A Wanted Man

SEVENTY-SEVEN

EXCEPT THE MAN behind the chair was not Alan King. He was a slightly different version of the exact same guy. Marginally older, a little harder, maybe half an inch taller, maybe a pound or two lighter. But otherwise identical.

‘Peter King,’ Reacher said.

‘Stay where you are,’ King said. ‘Or I’ll shoot your man.’

Reacher said, ‘He’s not mine.’

Peter King’s gun was a Beretta M9. Army issue. Better than the Glock, in Reacher’s private opinion. Its muzzle was tight in the hollow behind McQueen’s right ear. A dangerous place for it to be. Therefore, job one: make the Beretta move.

Peter King said, ‘I need you to place your weapons on the floor.’

‘I guess you do,’ Reacher said. ‘But I’m not going to.’

‘I’ll shoot your man.’

‘He’s not mine. I already told you that.’

‘Makes no difference to me. I’ll shoot him anyway.’

Reacher raised the Glock.

‘Go right ahead,’ he said. ‘Then I’ll shoot you. You pull your trigger, I’ll pull mine. There’s only one definite here. Which is that I’m going to walk out of this room, and you’re not. The only question is whether McQueen is going to come out with me, or stay in with you. You understand that, right? What were you, a forward observer?’

King nodded.

Reacher said, ‘Then you’ve hung out with real soldiers long enough to have some basic grasp of short-term tactics.’

‘You’re not going to give this guy up. You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to find him.’

‘I’d prefer to take him with me, sure. But it’s not a deal-breaker.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Just a guy, hitching rides.’

‘McQueen claims you killed my brother.’

Job one: make the Beretta move.

‘The woman killed your brother,’ Reacher said. ‘The cocktail waitress. Even then it wasn’t a fair fight. Your brother was a useless tub of lard.’

King said nothing.

Reacher said, ‘I bet he burned real well. All that fat? I bet he went up like a lamb chop on a barbecue.’

King said nothing.

Reacher said, ‘You would too, probably. You’re not much thinner. Is it a genetic thing? Was your momma fat as well as ugly?’

No reaction.

None at all.

‘What do you care about your brother anyway?’ Reacher asked. ‘Story is you weren’t even talking to him. Which I guess I can understand. He must have been a real disappointment. What did he do? Wet the bed all the time? Or did he interfere with the family dog?’

King didn’t answer.

Reacher asked, ‘What kind of a dog was it? Did it yelp?’

The Beretta didn’t move.

Stalemate.

‘Tell me,’ Reacher said. ‘I’d like to understand. I’d like to know what came between you. I’d like to know what made you cut him off for twenty long years. Because I had a brother once. He’s dead now, unfortunately. We were both busy all the time. But we talked when we could. We got along pretty well. We had fun. We were there for each other, when we needed to be. I never made him ashamed, and he never made me ashamed.’

Silence in the room. One concrete wall, three plywood walls, a weird, dull acoustic.

Then King said, ‘It was more than twenty years.’

‘What was?’

‘Alan was a coward.’

‘How so?’

‘He ratted someone out.’

‘You?’

‘His best friend.’

‘Doing what? Knocking over a package store?’

‘Doesn’t matter what they were doing,’ King said. ‘Alan walked, and his best friend didn’t.’

‘And you would never do that, right?’

‘No, I wouldn’t.’

‘Because you’re a man.’

‘You got that right,’ King said.

‘So face me like a man,’ Reacher said. ‘Take your gun out of McQueen’s ear and count to three and go for it.’

‘What, like a duel?’

‘Call it whatever you want. But stop using an innocent man for a shield. That’s a pussy’s trick.’

‘He’s not an innocent man. He’s a federal agent.’

‘He’s tied to a chair. You can get back to him afterwards.’

‘You think you’re going to lose?’

‘There are two possible outcomes here. Both should be considered.’

No answer.

‘Pussy,’ Reacher said.

‘We count to three, right?’

‘If you can.’

‘Then we fire?’

‘One of us does.’

‘Start with your gun down by your side.’

‘You first.’

‘On three,’ King said. ‘Guns down. You and me both. Then we count to three again. Then we fire.’

Reacher watched the guy’s eyes. They were OK.

‘Works for me,’ he said.

King said, ‘One.’

Reacher waited.

King said, ‘Two.’

Reacher waited.

King said, ‘Three.’

Reacher lowered his gun, loose and easy against his thigh.

King did the same thing.

McQueen breathed out and leaned away.

Reacher watched King’s eyes.

King took a breath and said, ‘OK.’

Reacher said, ‘Ready when you are.’

‘On three, right?’

‘Go for it.’

King said, ‘One.’

Strategy. It was the other guy that mattered. Reacher knew as sure as he knew anything that King was going to fire on two. It was a cast-iron certainty. The first count had been a decoy and a reassurance. One, two, three, guns down. It had set a rhythm and a precedent. An expectation. It had established trust. For a reason. King had it all figured out. He was a man with a plan. It was right there in his eyes. He was a smart guy.

But not smart enough.

He wasn’t thinking strategically. He wasn’t thinking himself into his opponent’s frame of mind.

Reacher raised the Glock and shot him in the face, right after the one.