Never Go Back

THIRTY-NINE

Reacher heard the purr of a ring tone. Turner had the handset trapped between her shoulder and her neck, and she mouthed, ‘Leach’s cell number.’ Then her eyes changed focus as the call was answered. She said, ‘Sergeant, this is Susan Turner. My official advice to you as your commanding officer is to hang up immediately and report this call to Colonel Morgan. Are you going to do that?’

Reacher didn’t hear Leach’s answer, but it was obviously no, because the conversation continued. Turner said, ‘Thank you, sergeant. I need you to do two things for me. First, I need the A.M. number in the original signal from Weeks and Edwards. The transcript should be in the file room. Is Colonel Morgan still in the house?’

Reacher didn’t hear the answer, but it was obviously yes, because Turner said, ‘OK, don’t risk it now. I’ll call back every hour.’ Then she stayed on the line, ready to ask about the second thing she wanted Leach to do for her, but Reacher didn’t hear what it was, because right then there was a knock at the door. He crossed the room and opened up, and standing there was a guy in a suit. He had a walkie-talkie in his hand, and a corporate button in his lapel. A hotel manager of some kind, Reacher thought.

The guy said, ‘I apologize, sir, but there’s been a mistake.’

Reacher said, ‘What kind of a mistake?’

‘The incidentals deposit should have been fifty dollars, not a hundred. When paying in cash, I mean. For the phone and the minibar. If you order room service, we ask you to pay the wait staff direct.’

‘OK,’ Reacher said.

So the guy dipped in his pocket and came out with fifty dollars, two twenties and a ten, all fanned out, like Reacher had won a prize on a television show, and he said, ‘Again, I apologize for the overcharge.’

Reacher took the money and checked it. U.S. currency. Fifty bucks. He said, ‘No problem,’ and the guy walked away. Reacher closed the door. Turner put the phone down and said, ‘What was that?’

‘I guess the clerk at the desk hadn’t gotten a memo. We’re supposed to lodge fifty with them, not a hundred, because room service is all cash.’

‘Whatever.’

‘How was Sergeant Leach?’

‘She’s a brave woman.’

‘You know her number by heart? A sergeant you just met in a new command?’

‘I know all their numbers by heart.’

‘You’re a good commander.’

‘Thank you.’

‘What was the second thing you asked her for?’

‘You’ll see,’ Turner said. ‘I hope.’

Romeo dialled, but Juliet was slow to answer. Romeo rubbed his palm on the leather arm of the chair he was sitting in. His palm was dry, and the leather was smooth and lustrous, made that way by fifty years of suited elbows.

Then in his ear Juliet said, ‘Yes?’

Romeo said, ‘The names Sullivan and Temple just came up in an airport hotel in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Fortunately for us its register is linked to Homeland Security. Being at an airport.’

‘Is it them, do you think?’

‘We’ll have descriptions soon. The hotel is sending a man up to take a look. But I think it has to be them. Because what are the odds? Those two names in combination? As far as we know, those are the only IDs they have.’

‘But why the airport in Pittsburgh?’

‘Doesn’t matter why. Where are our boys?’

‘On their way to Los Angeles.’

‘See how fast you can turn them around.’

The room was warm, so Reacher took off his miracle coat, and Turner took off her new jacket. She said, ‘You want to get room service?’

‘Sure.’

‘Before or after?’

‘Before or after what?’

‘Before or after we have sex again.’

Reacher smiled. In his experience the second time was always better. Still new, but a little less so. Still unfamiliar, but a little less so. Always better than the first time, and in Turner’s case the first time had been spectacular.

‘After,’ he said.

‘Then take your clothes off,’ she said.

‘No, you first this time.’

‘Why?’

‘Because variety is the spice of life.’

