by Lee Child
There was no sound.
No voices, no footsteps.
They moved out of the study to the hallway. They felt entitled. Or allowed. Or at least no longer inappropriate. The guests were gone. No more need to hide. They turned toward what they felt was the center of the house and took quiet tentative steps. The silver-framed photographs started up again. A fresh batch, in a new location. But the same old story. A couple with a college student, a couple with a muddy college student in a soccer uniform holding a cup, a couple with a graduating college student.
No voices, no footsteps.
They moved on, past a room with padded walls and a giant screen and a forest of upright loudspeakers. And three separate chairs, each one of them with its own reclining mechanism, and its own cup holder. A home theater. Reacher had never seen one before, in a home.
No sound.
They came out in an arched antechamber ahead of the living room. Where the architecture changed from adobe to hunting lodge. The ceiling soared overhead, with knotty boards rising to an angled peak, in a shallow upside-down V. Black iron chandeliers hung down, with bulbs made to look like candles. There were sofas made of thick brown leather, deep and wide and sprawling, with plaid blankets folded over their backs, for color.
They heard a car on the driveway.
Metallic thumps, as doors opened and closed.
Footsteps on the rivers of stone.
The front door opened.
A heavy tread in the hallway.
Dr. Evan Lair walked into his living room. He saw Reacher, saw Chang, and stopped. He said, “Hey, guys,” in a way that was part welcome, part question, perfectly amiable, completely accepting, but with a tiny edge of impatience, as if what he really meant was I thought all the guests had gone.
Then his daughter came in behind him, still in the shirt and bikini, and she put her hand on his back and said, “It’s something to do with Cousin Michael. Mom has been talking to them.”
Then she maneuvered onward and stepped up close, and put out her hand, and said, “Hi, I’m Emily,” and they all shook and introduced themselves, and said congratulations all around.
Then McCann’s sister came in, kind of dusting her hands, and she said, “I’m sorry, but we took a slice of cake and a glass of tea to the man at the gate. The least we could do. He had a busy afternoon on our behalf.”
Reacher said, “Did you give him a guest list beforehand?”
“We have to.”
“Then you should have given him only half a slice of cake. He let us in without checking it.”
Evan said, “Is Michael still missing?”
Emily said, “Dad, you know he is.”
“And Peter is finally looking for him now? Is that what this is?”
“Uncle Peter has been looking for him all along.”
“Well, he isn’t here. Neither one of them is here.”
Reacher said, “We apologize for the intrusion.”
“Sit down,” Emily said. “Please.”
They ended up two and three on opposite sofas, Reacher and Chang cradled in the corners of one, with ice tea in glasses, on coasters on coffee tables made to look like old steamship trunks, and across from them on the other sofa was the Lair family, all in a line, with Evan and Lydia at the ends, and Emily in the middle, long and lithe and golden tan.
Reacher said, “Peter did very well with the phone company. That kind of information is hard to get.”
Peter’s sister said, “It’s Chicago. It was a friend of a friend in the union.”
“And Peter being a thorough guy, he won’t have summarily dismissed the phone theft scenarios before or after the train ride. In Tulsa or OC or Chicago. Not completely out of hand. But he will have thought it at least equally likely something happened along the way.”
“On the train?” Emily said.
“Or not. We know that train, as it happens. It stops once before Chicago. At a little country place called Mother’s Rest.”
No reaction from McCann’s sister.
Reacher said, “Mother’s Rest is way out in the middle of nowhere. It’s also Keever’s last known location. I think Peter concluded Michael got out of the train there. Hence his phone never came out the other side of the dead zone. I think he sent Keever to check.”
“Well, that’s good, right?” Evan said. “If he’s there, Keever will find him.”
Reacher said nothing.
McCann’s sister said, “He’s had no luck yet. Peter hasn’t had a report in three days. Nothing doing. Unless he’s due to call me with the good news right about now.” Which seemed to make her conscious of the time, because she patted her wrist, looking for a watch, and then she squinted far into the kitchen to see the microwave clock.
She said, “It’s after suppertime in Chicago.”
She pointed near Reacher and said, “Hon, pass me the phone.”
The phone was on the steamer trunk, near his ice tea. It was bigger than some, and curvier, and heavier. Better plastic. Still cordless and modern, but first-generation. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It had a transparent window for speed-dial labels, with a space at the top for its own number, which someone had filled out in elegant pencil, the 480 area code and seven more digits. He passed it across, and McCann’s sister took it, and checked it for dial tone.
She said, “The line is working.”
Evan asked, “How big of a place is Mother’s Rest?”
Reacher said, “Very small.”
“Why is it called that?”
“No one knows.”
“How can it take three days to search a very small place?”
“Depends how thorough you are. You could spend three weeks poking around, opening every door, looking under every bush. Which is what’s on my mind. It’s a footsore picture. It’s old-fashioned police work. The phone company trace, through a pal in the union, the railroad schedules, the guess about whether he stayed on board or got out, the physical search of a physical location. Time and space. Steel and iron. Shoe leather and late nights. Smart people would call it analog.”
