A Wanted Man

FIFTY-SIX

DELFUENSO HERSELF CAME out straight after that. She must have heard his voice. She stopped on the walkway all backlit by warm light from the room behind her. She looked in great shape. She looked rested, and happy, and relieved, and relaxed. She was wearing a woman’s version of the place’s standard-issue clothing. New blue jeans, and a new blue blouse under a new blue sweater of a different style, lighter and tighter and shorter than the men’s. Her hair was clean and styled, and her face was bright and fresh. Clearly she had found piles of clothes on her bed, and toiletries in her bathroom.

We’ve been expecting you.

She said, ‘Lucy, this is Mr Reacher. He was with me part of the time.’

The kid said, ‘Hello, Mr Reacher.’

‘Hello, Lucy,’ Reacher said again.

The kid said, ‘You broke your nose.’

‘Technically someone broke it for me.’

‘Does it hurt?’

‘Not much any more.’

Delfuenso said, ‘Lucy was on her way to try the mini golf.’

‘It’s too dark,’ Reacher said. ‘I was just there.’

The kid pondered that new information. Her face went serious and contemplative. She said, ‘Then can I go look for something else? I don’t think I’ve seen everything yet.’

‘Sure,’ her mother said. ‘Go see what you can find.’ So the kid scuttled away along the path and Delfuenso looked at Reacher and said, ‘I guess the fence makes it safe for her to run around on her own. And there’s no water in the pool.’

Reacher said, ‘Can we talk?’

‘About what?’

‘Last night. And today.’

‘We’re not allowed to talk about that.’

‘Do you always do what you’re told?’

‘No, not always. But I think I will about this kind of stuff.’

‘What kind of stuff?’

‘National security. We can’t tell anyone about anything.’

‘I was there with you.’

‘For some of it. Not for all of it.’

‘Will you answer questions for me? That’s not the same as telling me things.’

‘They brought you here. They’ll tell you what’s happening.’

Reacher said, ‘I don’t think they know what’s happening.’

They had just thirty minutes before dinner and Delfuenso was nervous about talking, so they used the closest clandestine location they could find, which was Delfuenso’s room itself. It was identical to Reacher’s, except for two twin beds instead of a single queen, which made it cramped, because of two large armchairs. Reacher sat down in one, and Delfuenso lifted her bag off the other. The bag with the aspirins. It looked heavy. Maybe she still had her bottle of water in it.

He said, ‘What did you think had happened, back at that motel?’

She dumped her bag on the bed. It bounced once, and settled. She sat down in her chair.

‘We’re not allowed to talk about that,’ she said again.

‘Says who?’

‘They made it clear. We’re here for our own protection. Talking could put us at risk.’

‘How could it?’

‘They didn’t say exactly. They just said we’re tangled up in things we don’t understand, and we’re here because they want to keep us safe. We’re sequestered, like a jury. Something to do with the Patriot Act.’

‘Sequestered? That’s bullshit. You’re locked up. You can’t leave.’

‘I don’t want to leave. It’s kind of fun here. I haven’t had a vacation in years.’

‘What about your job?’

‘They said they’ll square that away with my boss. School too, for Lucy. They said they can make it OK. A thing like this, everyone has to pull together.’

‘Did they say how long you have to stay here?’

‘Until it’s over. Not too long, probably. But I hope it’s at least a week.’

Reacher said nothing.

Delfuenso said, ‘Your nose looks a little better.’

‘Does it?’ Reacher said, although he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to talk about his nose. But he figured a little conversation might not hurt. A delay and a frustration, but faster than shouting or yelling or fighting.

Delfuenso said, ‘It looked really awful before. I was staring at it in the car for hours. You cleaned it up.’

He nodded.

She said, ‘In fact you cleaned your whole self up. You took a shower, didn’t you?’

‘It’s not that rare of an occurrence.’

‘Well, I wondered.’

‘I bought new clothes too.’

‘You needn’t have. They give you clothes here. They said we’re allowed to keep them. Both sets, if we want. And the toiletries.’

He asked, ‘What happened after you left that motel in Iowa?’

She didn’t answer.

He said, ‘You know what happened. They know what happened. How can it hurt if I know what happened too? I’m in here with you. I can’t go anywhere. I can’t talk to anyone else.’

Delfuenso thought for a long moment. Her face went exactly like her daughter’s, serious and contemplative. Then she shrugged and said, ‘That part was pretty awful. After you went inside with McQueen, I mean. I couldn’t see much. He was in the way. But I saw the flash and heard the shot. He came running out and I couldn’t see you any more. I assumed you were dead. And then McQueen told us you were.’

