not a genteel inside game.’
‘So?’ Neagley asked again.
‘And what happened in Minnesota and Colorado shows us
these guys are prepared to do just about anything at all.’
‘So?’
he cleaners. What do we know about them?’
hat they’re involved. That they’re scared. That they’re not
saying anything.’
‘Correct,’ Reacher said. ‘But why are they scared? Why aren’t
they saying anything? Way back we thought they might be
playing some cute game with an insider. But they’re not doing
that. Because these guys aren’t insiders. And they’re not cute
people. And this isn’t a game.’
‘So?’
‘So they’re being coerced in some serious way. They’re being
scared and silenced. By some serious people.’
174
‘OK, how?’
‘You tell me. How do you scare somebody without leaving a
mark on them?’
‘You threaten something plausible. Serious harm in the
future, maybe.’
Reacher nodded. ‘To them, or to somebody they care about.
To the point where they’re paralysed with terror.’
‘OK.’
‘Where have you heard the word cousins before?’
‘All over the place. I’ve got cousins.’
‘No, recently.’
Neagley glanced at the window. ‘The cleaners,’ she said.
‘Their kids are with cousins. They told us.’
‘But they were a little hesitant about telling us, remember?’
‘Were they?’
Reacher nodded. ‘They paused a second and looked at each
other first.’
‘So?’
‘Maybe their kids aren’t with cousins.’
‘Why would they lie?’
Reacher looked at her. ‘Is there a better way to coerce
somebody than taking their kids away as insurance?’
They moved fast, but Stuyvesant made sure they moved properly.
He called the cleaners’ lawyers and told them he needed
the answer to just one question the name and address of the
children’s babysitters. He told them a quick answer would be much better than a delay. He got the quick answer. The lawyers
called back within a quarter of an hour. The name was Gfilvez
and the address was a house a mile from the cleaners’ own.
Then Froelich motioned for quiet and got on the radio net
and asked for a complete situation update from the hotel. She
spoke to her acting on-site leader and four other key positions.
There were no problems. Everything was calm. Armstrong was
working the room. Perimeters were tight. She instructed that
all agents should accompany Armstrong through the loading
bay at the function’s conclusion. She asked for a human wall, all
the way to the limo.
‘And make it soon,’ she said. ‘Compress the exposure.’
175
Then they squeezed into the single elevator and rode down to
the garage. Climbed into Froelich’s Suburban for the drive
Reacher had slept through first time around. This time he
stayed awake as Froelich raced through traffic to the cheap part
of town. They passed right by the cleaners’ house. Threaded
another mile through dark streets made narrow by parked cars
and came to a stop outside a tall thin two-family house. It was
ringed by a wire fence and had trash cans chained to the
gatepost. It was boxed in on one side by a package store and on
the other by a long line of identical houses. There was a
sagging twenty-year-old Cadillac parked at the kerb. Yellow
,
sodium lighting was cutting through the fog.
‘So what do we do?’ Stuyvesant said.
Reacher looked through the window. ‘We go talk with these
people. But we don’t want a mob scene. They’re scared already.
We don’t want to panic them. They might think the bad guys
are back. So Neagley should go first.’
Stuyvesant was about to offer an objection but Neagley
slid straight out of the car and headed for the gate. Reacher
watched her turn a fast circle on the sidewalk before going in,
to read the surroundings. Watched her glance left and right as
she walked up the path. Nobody was around. Too cold. She
reached the door. Searched for a bell. Couldn’t find one, so she
rapped on the wood with her knuckles.
There was a one-minute wait and then the door opened and
was stopped short by a chain. A bar of warm light flooded out.
There was a one-minute conversation. The door eased forward
to release the chain. The bar of light narrowed and widened