“I suppose sometimes it has to be that way.”
“But we heard Peter was obsessed with the internet. He called a science journalist in LA a total of eighteen times to talk about it. Was that separate? How is that connected to a place that doesn’t even get cell service?”
McCann’s sister said, “It wasn’t separate. It was parallel. He thought it might be a clue to where Michael was. He thought that Michael might talk to similar people on secret sites. Maybe he was heading somewhere for a reason. Maybe there had been discussions. We had high hopes of Mr. Westwood for a time. He might have held the key. But Peter was very persistent. And persistence can be a negative thing in the end. As you say, eighteen calls. I tried to warn him.”
“Did he find the sites anyway?”
McCann’s sister said, “I’ll get more tea.”
She stood up and picked up the jug from the steamer trunk, and the jug caught the phone and sent it spinning in place, frictionless, plastic on leather. Reacher saw the neat pencil handwriting, rotating slowly, like a bicycle spoke coming to rest. Area code 480, and seven more digits.
Phoenix, Arizona. Where we’re going.
We’re on the way.
The time for looking over your shoulder starts now.
Half a slice of cake.
He said, “Evan, may I ask you a personal question?”
Dr. Lair did what most guys do, when facing such an inquiry, which was to pause a quizzical beat, and shrug in mock innocence, and say, “Sure.”
“Do you keep a gun in the house?”
“Is that important?”
“Just a matter of interest.”
“As a matter of fact I do.”
“May I see it?”
“That’s a strange request.”
His daughter Emily was half-turned sideways, sitting cross-legged, watching the exchange, back and forth from one face to the other, like tennis.<
br />
So was Chang.
Reacher said, “Is the gun in the bedroom?”
Lair said, “As a matter of fact it is.”
“It would be better in the hallway. Dead-of-night home invasions are rare. Plus you’d be too sleepy to be effective. Are you right-handed?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Then within six feet of the front door on the right-hand side would be favorite. In a drawer or a cabinet. Or grips-up in a decorative vase. On a table. I imagine that would work.”
“Are you also a security consultant?”
“We aim to offer a wide range of services.”
Emily said, “He’s right, Dad. The bedroom is pointless.”
Chang said, “Technically our advice would be to conceal a separate firearm in each major zone of the house. The bedroom certainly, but also the kitchen area, the living area, the entrance lobby, upstairs if you have one, the basement if you have one, and the garage.”
Emily said, “Where’s best if you only have one?”
Only have one, Reacher heard.
“Go with the math,” Chang said. “Most problems come in the front door.”
“Seriously?” Lair said. “I should move it?”
“Better ask Mom,” Emily said.
And right then McCann’s sister came back, with a fresh jug of tea and cake on a plate, and she said, “Ask me what?”
“Whether my daddy should move his gun to the hallway.”
“Why on earth would he want to do that?”
“On the advice of one logical daughter and two security consultants.”
“How on earth did the subject come up? Is it important?”
We can’t tell her. Not now.
Reacher said, “No, it was just professional interest, that’s all,” and a minute later the matter evaporated like a bubble of soap, quickly forgotten, except by Chang, who flashed a question, eye to eye: What the hell is going on?
Reacher scratched his nose, absently, with the edge of his forefinger, the rest of his hand cupped below, hiding him mouthing Turn your phone off.
McCann’s sister said, “Are you OK?”
Reacher said, “Tell us about the web sites Michael was using.”
Chapter 40
McCann learned two things fast, his sister said, when he started looking at his son’s computer. The first was that software could be booby-trapped so that opening an internet history was the same thing as erasing an internet history. Unless you opened it right, which he didn’t, obviously. Because he didn’t know how. But like a lot of downloaded programs it wasn’t perfect. It had a tiny glitch. It left the first screen visible for about half a second. Then it was gone. Blank. No more.
The second thing he learned was how short of a time half a second was. But also how long. A fastball could get there and back again in half a second, easy. And plenty could be retained in the memory. It was a question of trusting, not thinking. Some ancient trick of mind and retina and after-image. Better to look away, and glimpse it on the edge.
Except it meant nothing. Just long lines of characters, as if someone had rolled a ball along the top part of a keyboard. Completely random.
McCann’s sister said, “So Peter being Peter, he learned what he could about what he was up against, which turned out to be the Deep Web. About which there wasn’t much useful to learn. We had some scary conversations. We thought we were in charge. Relatively speaking. But we weren’t. There was a whole secret world we knew nothing about. It was ten times bigger than ours. People were in there, talking. Doing weird stuff we wouldn’t understand. It was like a science-fiction movie.”
Reacher said, “Was there one thing in particular Westwood was supposed to help with, or was it a general inquiry?”
“No, it was very specific. There’s a widespread feeling among Deep Web people that the government must be building a search engine capable of finding their web sites. We felt there was a hint in Westwood’s article that it already exists. Peter wants Westwood to confirm or deny, and if so, help get him a chance to use it.”
“Is that likely?”
“Personally I don’t think there’s a hope in hell, but leave no stone unturned. His son is missing. My nephew.”
