skipped over it and started in on Brook’s education. It began
like everybody else’s in kindergarten. There were endless
details. Too many to pay close attention to, so he leafed ahead
and skimmed. Armstrong went all the way through the local
school system. He was good at sports. He got excellent grades.
The father had a stroke and died just after Armstrong left
home for college. The lumber business was sold. The pharmacy
continued to prosper. Armstrong himself spent seven years in
two different universities, first Cornell in upstate New York and
then Stanford in California. He had long hair but no proven
drug use. He met a Bismarck girl at Stanford. They were both
political science postgraduates. They got married. They made
their home in North Dakota and he started his political career
with a campaign for a seat in the State legislature.
‘I need to get home,’ Swain said. ‘It’s Thanksgiving and I’ve
got kids and my wife is going to kill me.’
Reacher looked ahead at the rest of the file. Armstrong was
just starting in on his first minor election and there were six
more inches of paperwork to go. He -fanned through it with his
thumb.
‘Nothing here to worry us?’ he asked.
‘Nothing anywhere,’ Swain said.
‘Does this level of detail continue throughout?’
‘It gets worse.’
‘Am I going to find anything if I read all night?’
‘No.’
‘Was all of it used in this summer’s campaign?’
Swain nodded. ‘Sure. It’s a great bio. That’s why he was
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picked in the first place. Actually we got a lot of the detail from the campaign.’
‘And you’re sure nobody in particular was upset by the
campaign?’
‘I’m sure.’
‘So where exactly does your feeling come from? Who hates
Armstrong that bad and why?’
‘I don’t know exactly,’ Swain said. ‘It’s just a feeling.’
Reacher nodded. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Go home.’
Swain picked up his coat and left in a hurry and Reacher
sampled his way through the remaining years. Neagley leafed
through the endless source material. They both gave it up after
an hour.
‘Conclusions?’ Neagley asked.
‘Swain has got a very boring job,’ Reacher said.
She smiled. ‘Agreed,’ she said.
‘But something kind of jumps out at me. Something that’s
not here, rather than something that is here. Campaigns are
cynical, right? These people will use any old thing that puts
them in a good light. So for instance, we’ve got his mother.
We’ve got endless detail about her college degrees and her
pharmacy thing. Why?’
Fo appeal to independent women and, small business people.’
‘OK, and then we’ve got stuff about her getting sick. Why?’
‘So Armstrong looks like a caring son. Very dutiful and full of
family values. It humanizes him. And it authenticates his issues
about health care.’
‘And we’ve got plenty of stuff about his dad’s lumber
company.’
‘For the business lobby again. And it touches on environmental
concerns. You know, trees and logging and all that kind
of thing. Armstrong can say he’s got practical knowledge. He’s
walked the walk, at one remove.’
‘Exactly,’ Reacher said. ‘Whatever the issue, whatever the
constituency, they find a bone to throw.’
‘So?’
qhey took a pass on military service. And usually they love
all that stuff, in a campaign. Normally if your dad was in the
army, you’d shout it from the rooftops to wrap up another whole
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bunch of issues. But there’s no detail at all. He joined, he got discharged. That’s all we know. See what I mean? We’re
drowning in detail everywhere else, but not there. It stands out.’
l’he father died ages ago.’
‘Doesn’t matter. They’d have been all over it if there was
something to be gained. And what was the medical discharge
for? If it had been a wound they’d have made something out
of it, for sure. Even a training accident. The guy would have
been a big hero. And you know what? I don’t like to see unexplained
medical discharges. You know how it was. It makes
you wonder, doesn’t it?’
‘I guess it does. But it can’t be connected. It happened before
Armstrong was even born. Then the guy died nearly thirty