‘Did he?’

Delfuenso nodded. ‘King asked if he got you, and McQueen said yes, right between the eyes. They kind of laughed about it. I was terrified. I assumed they would do the same to me. I mean, why wouldn’t they? We were no use to them any more. I started screaming. King told me to shut up. So I did. It was pathetic. I thought if I did what he told me, he wouldn’t shoot me. I really learned something in that minute. People will do anything to stay alive, even if it’s just ten more seconds.’

‘Then what happened?’

‘We drove around some. Like figures of eight, around the fields. They were staying close for some reason. King was driving. He stopped about ten miles west. I assumed this was it. I assumed my time had come. But he said he wanted to have some fun first. He told me to take my shirt off. The blue one they bought for me. And I was going to. Like I said, people will do anything to stay alive. King got out of the car. He got in next to me in the back. He kind of chased me across the seat. Then McQueen got out and opened my door and pulled me out and King kind of started to follow after me and McQueen shot him. Just like that. Just pulled his gun and shot him.’

‘In the chest?’

Delfuenso nodded. ‘Right in the heart.’

‘And then?’

‘McQueen calmed me down and told me he was an FBI agent working undercover with the bad guys. Pretending to be one of them.’

‘OK,’ Reacher said. ‘Rather him than me. That’s a tough job.’

‘I know.’

‘Do you?’

‘I mean, I’ve seen it in the movies.’

‘Then what?’

‘McQueen told me he had fired over your head and you were still alive and perfectly OK. He said he was sorry I had to see what happened to King but he couldn’t figure out any other way to save me. Not right then. He said he had to act a part to a certain extent but couldn’t let things go too far.’

‘And then?’

‘He made some calls on his cell and he belted King in where he was, which was where I had been sitting, and then we drove off. I was in the front. We parked up again about five miles east and two new guys came and picked us up in their own car. They set fire to mine. They said they had to do that, because the bad guys would expect McQueen to obscure the evidence, and they might check to make sure he had. They said they would get me a new car. Which is great, because that old one had a bad transmission.’

‘These new guys were FBI too?’

‘Yes. From Kansas City. They showed me ID. McQueen didn’t have ID, because he was undercover.’

‘And they brought you straight here?’

She nodded again. ‘I said I wouldn’t stay without Lucy, so they went to get her too.’

‘Where did McQueen go?’

‘He came here with me and left again immediately. He said he had to get back in position. He said he had some explaining to do. I think he’s going to tell them you killed King.’

‘Me?’

‘That’s what they were discussing. Like they picked up a stranger to change the numbers but the stranger tried to rob them. I think he’s going to say you killed King and escaped.’

‘Did they say what kind of bad guys these are?’

Delfuenso shook her head.

‘No,’ she said. ‘But they seem very worried about them.’

Dinner came next, and it was a very strange meal. They walked over to the main building together like a little family, Reacher and Delfuenso side by side with Lucy skipping and tripping between them. The dining room was a large square space with twenty tables and eighty chairs, all of them serviceable pine items thickly varnished to a high syrup shine. The room was like many other rooms Reacher had seen, but it was completely empty apart from the eyewitness, who was sitting alone at a corner table behind a miniature thicket of three empty beer bottles, all different. He was working on a fourth, and he jabbed its neck in the air in an enthusiastic greeting. A happy man. Maybe he hadn’t had a vacation in years either. Or ever.

The motherly woman from the reception desk brought menus. Reacher wondered if she was FBI too, and concluded she probably was. As it happened the three guests she had right then were contented enough, at least for the moment, but he imagined others might find the situation stressful or annoying, in which case he figured she would need some kind of official weight to back up her naturally patient manner.

The menu offered just two choices, cheeseburger or chicken, presumably both microwaved straight out of a freezer. FBI agents tended to come out of law school or law enforcement, not out of restaurant kitchens. Reacher chose the cheeseburger, his fifth of the day, and Delfuenso and her daughter followed suit.

Then before the meals arrived two more people came in. Both men, both in blue suits and white shirts and blue ties. The owners of the parked Crown Vics, obviously. The resident agents. The babysitters. They looked alert and alive and solidly competent.

Delfuenso said, ‘They’re the two who brought me here.’

Lucy said, ‘They’re the two who brought me here. From Paula’s house.’

The two men scanned the room and headed straight for Reacher. The one on the right said, ‘Sir, we’d appreciate it if you’d eat your dinner at our table tonight.’

Reacher said, ‘Why?’

‘We need to introduce ourselves.’

‘And?’

‘We need to tell you the rules.’