by Lee Child
“Sounds like you were a lovely little boy.”
“It was the Army. Anyplace else they’d have sent me to reform school.”
“You’re saying Joe grew to rely on it.”
Reacher nodded. “It was like that for ten years, basically. It came and went, and it happened less as we got older. But more serious when it actually did. I think he internalized it. Ten years is a significant chunk of time when you’re growing up, internalizing things. I think it became part of his mind-set to ignore danger because the psycho always had his back. So I think Froelich’s right, in a way. He was reckless. Not because he was trying to compete, but because deep down he felt he could afford to be. Because I had always looked after him, like his mother had always fed him, like the Army had always housed him.”
“How old was he when he died?”
“Thirty-eight.”
“That’s twenty years, Reacher. He had twenty years to adjust. We all adjust.”
“Do we? Sometimes I still feel like that same six-year-old. Everybody looking out of the corner of their eye at the psycho.”
“Like who?”
“Like Froelich.”
“She been saying things?”
“I disconcert her, clearly.”
“Secret Service is a civilian organization. Paramilitary at best. Nearly as bad as regular citizens.”
He smiled. Said nothing.
“So, what’s the verdict?” Neagley asked. “You going to be walking around from now on thinking you killed your brother?”
“A little bit, maybe,” he said. “But I’ll get over it.”
She nodded. “You will. And you should. It wasn’t your fault. He was thirty-eight. He wasn’t waiting for his little brother to show up.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“About what?”
“Something else Froelich said.”
“She wonders why we aren’t doing it?”
“You’re quick,” he said.
“I could sense it,” Neagley said. “She came across as a little concerned. A little jealous. Cold, even. But then, I’d just kicked her ass with the audit thing.”
“You sure had.”
“We’ve never even touched, you know that, you and me? We’ve never had any physical contact of any kind at all. You’ve never patted me on the back, never even shaken my hand.”
He looked at her, and thought back through fifteen years.
“Haven’t I?” he said. “Is that good or bad?”
“It’s good,” she said. “But don’t ask why.”
“OK,” he said.
“Reasons of my own. Don’t ask what they are. But I don’t like to be touched. And you never touched me. I always figured you could sense it. And I always appreciated that. It’s one of the reasons I always liked you so much.”
He said nothing.
“Even if you should have been in reform school,” she said.
“You probably should have been in there with me.”
“We’d have made a good team,” she said. “We are a good team. You should come back to Chicago with me.”
“I’m a wanderer,” he said.
“OK, I won’t push,” she said. “And look on the bright side with Froelich. Cut her some slack. She’s probably worth it. She’s a nice woman. Have some fun. You’re good together.”
“OK,” he said. “I guess.”
Neagley stood up and yawned.
“You OK?” he asked.
She nodded. “I’m fine.”
Then she put a kiss on the tips of her fingers and blew it to him from six feet away. Walked out of the room without saying another word.
He was tired, but he was agitated and the room was cold and the bed was lumpy and he couldn’t sleep. So he put his pants and shirt back on and walked to the closet and pulled out Joe’s box. He didn’t expect to find anything of interest in it. It would be abandoned stuff, that was all. Nobody leaves important things in a girlfriend’s house when he knows he’s going to skip out someday soon.
He put the box on the bed and pulled the flaps open. First thing he saw was a pair of shoes. They were packed heel-to-toe sideways across one end of the box. They were formal black shoes, good leather, reasonably heavy. They had proper stitched welts and toe caps. Thin laces in five holes. Imported, probably. But not Italian. They were too substantial. British, maybe. Like the Air Force tie.
He placed them on the bedcover. Put the heels six inches apart and the toes a little farther. The right heel was worn more than the left. The shoes were fairly old, fairly battered. He could see the whole shape of Joe’s feet in them. The whole shape of his body, towering above them, like he was standing right there wearing them, invisible. They were like a death mask.
There were three books in the box, packed edge-up. One was Du côté de chez Swann, which was the first volume of Marcel Proust’s À la recherche du temps perdu. It was a French paperback with a characteristic severe plain cover. He leafed through it. He could manage the language, but the content passed over his head. The second book was a college text about statistical analysis. It was heavy and dense. He leafed through it and gave up on both the language and the content. Piled it on top of Proust on the bed.
He picked up the third book. Stared at it. He recognized it. He had bought it for Joe himself, a long time ago, for his thirtieth birthday. It was Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment . It was in English, but he had bought it in Paris at a used bookstore. He could even remember exactly what it had cost, which wasn’t very much. The Paris bookseller had relegated it to the foreign-language section, and it wasn’t a first edition or anything. It was just a nice-looking volume, and a great story.
He opened it to the flyleaf. He had written: Joe. Avoid both, OK? Happy Birthday. Jack. He had used the bookseller’s pen, and the ink had smudged. Now it had faded a little. Then he had written out an address label, because the bookseller had offered to mail it for him. The address was the Pentagon back then, because Joe was still in Military Intelligence when he was thirty. The bookseller had been very impressed. The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia, USA.
