as I get hard copies of those clearances. They should be here in
an hour or two.’
‘You can do this?’ Neagley said.
‘I can do what I want,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘Presidents tend to
give a lot of authority to the people they hope will keep them
alive.’
Silence in the room.
‘Will I be a suspect?’ Stuyvesant asked.
‘No,’ Reacher said.
‘Maybe I should be. Maybe I should be your number-one
suspect. Perhaps I felt forced to promote a woman because of
contemporary pressures to do so, but I secretly resent it, so I’m
working behind her back to panic her and thereby discredit
her.’
Reacher said nothing.
‘I could have found a friend or a relative who had never been
92
fingerprinted. I could have placed the paper on my desk at
seven thirty Wednesday evening and instructed my secretary not to notice it. She’d have followed my orders. Or I could
have instructed the cleaners to smuggle it in that night.
They’d have followed my orders, too. But they’d have followed
Froelich’s orders equally. She should be your number-two
suspect, probably. Maybe she has a friend or a relative with
no prints on file either, and maybe she’s setting this whole
thing up in order to deal with it spectacularly and earn some
enhanced credibility.’
‘Except I’m not setting it up,’ Froelich said.
‘Neither of you is a suspect,’ Reacher said.
‘Why not?’ Stuyvesant asked.
‘Because Froelich came to me voluntarily, and she knew
something about me from my brother. You hired us directly
after seeing our military records. Neither of you would have
done those things if you had something to hide. Too much
risk.’
‘Maybe we think we’re smarter than you are. An internal
investigation that missed us would be the best cover there is.’
Reacher shook his head. ‘Neither of you is that dumb.’
‘Good,’ Stuyvesant replied. He looked satisfied. ‘So let’s agree
it’s a jealous rival elsewhere in the department. Let’s assume he
conspired with the cleaners.’
‘Or she,’ Froelich said.
‘Where are the cleaners now?’, Reacher asked.
‘Suspended,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘At home, on full pay. They live
together. One of the women is the man’s wife and the other
woman is his sister-in-law. The other crew is working overtime
to make up, and costing me a fortune.’
‘What’s their story?’
hey know nothing about anything. They didn’t bring in any
sheet of paper, they never saw it, it wasn’t there when they
were there.’
‘But you don’t believe them.’
Stuyvesant was quiet for a long moment. He fiddled with his
shirt cuffs and then laid his hands flat on the table again.
i’hey’re trusted employees,’ he said. q’hey’re very nervous
about being under suspicion. Very upset. Frightened, even. But
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they’re also calm. Like we won’t be able to prove anything,
because they didn’t do anything. They’re a little puzzled. They
passed a lie-detector test. All three of them.’
‘So you do believe them.’
Stuyvesant shook his head. ‘I can’t believe them. How can I?
You saw the tapes. Who else put the damn thing there? A
ghost?’
‘So what’s your opinion?’
‘I think somebody they knew inside the building asked them
to do it, and explained it away as a routine test procedure, like
a war game or a secret mission, said there was no harm in
it, and coached them through what would happen afterwards
in terms of the video and the questioning and the lie-detector.
I think that might give a person enough composure to pass
the polygraph. If they were convinced they weren’t in the wrong
and there would be no adverse consequences. If they were
convinced they were really helping the department somehow.’
‘Have you pursued that with them yet?’
Stuyvesant shook his head. q’hat’ll be your job,’ he said. ‘I’m
not good at interrogation.’
He left as suddenly as he had arrived. Just upped and walked
out of the room. The door swung shut behind him and left
Reacher and Neagley and Froelich sitting together at the table
in the bright light and the silence.
‘You won’t be popular,’ Froelich said. ‘Internal investigators
never are.’
‘I’m not interested in being popular,’ Reacher said.
‘I’ve already got a job,’ Neagley said.