Echo burning. A Jack Reacher Novel. Lee Child

“He Split my lip and loosened my teeth,” Carmen Greer said.

Reacher watched her face.

“That was the first time,” she said. “He just lost it. But straight away he was full of remorse. He drove me to the emergency room himself. It’s a long, long drive from the house, hours and hours, and the whole way he was begging me to forgive him. Then he was begging me not to tell the truth about what had happened. He seemed really ashamed, so I agreed. But I never had to say anything anyway, because as soon as we arrived I started into labor and they took me straight upstairs to the delivery unit. Ellie was born the next day.”

“And then what?”

“And then it was O.K.,” she said. “For a week, at least. Then he started hitting me again. I was doing everything wrong. I was paying too much attention to the baby, I didn’t want sex because I was hurting from the stitches. He said I had gotten fat and ugly from the pregnancy.”

Reacher said nothing.

“He got me believing it,” she said. “For a long, long time. That happens, you know. You’ve got to be very self-confident to resist it. And I wasn’t, in that situation. He took away all my self-esteem. Two or three years, I thought it was my fault, and I tried to do better.”

“What did the family do?”

She pushed her glass away. Left the iced coffee half-finished.

“They didn’t know about it,” she said. “And then his father died, which made it worse. He was the only reasonable one. He was O.K. But now it’s just his mother and his brother. He’s awful, and she’s a witch. And they still don’t know. It happens in secret. It’s a big house. It’s like a compound, really. We’re not all on top of each other. And it’s all very complicated. He’s way too stubborn and

proud to ever agree with them he’s made a mistake. So the more they’re down on me, the more he pretends he loves me. He misleads them. He buys me things. He bought me this ring.”

She held up her right hand, bent delicately at the wrist, showing off the platinum band with the big diamond. It looked like a hell of a thing. Reacher had never bought a diamond ring. He had no idea what they cost. A lot, he guessed.

“He bought me horses,” she said. “They knew I wanted horses, and he bought them for me, so he could look good in front of them. But really to explain away the bruises. It was his stroke of genius. A permanent excuse. He makes me say I’ve fallen off. They know I’m still just learning to ride. And that explains a lot in rodeo country, bruises and broken bones. They take it for granted.”

“He’s broken your bones?”

She nodded, and started touching parts of her body, twisting and turning in the confines of the tight booth, silently recounting her injuries, hesitating slightly now and then like she couldn’t recall them all.

“My ribs, first of all, I guess,” she said. “He kicks me when I’m on the floor. He does that a lot, when he’s mad. My left arm, by twisting it. My collarbone. My jaw. I’ve had three teeth reimplanted.”

He stared at her.

She shrugged. “The emergency room people think I’m the worst rider in the history of the West.”

“They believe it?”

“Maybe they just choose to.”

“And his mother and brother?”

“Likewise,” she said. “Obviously I’m not going to get the benefit of the doubt.”

“Why the hell did you stick around? Why didn’t you just get out, the very first time?”

She sighed, and she closed her eyes, and she turned her head away. Spread her hands on the table, palms down, and then turned them over, palms up.

I can’t explain it,” she whispered. “Nobody can ever explain it. You have to know what it’s like. I had no confidence in myself. I had a newborn baby and no money. Not a dime. I had no friends. I was watched all the time. I couldn’t even make a call in private.”

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