She smiled. She took her new sweater off. She was wearing nothing under it. No bra. She didn’t really need one, and she wasn’t about to pretend. He liked her for that. He liked her for everything, basically. Not that he had a big problem with any kind of a topless woman in his room. But she was special. Mentally, and physically. Physically she was flawless. She was lean and strong, but she looked soft and tiny. One curve flowed into another, endlessly, seamlessly, like a single contour, like a Möbius strip, from the cleft of her back, to her shoulder, to her waist, to her hips, to her back, where it started all over again. Her skin was the colour of honey. Her smile was wicked, and her laugh was infectious.

Romeo dialled, and this time Juliet picked up immediately. Romeo said, ‘It’s them. A tall, heavy, fair-haired man, and a younger dark-haired woman, much smaller. That’s what the hotel manager saw.’

‘Any indication how long they intend to stay?’

‘They paid cash for one night.’

‘Did they book a wake-up call?’

‘No. They can’t fly. Not with cash, and not with those IDs. Reacher looks nothing like Temple. Even the TSA would notice. I think they’re just holed up. Not a bad choice. Airport hotels are always anonymous, and Pittsburgh isn’t the centre of the known universe. I’d like to know how they got so much money, though.’

‘Our boys will get there as soon as they can.’

‘The hotel manager said Turner was on the phone.’

‘Who to?’

‘I’m having it traced now.’

Afterwards they lay spent and sweaty in tangled sheets, breathing hard, then breathing low. Turner got up on an elbow and stared at Reacher’s face, and ran her fingertips over his brow, slow and searching. She said, ‘It’s not even bruised.’

‘All bone,’ he said. ‘All the way through.’

Her touch moved down to his nose.

‘This wasn’t, though,’ she said. ‘Not all the way through. And recent, right?’

‘Nebraska,’ Reacher said. ‘Some guy, all worked up about something.’

Her fingertip traced the cuts, all healed up but not long ago, and the thickened bumps of bone, which now gave his nose a slight right turn. Still a surprise to him, but automatically normal to her. She traced around his ear, and his neck, and his chest. She put the tip of her pinkie in his bullet hole. It fit just right.

‘A .38,’ he said. ‘A weak load.’

‘Lucky,’ she said.

‘I’m always lucky. Look at me now.’

Her touch moved on, to his waist. To the old shrapnel scar.

‘Beirut,’ she said. ‘I read your file. A Silver Star and a Purple Heart. Not bad, but still, I bet overall you got more metal in your gut than on your chest.’

‘It was bone,’ Reacher said. ‘Fragments of somebody’s head, who was standing nearer.’

‘It said shrapnel in the file.’

‘How many times did you read that file?’

‘Over and over again.’

‘You know where the word shrapnel comes from?’

‘Where?’

‘An eighteenth-century British guy named Henry Shrapnel.’

‘Really?’

‘He was a captain in their artillery for eight years. Then he invented an exploding shell, and they promoted him major. The Duke of Wellington used the shell in the Peninsular Wars, and at the Battle of Waterloo.’

‘Terrific.’

‘But thanks for reading that file. It means a lot to me.’

‘Why?’

‘Because now I don’t have to spend a lot of time telling you a bunch of old stories. You know them already.’

‘Telling each other old stories has a nice ring to it.’

‘You haven’t told me any.’

‘But I will,’ she said. ‘I’ll tell you as many as you want to hear.’

Romeo dialled Juliet and said, ‘She was calling a pre-paid cell phone almost certainly purchased at a Wal-Mart. If it was paid for in cash, it’s untraceable. And I bet it was.’

Juliet said, ‘It was worth a try.’

‘But you know, one big market for pre-paid cell phones is the military. Because some of them don’t make enough for a regular monthly contract. Which is shameful, frankly. And because some of them lead necessarily disorganized lives, and pre-paid suits them better.’

‘That’s a leap.’

‘The phone is showing up on three cell towers north and west of the Pentagon.’

‘I see.’

‘Rock Creek is north and west of the Pentagon.’

‘Yes, it is.’

‘I think she was calling the mothership. And someone aboard the mothership took her call.’

‘Our boys are on their way to Pittsburgh.’

‘Doesn’t matter. No one at Rock Creek can help her now.’