You open the stolen mobile. Dial her number. Press on the little green telephone pictogram. You hear the connection go through. You hear ring tone. You crouch low in the lee of your rock, ready to speak. It’s warmer down there. You’re out of the wind. The ring tone continues. Is she going to answer? Maybe she won’t. The type of contrary bitch who won’t let her bodyguard use her bathroom might not be above ignoring her phone. You feel a momentary thrill of panic. What are you going to do? What if she doesn’t pick up?
She picks up.
“Hello?” she says.
She’s wary, annoyed, defensive. She thinks it’s the police sergeant, about to complain. Or the Bureau coordinator, about to persuade her back into line.
“Hello, Rita, “you say.
She hears your voice. You feel her relax.
“Yes?”she says.
You tell her what you want her to do.
l\ tn> the first one,” Harper said. “The first one would be random. Leading us away from the scent. Probably not the second either. The second establishes the pattern.”
“I agree,” Reacher said. “Callan and Cooke were background noise. They started the smoke screen.”
Harper nodded. Went quiet. She had moved out from behind him. Now she was sprawled across the opposite row in the empty plane. It was a weird feeling. Familiar, but strange. Nothing around them but neat uniform rows of vacant seats.
“But he wouldn’t leave it too late,” Harper said. “He’s got a target, he’d want to hit it before anything unraveled, right?”
“I agree,” Reacher said again.
“So it’s the third or the fourth.”
Reacher nodded. Said nothing.
“But which one?” Harper asked. “What’s the key?”
fuMutui (filing 317
“Everything,” Reacher said. “Same as it always was. The clues. The geography, the paint, the lack of violence.”
JLw/Wn. was a cold wrinkled apple and a square of Swiss cheese, which was about all her refrigerator had to offer. She served it to herself on a plate, to preserve some semblance of order. Then she washed the plate and put it back in the cupboard and walked through the hallway and unlocked the front door. Stood in the cold for a second and walked down her path to the driveway. The police car was still parked right across the opening. The cop saw her coming and buzzed his passenger window down.
“I came to apologize,” she said. She kept it as sweet as she could. “I shouldn’t have said what I said. It’s just getting to me a little, is all. Of course you should come in, anytime you need to.”
The guy was staring at her, half puzzled, like he was thinking women!’to himself. She kept her smile going and lifted her eyebrows and tilted her head like she was reinforcing her invitation.
“Well, I’ll come in right now,” the guy said. “If you’re sure it’s OK.”
She nodded and waited for him to get out. She noticed he left the passenger window down. The car would be cold when he got back. She led him back up the path. He was hurrying behind her. Poor guy must be desperate, she thought.
“You know where it is,” she said.
She waited in the hallway. He came back out of the powder room with a relieved expression on his face. She held the front door for him.
“Anytime,” she said. “Just ring the bell.”
“OK, ma’am,” he said. “If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” she said. “I appreciate what you’re doing for me.”
“What we’re here for,” the guy said, proud and shy.
She watched him all the way back to the car. Locked the door again and stepped into the parlor. Stood and looked at the piano and decided to give it another forty-five minutes. Maybe an hour.
I
That’s better. And the timing might be about right. You can’t be sure. You’re an expert in a lot of things, but you’re not a urologist. You watch him on the way back to the car, and you figure he’s too young to be into prostate trouble, so all that’s going to
318
l*ff”H
count is the fullness of his bladder balanced against his natural reluctance to bother her again. Two-thirty now, he’s bound to want to go at least twice more before eight. Probably once before and once after she’s dead.