her thigh. Her skin was warm and smooth.
‘So where can we go?’ I asked.
‘You’re in a hurry,’ she said. She moved around and eased the
hem of her dress up over her hips. She wasn’t wearing anything
under it.
‘Where are you from?’ I asked her.
‘Atlanta,’ she said.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Sin,’ she said. ‘Spelled S, i, n.’
I was fairly certain that was a professional alias.
‘What’s yours?’ she said.
‘Reacher,’ I said. There was no point adopting an alias of my
own. I was fresh from the widow visit, still in Class As, with my
name plate big and obvious on my right jacket pocket.
‘That’s a nice name,’ she said, automatically. I was fairly
certain she said it to everybody. Quasimodo, Hitler, Stalin, Pol
Pot, that’s a nice name. She moved her hand. Started with
the top button of my jacket and undid it all the way down.
Smoothed her fingers inside across my chest, under my tie, on
top of my shirt.
‘There’s a motel across the street,’ I said.
She nodded against my shoulder.
‘I know there is,’ she said.
‘I’m looking for whoever went over there last night with a
soldier.
‘Are you kidding?’
57
She pushed against my chest. ‘Are you here to have fun, or
ask questions?’
‘Questions,’ I said.
She stopped moving. Said nothing.
‘I’m looking for whoever went over to the motel last night,
with a soldier.’
‘Get real,’ she said. ‘We all go over to the motel with soldiers.
There’s practically a groove worn in the pavement. Look carefully,
and you can see it.’
‘I’m looking for someone who came back a little sooner than
normal, maybe.’
She said nothing.
‘Maybe she was a little spooked.’
She said nothing.
‘Maybe she met the guy there,’ I said. ‘Maybe she got a call
earlier in the day.’
She eased her butt up off my knee and pulled her dress down
as far as it would go, which wasn’t very far. Then she traced her
fingertips across my lapel badge.
‘We don’t answer questions,’ she said.
‘Why not?’
I saw her glance at the velvet curtain. Like she was looking
through it and all the way across the big square room to the
register by the door.
‘Him?’ I said. ‘I’ll make sure he isn’t a problem.’
‘He doesn’t like us to talk to cops.’
‘It’s important,’ I said. ‘The guy was an important soldier.’
‘You all think you’re important.’
‘kay of the girls here from California?’
‘Five or six, maybe.’
‘Any of them used to work Fort Irwin?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘So here’s the deal,’ I said. ‘I’m going to the bar. I’m going to
get another beer. I’m going to spend ten minutes drinking it.
You bring me the girl who had the problem last night. Or you
show me where I can find her. Tell her there’s no real problem.
Tell her nobody will get in trouble. I think you’ll find she
understands that.’
58
‘Or?’
‘Or I’ll roust everybody out of here and I’ll burn the place to
the ground. Then you can all find jobs somewhere else.’
She glanced at the velvet curtain again.
‘Don’t worry about the fat guy,’ I said. ‘Any pissing and
moaning out of him, I’ll bust his nose again.’
She just sat still. Didn’t move at all.
‘It’s important,’ I said again. ‘We fix this now, nobody gets in
trouble. We don’t, then someone winds up with a big problem.’
‘I don’t know,’ she said.
‘Spread the word,’ I said. ‘Ten minutes.’
I bumped her off my lap and watched her disappear through
the curtain. Followed her a minute later and fought my way to
the bar. I left my jacket hanging open. I thought it made me
look off-duty. I didn’t want to ruin everybody’s evening.
I spent twelve minutes drinking another overpriced domestic
beer. I watched the waitresses and the hookers work the room.
I saw the big guy with the face moving through the press
of people, looking here, looking there, checking on things. I
waited. My new blonde friend didn’t show. And I couldn’t see
her anywhere. The place was very crowded. And it was dark.