Child, Lee – Without Fail

but clear and expected to stay that way. Reacher glanced at his

watch again. Nine twenty-seven.

‘OK,’ he said.

‘Remember, talk as long as you can,’ Stuyvesant said.

They can’t explain you. They don’t know who you are. They’re worried about that.’

‘Is the Thanksgiving thing on the web site?’ Reacher asked.

‘Yes,’ Froelich said.

‘Specific location?’

‘Yes,’ she said again.

Nine twenty-eight.

‘What else is upcoming?’ Reacher asked.

‘Wall Street again in ten days,’ Froelich said. hat’s all.’

‘What about this weekend?’

‘Back to North Dakota with his wife. Late tomorrow afternoon.’

222

‘Is that on the web site?’

Froelich shook her head. ‘No, that’s completely private,’ she

said. ‘We haven’t announced it anywhere.’

Nine twenty-nine.

‘OK,’ Reacher said again.

Then the phone rang, very loud in the silence.

‘A little early,’ Reacher said. ‘Somebody’s anxious.’

Falk as long as you can,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘Use their curiosity

against them. Keep it going.’

Reacher picked up the phone. ‘Hello,’ he said.

‘You won’t get that lucky again,’ a voice said.

Reacher ignored it and listened hard to the background

sounds.

‘Hey,’ the voice said. ‘I want to talk to you.’

‘But I don’t want to talk to you, asshole,’ Reacher said, and

put the phone down.

Stuyvesant and Froelich just stared at him.

‘Hell are you doing?’ Stuyvesant asked.

‘I wasn’t feeling very talkative,’ Reacher said.

‘I told you to talk as long as you could.’

Reacher shrugged. ‘You wanted it done different, you should

have done it yourself. You could have pretended to be me.

Talked to your heart’s content.’

‘hat was deliberate sabotage.’

‘No, it wasn’t. It was a move in a game.’

Fhis isn’t a damn game.’ Fhat’s exactly what it is.’

‘We needed information.’

‘Get real,’ Reacher said. ‘You were never going to get information.’

Stuyvesant was silent.

‘I want a cup of coffee,’ Reacher said. ‘You dragged us out of

the restaurant before we were finished.’

‘We’re staying here,’ Stuyvesant said. Fhey might call

back.’

Fhey won’t,’ Reacher said.

They waited five minutes at the reception counter and then

gave it up and took plastic cups of coffee with them to the

223

conference room. Neagley was keeping herself to herself.

Froelich was very quiet. Stuyvesant was very angry.

‘Explain,’ he said.

Reacher sat down alone at one end of the table. Neagley

occupied neutral territory halfway down one side. Froelich and

Stuyvesant sat together at the far end.

I’hese guys use faucet water to seal their envelopes,’ Reacher

said.

‘So?’ Stuyvesant said.

‘So there’s not one chance in a million they’re going to make

a traceable call to the main office of the United States Secret

Service, for God’s sake. They would have cut the call short. I

didn’t want to let them have the satisfaction. They need to know

if they’re tangling with me, then I take the upper hand, not

them.’

‘You blew it because you think you’re in a pissing contest?’

‘I didn’t blow anything,’ Reacher said. ‘We got all the informa

tion we were ever going to get.’

‘We got absolutely nothing.’

‘No, you got a voice print. The guy said thirteen words. All

the vowel sounds, most of the consonants. You got the sibilant

characteristics, and some of the fricatives.’

‘We needed to know where they were, .you idiot.’

qhey were at a pay phone with caller ID blocked. Somewhere

in the Midwest. Think about it, Stuyvesant. They were in

Bismarck today with heavy weapons. Therefore they’re driving.

They’re on a four-hundred-mile radius by now. They’re somewhere

in one of about six huge states, in a bar or a country

store, using the pay phone. And anybody smart enough to use

faucet water to seal an envelope knows exactly how short to

keep a phone call to make it untraceable.’

‘You don’t know they’re driving.’

‘No,’ Reacher said. ‘You’re quite right. I don’t know for sure.

There is a slight possibility that they were frustrated about

today’s outcome. Annoyed, even. And they know from the web

site that there’s another chance tomorrow, right here. And then

nothing much for a spell. So it’s’ possible they ditched their

weapons and aimed to fly in tonight. In which case they might

be at O’Hare right now, waiting for a connection. It might have

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