there and take it? Why would you? Why wouldn’t you fight?’

‘They shot her first. It’s obvious. She was already dead.’

‘That’s what I’m hoping.’

‘They may never be able to prove it.’

‘All I need is an indication. A balance of probabilities. Which I might get. My people are pretty good.’

‘Your boss will recall them, surely.’

‘He doesn’t know they’re out and about. And I’m not going to make it a point to tell him.’

‘Won’t they check in?’

‘Only with me,’ Sorenson said. ‘I’m their primary point of contact.’

She drove on, another fast mile, with Reacher quiet beside her. The sun was still out behind them. It was casting shadows. The rain clouds were still low in the sky. But they were coming. The far horizon was bright. Reacher said, ‘If there’s no case any more, then the Omaha field office doesn’t need to show anything for its night’s work. Because there was no night’s work. Because nothing happened in Nebraska.’

Sorenson didn’t answer.

Reacher said, ‘And if there’s no case any more, who needs a suspect or a material witness? No one did anything and no one saw anything. I mean, how could anyone, if nothing even happened?’

No response.

Reacher said, ‘And if there’s no active investigation any more, then there won’t be any new information for you to pass on to me.’

Sorenson said nothing.

Reacher asked, ‘So why am I still in this car?’

No answer.

Reacher asked, ‘Am I in the script too? A no-account unemployed and homeless veteran? With no stable relationships? Not even a rented house? People like me wander off all the time, right? Which would be very convenient for all concerned. Because I’m the last man alive who can call bullshit on this whole thing. I know what happened. I saw King and McQueen. I saw Delfuenso with them. I know she didn’t drive her own car to a neighbouring state. I know she didn’t take any pills. So are they going to erase me too?’

Sorenson said nothing.

Reacher asked, ‘Julia, did you discuss me with your boss while I was in the shower?’

Sorenson said, ‘Yes, I did.’

‘And what are your orders?’

‘I still have to bring you in.’

‘Why? What’s the plan?’

‘I don’t know,’ Sorenson said. ‘I have to bring you to the parking lot. That’s all I was told.’