He leafed past the title page to the first line: At the beginning of July, during a spell of exceptionally hot weather, towards evening, a certain young man came down to the street from the room he was renting. Then he leafed ahead, looking for the ax murder itself, and a folded paper fell out of the book. It was there as a bookmark, he guessed, about halfway through, where Raskolnikov is arguing with Svidrigaïlov.
He unfolded the paper. It was Army issue. He could tell by the color and the texture. Dull cream, smooth surface. It was the start of a letter, in Joe’s familiar neat handwriting. The date was six weeks after his birthday. The text said: Dear Jack, thanks for the book. It got here eventually. I will treasure it always. I might even read it. But probably not soon, because things are getting pretty busy here. I’m thinking of jumping ship and going to Treasury. Somebody (you’d recognize the name) offered me a job, and
That was it. It ended abruptly, halfway down the page. He laid it unfolded next to the shoes. Put all three books back in the box. He looked at the shoes and the letter and listened hard inside his head like a whale listens for another whale across a thousand miles of freezing ocean. But he heard nothing. There was nothing there. Nothing at all. So he crammed the shoes back into the box and folded the letter and tossed it in on top. Closed the flaps again and carried the box across the room and balanced it on top of the trash can. Turned back to the bed and heard another knock at the door.
It was Froelich. She was wearing her suit pants and jacket. No shirt under the jacket. Probably nothing at all under the jacket. He guessed she had dressed quickly because she knew she had to walk near the marshal in the corridor.
“You’re still up,” she said.
“Come in,” he said.
She stepped into the room and waited until he closed the door.
“I’m not angry at you,” she said. “You didn’t get Joe killed. I don
’t really think that. And I’m not angry at Joe for getting killed. That just happened.”
“You’re angry at something,” he said.
“I’m angry at him for leaving me,” she said.
He moved back into the room and sat on the end of the bed. This time, she sat right next to him.
“I’m over him,” she said. “Completely. I promise you. I have been for a long time. But I’m not over how he just walked out on me.”
Reacher said nothing.
“And therefore I’m angry at myself,” she said, quietly. “Because I wished him harm. Inside of me. I so wanted him to crash and burn afterward. And then he did. So I feel terribly guilty. And now I’m worried that you’re judging me.”
Reacher paused a beat.
“Nothing to judge,” he said. “Nothing to feel guilty about, either. Whatever you wished was understandable, and it had no influence on what happened. How could it?”
She was silent.
“He got in over his head,” Reacher said. “That’s all. He took a chance and got unlucky. You didn’t cause it. I didn’t cause it. It just happened.”
“Things happen for a reason.”
He shook his head.
“No, they don’t,” he said. “They really don’t. They just happen. It wasn’t your fault. You’re not responsible.”
“You think?”
“You’re not responsible,” he said again. “Nobody’s responsible. Except the guy who pulled the trigger.”
“I wished him harm,” she said. “I need you to forgive me.”
“Nothing to forgive.”
“I need you to say the words.”
“I can’t,” Reacher said. “And I won’t. You don’t need forgiving. It wasn’t your fault. Or mine. Or Joe’s, even. It just happened. Like things do.”
She was quiet for a long moment. Then she nodded, just slightly, and moved a little closer to him.
“OK,” she said.
“Are you wearing anything under that suit?” he asked.
“You knew I had a gun in the kitchen.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why did you search my house?”
“Because I’ve got the gene that Joe didn’t have. Things don’t happen to me. I don’t get unlucky. You carrying a gun now?”
“No, I’m not,” she said.
There was silence for a beat.
“And there’s nothing under the suit,” she said.
“I need to confirm those things for myself,” he said. “It’s a caution thing. Purely genetic, you understand.”
He undid the first button on her jacket. Then the second. Slipped his hand inside. Her skin was warm and smooth.
They got a wake-up call from the motel desk at six o’clock in the morning. Stuyvesant must have arranged it last night, Reacher thought. I wish he’d forgotten. Froelich stirred at his side. Then her eyes snapped open and she sat up, wide awake.
“Happy Thanksgiving,” he said.
“I hope it will be,” she said. “I’ve got a feeling about today. I think it’s the day we win or lose.”
“I like that kind of a day.”
“You do?”
“Sure,” he said. “Losing is not an option, which means it’s the day we win.”
She pushed back the covers. The room had gone from too cold to too hot.
“Dress casual,” she said. “Suits don’t look right on a holiday at a soup kitchen. Will you tell Neagley?”
“You tell her. You’ll be passing her door. She won’t bite.”
“She won’t?”
“No,” he said.
She put her suit back on and left. He padded over to the closet and pulled out the bag full of his Atlantic City clothes. He spilled them on the bed and did his best to flatten out the wrinkles. Then he showered without shaving. She wanted me to look casual, he thought. He found Neagley in the lobby. She was wearing her jeans and her sweatshirt with a battered leather jacket over it. There was a buffet table with coffee and muffins. The U.S. marshals had already eaten most of them.
