“Who was your guy?” Reacher asked.
“A colonel called Gascoigne,” she said. “He was always full of shit about coming to him if anything was bothering you. I went to him about getting reassigned. I saw him five times. I wasn’t pleading the feminist case or anything. It wasn’t a political thing. I just wanted something more interesting to do. And frankly I thought the Army was wasting a good soldier. Because I was good.”
Reacher nodded. “So what happened with Gascoigne?”
Alison made a face.
“I didn’t see it coming,” she said. “At first I thought he was just kidding around.”
She paused. Looked away.
“He said I should try next time without my uniform on,” she said. “I thought he was asking for a date, you know, meet him in town, some bar, off duty, plain clothes. But then he made it clear, no, he meant right there in his office, stripped off.”
Reacher nodded. “Not a very nice suggestion.”
She made another face. “Well, he led up to it pretty slow, and he was pretty jokey about it, at first. It was like he was flirting. I almost didn’t notice, you know? Like he’s a man, I’m a woman, it’s not a huge surprise, right? But clearly he figured I wasn’t getting the message, so then all of a sudden he got obscene. He described what I’d have to do, you know? One foot on this corner of his desk, the other foot on the other corner, hands behind my head, motionless for thirty minutes. Then bending over, you know? Like a porno movie. Then it did hit me, the rage, all in a split second, and I just went nuclear.”
Reacher nodded. “And you busted him?”
“Sure I did.”
“How did he react?”
130
l”pd< She smiled. "He was puzzled, more than anything. I'm sure he'd done it lots of times before, and gotten away with it. I think he was kind of surprised the rules had changed on him." "Could he be the guy?" She shook her head. "No. This guy is deadly, right? Gascoigne wasn't like that. He was an old, sad man. Tired, and ineffectual. Julia says this guy is a piece of work. I don't see Gascoigne having that kind of initiative, you know?" Reacher nodded again. "If your sister's profile is correct, this is probably a guy from the background somewhere." "Right," Alison said. "Maybe not connected with any specific incident. Maybe some kind of distant observer, turned avenger." "If Julia's profile is correct," Reacher said again. There was a short silence. "Big if," Alison said. "You got doubts?" "You know I have," she said. "And I know you have, too. Because we both know the same things." Harper sat forward. "What are you saying?" Alison made a face. "I just can't see a soldier going to all this trouble, not over this issue. It just doesn't work like that. The Army changes the rules all the time. Go back fifty years, it's OK to harass blacks, then it's not. It's OK to shoot gook babies, then it's not. A million things like that. Hundreds of men were canned one after the other, for some new invented offense. Truman integrated the Army, nobody started killing the blacks who filed complaints. This is some kind of new reaction. I can't understand it." "Maybe men versus women is more fundamental," Harper said. Alison nodded. "Maybe it is. I really don't know. But at the end of the day, like Julia says, the target group is so specific, it has to be a soldier. Who else could even identify us? But it's a very weird soldier, that's for damn sure. Not like any I ever met." "Really?" Harper said. "Nobody at all? No threats, no comments, while it was all happening?" "Nothing significant. Nothing more than casual bullshit. Nothing that I recall. I even flew out to Quantico and let Julia hypnotize me, in case there was something buried there, but she said I came up with nothing." Silence again. Harper swept imaginary crumbs from the table and nodded. "OK. Wasted trip, right?" JuMiin* filing 131 "Sorry, guys," Alison said. "Nothing's ever wasted," Reacher said. "Negatives can be useful too. And the coffee was great."