going. The tray under his feet ran red and then pink and then
clear. He washed his hair twice and shaved carefully. Dressed
in another of Joe’s shirts and another of his suits and chose the
regimental tie that Froelich had bought, as a tribute. Then he
went back out to the lobby.
Neagley was waiting for him there. She had changed, too.
She was wearing a black suit. It was the old army way. If in
doubt, go formal. She had a cup of coffee ready for him. She was
talking to the U.S. Marshals. They were a new crew. The day
shift, he guessed.
‘Stuyvesant’s coming back,’ she told him. Fhen we go meet
with Bannon.’
He nodded. The marshals were quiet around him. Almost respectful. Towards him or because of Froelich, he didn’t
know.
Fough break,’ one of them said.
Reacher looked away. ‘I guess it was,’ he replied. Then he
looked back. ‘But hey, shit happens,’ he said.
277
Neagley smiled, briefly. It was the old army way. If in doubt,
be flippant.
Stuyvesant showed up an hour later and drove them to the
Hoover Building. The balance of power had changed. Killing
federal agents was a federal crime, so now the FBI was firmly
in charge. Now it was a straightforward manhunt. Bannon
met them in the main lobby and took them up in an elevator to
their conference room. It was better than Treasury’s. It was
panelled in wood and had windows. There was a long table with
clusters of glasses and bottles of mineral water. Bannon was
conspicuously democratic and avoided the head of the table. He
just dumped himself down in one of the side chairs. Neagley put
herself on the same side, two places away. Reacher sat down
opposite her. Stuyvesant chose a place three away from Reacher
and poured himself a glass of water.
‘Quite a day,’ Bannon said in the silence. ‘My agency extends
its deepest sympathies to your agency.’
‘You haven’t found them,’ Stuyvesant said.
‘We got a heads up from the medical examiner,’ Bannon said.
‘Crosetti was shot through the head with a NATO 7.62 round.
Died instantly. Froelich was shot through the throat from
behind, same gun, probably. The bullet clipped her carotid
artery. But I guess you already know that.’
‘You haven’t found them,’ Stuyvesant said again.
Bannon shook his head. ‘Thanksgiving Day,’ he said. ‘Pluses
and minuses. Main minus was that we were short of personnel
because of the holiday, and so were you, and so were the Metro
cops, and so was everybody else. Main plus was that the
city itself was very quiet. On balance it was quieter than we
were shorthanded. The way it turned out we were the majority
population all over town five minutes after it happened.’
‘But you didn’t find them.’
Bannon shook his head again. ‘No,’ he said. ‘We didn’t find
them. We’re still looking, of course, but being realistic we
would have to say they’re out of the District by now.’
‘Outstanding,’ Stuyvesant said.
Bannon made a face. ‘We’re not turning cartwheels. But
there’s nothing to be gained by yelling at us. Because we could
278
yell right back. Somebody got through the screen you deployed.
Somebody decoyed your guy off the roof.’ He looked directly at
Stuyvesant as he said it.
‘We paid for it,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘Big time.’
‘How did it happen?’ Neagley asked. ‘How did they get up
there at all?’
‘Not through the front,’ Bannon said. Fhere was a shifload
of cops watching the front. They saw nothing, and they can’t
all have fallen asleep at the critical time. Not down the back
alley either. There was a cop on foot and a cop in a car
watching, both ends. Those four all say they saw nobody
either, and we believe all four of them. So we think the bad
guys got into a building a block over. Walked through the
building and out a rear door into the alley halfway down. Then
they skipped ten feet across the alley and got in the back of the
warehouse and walked up the stairs. No doubt they exited
the same way. But they were probably running, on the way