“Is it conceivable Peter could have left things out when he was talking to you? Were his stories always completely joined up?”
“What do you mean?”
“You hadn’t heard the words Mother’s Rest, for instance.”
“No, I hadn’t.”
“Did he ever say anything about two hundred deaths?”
Emily said, “Two hundred what?”
Her mother said, “No.”
Reacher said, “He talked to Keever about both those things. And Keever went to Mother’s Rest. So it was important somehow. Yet he didn’t mention it to you.”
“What happens there?”
“We don’t know.”
“Peter’s my big brother and I’m his little sister. He never forgets it. Never lets me forget it, either. Not in a bad way. In the best way. The only reason he would leave things out would be to spare me unpleasantness.”
No one spoke.
Chang got up.
She said, “I need the ladies’ room,” and Emily pointed it out, and she wandered away in the right direction.
Reacher said, “Do you guys have plans for dinner?”
McCann’s sister said, “I haven’t thought about it yet.”
“We could go out.”
“Who?”
“All of us.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere you like. Right now. My treat. Let me take you out to dinner.”
“Why?”
“Sounds like you’ve been working hard all day.”
Chang reappeared at the edge of the living room. She caught Reacher’s eye and said, “Men’s room is right here, if you need it.”
He said, “OK.”
“I can show you, if you like.”
“I’m sure I’ll find it when the time is right.”
Emily said, “She wants to talk to you in private.”
So Reacher got up and joined Chang in the outer hallway. She said, quietly, “You think Hackett’s friends are coming?”
“We should have been more cautious with the phone. They could have equipment all over the country. If so, we just sold out the sister. We gave Westwood chapter and verse. So we can’t leave them alone. Not here. Not now. Either we get them out or we babysit them all night. Close personal protection. A wide range of services.”
“I’d rather get them out.”
“I already offered them dinner.”
“The guy on the gate is useless.”
“Which way is the bedroom?”
“The other wing. Through the living room again.”
“You try asking them to dinner. Maybe they thought it was weird from me.”
“It’s weird from either one of us. We don’t know them. And they’re in the middle of a high-precision wedding countdown. Two strangers suddenly taking them out for a bucket of chicken would make their heads explode.”
“I said anywhere they want. Doesn’t have to be KFC.”
“Same difference. Doesn’t matter where we go.”
They heard a car on the driveway.
Metallic thumps, as doors opened and closed.
Footsteps on the rivers of stone.
Modern automotive design puts no more than four seats behind regular wide-open doors. Some sedans might be five-seaters, and some trucks were seven-seaters, but no tough guy grows up wanting to sit on the transmission hump, and no one is effective in the way back of a minivan. So worst case would be four incoming. Best case would be one. Likelihood was either two or three. Reacher turned instantly and headed across the living room, charting his course many steps ahead, as straight as possible, setting himself to graze the corners of tables and the arms of chairs, like a downhill slalom against the clock. The Lair family was still all in a line on the sofa, frozen, not understa
nding, Lydia, Emily, Evan, the linen shift, the shirt and bikini, the shorts and the loud Hawaiian, all watching, so Reacher patted the air as he passed them by, telling them to stay where they were, and then he hustled onward, out the far side of the living room, into a short hallway, past more silver-framed photographs of unknown people, maybe relatives, including a thin man and a sad boy, perhaps Peter and Michael McCann, and finally onward into the bedroom.
The back of his brain said women usually take the side near the bathroom and he sidestepped and scrambled around a pillow-stacked king-size bed to a night table with nothing on it but an alarm clock and an unread book.
He heard them kick down the front door.
He wrenched open the drawer under the book and saw reading glasses and headache pills and a box of tissues and a Colt Python with a six-inch barrel. Hatched walnut grips lacquered to a soupy shine, an immense blued-steel frame, brawny .357 Magnum rounds in the wheel. One hell of a nighttime gun. Smart in some ways. No complexity. No safety, no jams. But dumb in other ways. It weighed three pounds. Too heavy to lift while blinking awake. And the recoil would blow a sleepy arm through the headboard.
Reacher took it and checked the cylinder. All there. A six-shooter. Six rounds.
He heard boots in the hallway.
Inside the front door. Moving six feet to the right. Two people. A third would be coming around the back. If there was a third. Along the decorative path, past the plantings, between the solar lights, through the gate.
Please go in.
No spare rounds in the drawer.
A six-shooter.
Reacher stepped back to the bedroom door. Still he heard boots in the hallway. Then he moved out, past the silver-framed photographs again, edging sideways, Python at arm’s length, eyes on the front sight, crisp and clear, everything else blurred, the light soft, the house shuttered and shaded against the sun, and full of dim shadows.
He stopped at the mouth of the living room. On his left was the Lair family, still on the sofa, but starting to stir. Shock was giving way to fear. And in Emily’s case, outrage. She was going to break forward. Her folks were going to break back. On his right was the sofa he and Chang had sat on, and beyond it was a partial view to the door.
He saw the bulk of a moving shoulder. A silhouette, against the light. Tense and pumped up and ready to go.