“You two kiss and make up?” Neagley asked.
“A little of each, I guess,” he said.
He took a cup and filled it with coffee. Selected a raisin bran muffin. Then Froelich showed up, newly showered and wearing black denim jeans with a black polo shirt and a black nylon jacket. They ate and drank whatever the marshals had left and then they walked out together to Stuyvesant’s Suburban. It was before seven in the morning on Thanksgiving Day and the city looked like it had been evacuated the night before. There was silence everywhere. It was cold, but the air was still and soft. The sun was up and the sky was pale blue. The stone buildings looked golden. The roads were completely empty. It took no time at all to reach the office. Stuyvesant was waiting for them in the conference room. His interpretation of casual was a pair of pressed gray pants and a pink sweater under a bright blue golf jacket. Reacher guessed all the labels said Brooks Brothers, and he guessed Mrs. Stuyvesant had gone to the Baltimore hospital as was usual on a Thursday, Thanksgiving Day or not. Bannon was sitting opposite Stuyvesant. He was in the same tweed and flannel. He would look like a cop whatever day it was. He looked like a guy without too many options in his closet.
“Let’s get to it,” Stuyvesant said. “We’ve got a big agenda.”
“First item,” Bannon said. “The FBI formally advises cancellation today. We know the bad guys are in the city and therefore it’s reasonable to assume there may be some kind of imminent hostile attempt.”
“Cancellation is out of the question,” Stuyvesant said. “Free turkey at a homeless shelter might sound trivial, but this is a town that runs on symbols. If Armstrong pulled out the political damage would be catastrophic.”
“OK, then we’re going to be there on the ground with you,” Bannon said. “Not to duplicate your role. We’ll stay strictly out of your way on all matters that concern Armstrong’s personal security. But if something does go down, the closer we are the luckier we’ll get.”
“Any specific information?” Froelich asked.
Bannon shook his head.
“None,” he said. “Just a feeling. But I would urge you to take it very seriously.”
“I’m taking everything very seriously,” Froelich said. “In fact, I’m changing the whole plan. I’m moving the event outdoors.”
“Outdoors?” Bannon said. “Isn’t that worse?”
“No,” Froelich said. “On balance, it’s better. It’s a long low room, basically. Kitchen at the back. It’s going to get very crowded. We’ve got no realistic chance of using metal detectors on the doors. It’s the end of November, and most of these people are going to be wearing five layers and carrying God knows what kind of metal stuff. We can’t search them. It would take forever and God knows how many diseases my people would catch. We can’t wear gloves to do it because that would be seen as insulting. So we have to concede there’s a fair chance that the bad guys could mingle in and get close, and we have to concede we’ve got no real way of stopping them.”
“So how does it help to be outdoors?”
“There’s a side yard. We’ll put the serving tables in a long line at right angles to the wall of the building. Pass stuff out through the kitchen window. Behind the serving table is the wall of the yard. We’ll put Armstrong and his wife and four agents in a line behind the serving table, backs to the wall. We’ll have the guests approach from the left, single file through a screen of more agents. They’ll get their food and walk on inside to sit down and eat it. The television people will like it better, too. Outside is always better for them. And there’ll be orderly movement. Left to right along the table. Turkey from Armstrong, stuffing from Mrs. Armstrong. Move along, sit down to eat. Easier to portray, visually.”
“Upside?” Stuyvesant asked.
“Extensive,” Froelich said. “Much better crowd security. Nobody can pull a weapon before they get near Armstrong, because they’re filtering through an agent screen the whole
time until they’re right across the table from him. Whereupon if they wait to do it at that point, he’s got four agents right alongside him.”
“Downside?”
“Limited. We’ll be screened on three sides by walls. But the yard is open at the front. There’s a block of five-story buildings directly across the street. Old warehousing. The windows are boarded, which is a huge bonus. But we’ll need to put an agent on every roof. So we’ll have to forget the budget.”
Stuyvesant nodded. “We can do that. Good plan.”
“The weather helped us for once,” Froelich said.
“Is this basically a conventional plan?” Bannon asked. “Like normal Secret Service thinking?”
“I don’t really want to comment on that,” Froelich said. “Secret Service doesn’t discuss procedure.”
“Work with me, ma’am,” Bannon said. “We’re all on the same side here.”
“You can tell him,” Stuyvesant said. “We’re already in hip-deep.”
Froelich shrugged.
“OK,” she said. “I guess it’s a conventional plan. Place like that, we’re pretty limited for options. Why are you asking?”
“Because we’ve done a lot of work on this,” Bannon said. “A lot of thinking.”
“And?” Stuyvesant said.
“We’re looking at four specific factors here. First, this all started seventeen days ago, correct?”
Stuyvesant nodded.
“And who’s hurting?” Bannon asked. “That’s the first question. Second, think about the demonstration homicides out in Minnesota and Colorado. How were you alerted? That’s the second question. Third, what were the weapons used out there? And fourth, how did the last message end up on Ms. Froelich’s hallway floor?”