‘His name is Andretti,’ Bannon said. ‘Age seventy-three,
307
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retired carpenter, retired volunteer firefighter. He’s got grand
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daughters. That’s where the pressure came from.’
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‘Is he talking?’ Neagley asked.
‘,00’
‘Some,’ Bannon said. ‘Sounds like he’s made of slightly
ul0,01
sterner stuff than Nendick.’
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‘So how did it go down?’
p H’
‘He frequents a cop bar outside of Sacramento, from his
“idit0it
firefighfing days. He met two guys in there.’
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‘Were they cops?’ Reacher asked.
i[.q03′
‘Cop-like,’ Bannon said. [‘hat was his description. They got to
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talking, they got to showing each other pictures of the family.
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They got to talking about what a rotten world it is, and what
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they would do to protect their families from it. It was gradual,
‘.bied
he said.’
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‘And?’
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‘He clammed up on us for a spell, but then our doctor took a
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look at his hand. The left thumb has been surgically removed.
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Well, not really surgically. Somewhere between severed and
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hacked off, our guy said. But there was an attempt at neatness.
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Andretti stuck to his carpentry story. Our doctor said, no way
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was that a saw. Like, no way. Andretti seemed pleased to be
“bibl0
contradicted, and he talked some more.’
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‘And?’
eovil oH’
‘He lives alone. Widower. The two cop-like guys had wormed
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an invitation home with him. They were asking him, what would
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you do to protect your family? Like, what would you do? How far
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would you go? It was all rhetorical at first, and then it got
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practical fast. They told him he would have to give up his thumb
nsid0
or his granddaughters. His choice. They held him down and did
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it. They took his photographs and his address book. Told him
t tlw0u
now they knew what his granddaughters looked like and where
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they lived. Told him they’d take out their ovaries the same
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way they’d taken off his thumb. And he was ready to believe
,ivY0 ,0d
them, obviously. He woald be, right? They’d just done it to him.
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They stole a cooler from the kitchen and some ice from the
, “i0l0h]
refrigerator to transport the thumb. They left and he made it to
‘[riqs00rl
the hospital.’
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Silence in the room.
iqis0O’
‘Descriptions?’ Stuyvesant asked.
308
Bannon shook his head. Foo scared,’ he said. ‘My guys
talked about Witness Protection for the whole family, but he’s
not going to bite. My guess is we’ve got all we’re going to get.’
‘Forensics in the house?’
‘Andretti cleaned it thoroughly. They made him. They
watched him do it.’
‘What about the bar? Anybody see them talking?’
‘We’ll ask. But this was nearly six weeks ago. Don’t hold your
breath.’
Nobody spoke for a long time.
‘Reacher?’ Neagley said.
‘What?’
‘What are you thinking?’
He shrugged.
‘I’m thinking about Dostoevsky,’ he said. ‘I just found a copy
of Crime and Punishment that I sent Joe for a birthday present. I
remember I almost sent him The Brothers Karamazov instead,
but I decided against it. You ever read that book?’
Neagley shook her head.
‘Part of it is about what the Turks did in Bulgaria,’ he said.
‘There was all kinds of rape and pillage going on. They hanged
prisoners in the mornings after making them spend their last
night nailed to a fence by their ears. They threw babies in the
air and caught them on bayonets. They said the best part was
doing it in front of the mothers. Ivan Karamazov was seriously
disillusioned by it all. He said no animal could ever be so cruel as
a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel. Then I was thinking
about these guys making Andretti clean his house while they
watched. I guess he had to do it one-handed. He probably
struggled with it. Dostoevsky put his feelings in a book. I don’t
have his talent. So now I’m thinking I’m going to find these
guys and impress on them the error of their ways in whatever