‘You’re very like him,’ she said.
146
‘I know,’ he said.
‘Do you understand what I mean?’
He nodded. ‘What you saw in him you see in me, a little bit.’
‘But are you like him?’
He knew exactly what she was asking. Did you see things the
same? Did you share tastes? Were you attracted to the same
women?
‘Like I told you,’ he said. q’here are similarities. And there
are differences.’
q’hat’s no answer.’
‘He’s dead,’ Reacher said. q’hat’s an answer.’
‘And if he wasn’t?’
l’hen a lot of things would be different.’
‘Suppose I’d never known him. Suppose I’d gotten your name
some other way.’
qhen I might not be here at all.’
‘Suppose you were anyway.’
He looked at her. Took a deep breath, and held it, and let it
out.
q’hen I doubt if we’d be standing here talking about dinner,’
he said.
‘Maybe you wouldn’t be a substitute,’ she said. ‘Maybe you’d
be the real thing and Joe was the substitute.’
He said nothing.
Fhis is too weird,’ she said. ‘We can’t do this.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘We can’t.’
‘It was a long time ago,’ she said. ‘Six years.’
‘Is Armstrong OK?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He’s OK.’
Reacher said nothing.
‘We broke up, remember,’ she said. ‘A year before he died.
It’s not like I’m his tragic widow or something.’
Reacher said nothing.
‘And it’s not like you’re really his grieving brother either,’ she
said. ‘You hardly knew him.’
‘Mad at me about that?’
She nodded. ‘He was a lonely man. He needed somebody. So
I’m a little mad about it.’
‘Not half as much as I am.’
147
She said nothing in reply. Just moved her wrist and checked
her watch. It was a strange gesture, so he checked his, too. The
second hand hit nine thirty exactly. Her cell phone rang inside
her open purse out in the hallway. It was loud in the silence.
‘My people checking in,’ she said. ‘From Armstrong’s house.’
She stepped back to the hallway and bent down and answered
the call. Hung up without comment.
‘All quiet,’ she said. ‘I told them to call every hour.’
He nodded. She looked anywhere but straight at him. The
moment was gone.
‘Chinese again?’ she asked.
‘Suits me,’ he said. ‘Same order.’
She called it in from the kitchen phone and disappeared
upstairs to take a shower. He waited in the living room and took
the food from the delivery guy when he eventually showed up
with it. She came down again and they ate across from each
other at the kitchen table. She brewed coffee and they drank
two cups each, slowly, not talking. Her cell phone rang again at
exactly ten thirty. She had it next to her at the table and
answered it immediately. Just a short message.
‘All quiet,’ she said. ‘So far so good.’
‘Stop worrying,’ he said. ‘It would take an air strike to get him
in his house.’
She smiled suddenly. ‘Remember Harry Truman?’
‘My favourite president,’ Reacher said. ‘From what I know
about him.’
‘Ours, too,’ she said. ‘From what we know about him. One
time around 1950 the White House residence was being
renovated and he was living in Blair House across Pennsylvania
Avenue. Two men came to kill him. One was taken out by the
cops on the street, but the other made it to the door. Our people
had to pull Truman off the assassin. He said he was going to
take his gun away and stick it up his ass.’
rruman was like that.’
‘You bet he was. You should hear some of the old stories.’
‘Would Armstrong be like that?’
‘Maybe. Depends how the moment struck him, I guess. He’s
pretty gentle physically, but he’s not a coward. And I’ve seen
him very angry.’
148
‘And he looks tough enough.’
Froelich nodded. Checked her watch. ‘We should get back to
the office now. See if anything’s happened anywhere else. You
call Neagley while I clear up here. Tell her to be ready to roll in
twenty minutes.’
They were back in the office before eleven fifteen. The message
logs were blank. Nothing of significance from the D.C. police