369
‘I can’t do it,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘I can’t bring him into that. Or
any of my people. I’m not going to lose anybody else.’
‘So just hope for the best,’ Reacher said.
‘Not my way. You’re going to have to deliver.’
‘We will if we can.’
‘How will I know? You don’t have radios. Cell phones won’t
work out there. And it’s too cumbersome to keep on using this
land line.’
Reacher paused for a second.
‘We’ve got a black Yukon,’ he said. ‘Right now it’s parked on
the road, right next to the church, to the east. If it’s still there
when you show up, then pull out and go home. Armstrong will
just have to swallow it. But if it’s gone, then we’re gone, and we
won’t be gone unless we’ve delivered, you follow?’
‘OK, understood,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘A black Yukon east of the
church, we abort. No Yukon, we land. Have you searched
the town?’
‘We can’t do a house-to-house. But it’s a very small place.
Strangers are going to stand out, believe me.’
‘Nendick came round. He’s talking a little. He says the same
as Andretti. He was approached by the two of them and took
them to be cops.’
‘They are cops. We’re definite about that. Did you get descriptions?’
‘No. He’s still thinking about his wife. Didn’t seem right to
tell him he probably didn’t need to.’
‘Poor guy.’
‘I’d like to get some closure for him. At least find her body,
maybe.’
‘I’m not planning an arrest here.’
Silence in D.C.
‘OK,’ Stuyvesant said. ‘I guess we won’t be seeing you either
way. So, good luck.’
‘You too,’ Reacher aid.
He put the receiver back in the cradle and tidied the cord into
a neat curl on the table. Looked out at the view. The window
faced north and east across an empty ocean of waist-high grass.
Then he turned away from it and saw Mr Froelich watching him
from the parlour doorway.
37O
q’hey’re coming here, aren’t they?’ the old man said. I’he
people who killed my daughter? Because Armstrong is coming
here.’
qhey might be here already,’ Reacher said.
Mr Froelich shook his head. ‘Everybody would be talking
about it.’
‘Did you see that gold truck come through?’
The old man nodded. ‘It passed me, going real slow.’
‘Who was in it?’
‘I didn’t see. The windows were dark. I didn’t like to stare.’
‘OK,’ Reacher said. ‘If you hear about anybody new in town,
come and tell me.’
The old man nodded again. ‘You’ll know as soon as I do. And
I’ll know as soon as anybody new arrives. Word travels fast
here.’
‘We’ll be in the church tower,’ Reacher said.
‘Are you here on behalf of Armstrong?’
Reacher said nothing.
‘No,’ Mr Froelich said. ‘You’re here to take an eye for an eye,
aren’t you?’
Reacher nodded. ‘And a tooth for a tooth.’
:A life for a life.’
I’wo for five, to be accurate,’ Reacher said. q’hey get the fat
end of the deal.’
‘Are you comfortable with that?’
‘Are you?’
The old guy’s watery eyes flicked all round the sunless
room and came to rest on his daughter’s eighteen-year-old
face.
‘Do you have a child?’ he asked.
‘No,’ Reacher said. ‘I don’t.’
‘Neither do I,’ the old man said. ‘Not any more. So I’m
comfortable with it.’
Reacher walked back to the Yukon and took the hiker’s map off
the back seat. Then he climbed the church tower and found
Neagley shuttling back and forth between the north and south
side.
‘All clear,’ she said, over the tick of the clock.
371
‘Stuyvesant called,’ he said. ‘o the Froelichs’ house. He’s
panicking. And Nendick woke up. Same approach as Andretti.’
He unfolded the map and spread it out flat on the bell
chamber floor. Put his finger on Grace. It was in the centre of a
rough square made by four roads. The square was maybe
eighty miles high and eighty wide. The right-hand perimeter
was made by Route 59, which ran up from Douglas in the south
through a town called Bill to a town called Wright in the north.
The top edge of the square was Route 387, which ran west from