The Hard Way

CHAPTER 53

THE PENTAGON GUY left with a promise to liaise in due course via Lauren Pauling’s cell phone. Reacher got a coffee refill and Pauling said, “You didn’t find Taylor’s passport in his apartment.”

Reacher said, “No, I didn’t.”

“So either he’s still alive or you think someone’s impersonating him.”

Reacher said nothing.

Pauling said, “Let’s say Taylor was working with the guy with no tongue. Let’s say they fell out over something, either what they did to Kate and Jade in the end, or the money, or both. Then let’s say one of them killed the other and ran, on Taylor’s passport, with all the money.”

“If it’s the guy with no tongue, why would he use Taylor’s passport?”

“Maybe he doesn’t have one of his own. Plenty of Americans don’t. Or maybe he’s on a watch list. Maybe he couldn’t get through an airport with his own name.”

“Passports have photographs.”

“They’re often old and generic. Do you look like your passport photograph?”

“A little.”

Pauling said, “A little is sometimes all you need. Going out, they don’t care as much as when you’re coming in.”

Reacher nodded and looked up and saw Brewer coming in the door. Big, fast, energetic. Something in his face, maybe frustration, maybe concern, Reacher couldn’t tell. Or perhaps the guy was just tired. He had been woken up early. He hurried through the room and slid into the booth and sat in the same spot the Pentagon guy had just vacated.

He said, “The body in the river was not the guy in Patti’s photograph.”

“You sure?” Reacher asked.

“As sure as I’ve ever been about anything. Patti’s guy is about five-nine and athletic and the floater was six-three and wasted. Those are fairly basic differences, wouldn’t you say?”

Reacher nodded. “Fairly basic.”

Pauling asked, “Did he have a tongue?”

“A what?” Brewer said.

“A tongue. Did the floater have a tongue?”

“Doesn’t everybody? What kind of question is that?”

“We’re looking for a guy who had his tongue cut out.”

Brewer looked straight at her. “Then the floater ain’t yours. I was just at the morgue. He’s got everything except a heartbeat.”

“You sure?”

“Medical examiners tend to notice things like that.”

“OK,” Reacher said. “Thanks for your help.”

“Not so fast,” Brewer said. “Talk to me.”

“About what?”

“About why you’re interested in this guy.”

Something in his face.

Reacher asked, “Did you get an ID?”

Brewer nodded. “From his fingerprints. They were mushy, but we made them work. He was an NYPD snitch. Relatively valuable. I’ve got buddies uptown who are relatively unhappy.”

“What kind of a snitch?”

“Methamphetamine out of Long Island. He was due to testify.”

“Where had he been?”

“He just got out of Rikers. They swept him up along with a bunch of others to keep his cover intact. Held him a few days, then turned him loose.”

“When?”

“He just got out. The ME figures he was dead about three hours after walking through the gates.”

“Then we don’t know anything about him,” Reacher said. “He’s completely unrelated.”

This time it was Brewer who said: “You sure?”

Reacher nodded. “I promise.”

Brewer gave him a long hard look, cop to cop. Then he just shrugged and said, “OK.”

Reacher said, “Sorry we can’t help.”

“Shit happens.”

“You still got Patti’s photograph?”

“Photographs,” Brewer said. “She gave me two. Couldn’t decide which one was better.”

“You still got them?”

“In my pocket.”

“Want to leave them with me?”

Brewer smiled, man to man. “You planning on returning them personally?”

“I could,” Reacher said. “But first I want to look at them.”

They were in a standard white letter-size envelope. Brewer pulled it from his inside pocket and laid it on the table. Reacher saw the name Taylor and the words For Brewer written on the front in blue ink and neat handwriting. Then Brewer left. Just stood up and walked back out to the street with the same kind of speed and energy and hustle he had used on the way in. Reacher watched him go and then he turned the envelope facedown and squared it on the table in front of him. Looked at it hard but left it unopened.

“What have we got?” he asked.

“We’ve got the same as we always had,” Pauling said. “We’ve got Taylor and the guy who can’t talk.”

Reacher shook his head. “Taylor is the guy who can’t talk.”