“I guess I’ll use the bathroom too,” he said.
She glanced right, halfway between the two guys.
“Wait until I’m in the car,” she said. “I don’t want to be left alone in here. I shouldn’t have come in here in the first place.”
She pushed out through the doors and he watched her to the car. She got in and he saw it shudder as she started the engine to run the air. He turned and walked back to the men’s room. It was a fair-sized space, two porcelain urinals and one toilet cubicle. A chipped sink with a cold water faucet. A fat roll of paper towels sitting on top of the machine it should have been installed in. Not the cleanest facility he had ever seen.
He unzipped and used the left-hand urinal. Heard footsteps outside the door and glanced up at the chromium valve that fed the flush pipes. It was dirty, but it was rounded and it reflected what was behind him like a tiny security mirror. He saw the door open and a man step inside. He saw the door close again and the man settle back against it. He was one of the customers. Presumably one of the pick-up drivers. The chromium valve distorted the view, but the guy’s head was nearly to the top of the door. Not a small person. And he was fiddling
blindly behind his back. Reacher heard the click of the door lock. Then the guy shifted again and hung his hands loose by his sides. He was wearing a black T-shirt. There was writing on it, but Reacher couldn’t read it backward. Some kind of an insignia. Maybe an oil company. “You new around here?” the guy asked. Reacher made no reply. Just watched the reflection. “I asked you a question,” the guy said. Reacher ignored him. “I’m talking to you,” the guy said.
“Well, that’s a big mistake,” Reacher said. “All you know, I might be a polite type of person. I might feel obligated to turn around and listen, whereupon I’d be pissing all over your shoes.”
The guy shuffled slightly, caught out. Clearly he had some kind of set speech prepared, which was what Reacher had been counting on. A little improvised interruption might slow him down some. Maybe enough to get zipped up and decent. The guy was still shuffling, deciding whether to react.
“So 1 guess it’s down to me to tell you,” he said. “Somebody’s got to.” He wasn’t reacting. No talent for repartee. “Tell me what?” Reacher asked. “How it is around here.”
Reacher paused a beat. The only problem with coffee was its diuretic effect. “And how is it around here?” he asked.
“Around here, you don’t bring beaners into decent folks’ places.” “What?” Reacher said. “What part don’t you understand?” Reacher breathed out. Maybe ten seconds to go. “I didn’t understand any of it,” he said. “You don’t bring beaners in a place like this.” “What’s a beaner?” Reacher asked.
The guy took a step forward. His reflection grew disproportionately larger. “Latinos,” he said. “Eat beans all the time.”
“Latina,” Reacher said. “With an a. Gender counts with inflected languages. And she had iced coffee. Haven’t seen her eat a bean all day.” “You some kind of a smart guy?”
Reacher finished and zipped up with a sigh. Didn’t flush. A place like that, it didn’t seem like standard practice. He just turned to the sink and operated the faucet.
“Well, I’m smarter than you,” he said. “That’s for damn sure. But then, that’s not saying much. This roll of paper towels is smarter than you. A lot smarter. Each sheet on its own is practically a genius, compared to you. They could stroll into Harvard, one by one, full scholarships for each of them, while you’re still struggling with your GED.”
It was like taunting a dinosaur. Some kind of a brontosaurus, where the brain is a very long distance from anyplace else. The sound went in, and some time later it was received and understood. Four or five seconds, until it showed in the guy’s face. Four or five seconds after that, he swung with his right. It was a ponderous slow swing with a big bunched fist on the end of a big heavy arm, aiming wide and high for Reacher’s head. It could have caused some damage, if it had landed. But it didn’t land. Reacher caught the guy’s wrist in his left palm and stopped the swing dead. A loud wet smack echoed off the bathroom tile.