“I moved the gun,” she said. “I listened to your advice. Bedside cabinet was too low. Ellie could have found it. This is too high for her.”
He nodded again and moved closer. The drawer was a couple of feet wide, maybe eighteen inches deep. It was her underwear drawer. The pistol was lying on top of her things, which were neatly folded, and silky, and insubstantial, and fragrant. The mother-of-pearl plastic on the grips looked right at home there.
“You could have told me where it was,” he said. “You didn’t need to show me.”
She was quiet for a beat.
“He’ll want sex, won’t he?” she said.
Reacher made no reply.
“He’s been locked up a year and a half,” she said. “But I’m going to refuse.”
Reacher said nothing.
“It’s a woman’s right, isn’t it?” she asked. “To say no?”
“Of course it is,” he said.
“Even though the woman is married?”
“Most places,” he said.
She was quiet for a beat.
“And it’s also her right to say yes, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Equally,” he said.
“I’d say yes to you.”
“I’m not asking.”
She paused. “So is it O.K. for me to ask you?”
He looked straight at her. “Depends on why, I guess.”
“Because I want to,” she said. “I want to go to bed with you.”
“Why?”
“Honestly?” she said. “Just because I want to.”
“And?”
She shrugged. “And I want to hurt Sloop a little, I guess, in secret. In my heart.”
He said nothing.
“Before he gets home,” she said.
He said nothing.
“And because Bobby already thinks we’re doing it,” she said. “I figure, why get the blame without getting the fun?”
He said nothing.
“I just want a little fun,” she said. “Before it all starts up again.”
He said nothing.
“No strings attached,” she said. “I’m not looking for it to change anything. About your decision, I mean. About Sloop.”
He nodded.
“It wouldn’t change anything,” he said.
She looked away.
“So what’s your answer?” she asked.
He watched her profile. Her face was blank. It was like all other possibilities were exhausted for her, and all that was left was instinct. Early in his service career, when the threat was still plausible, people talked about what they would do when the enemy missiles were airborne and incoming. This was absolutely the number-one pick, by a huge, huge margin. A universal instinct. And he could see it in her. She had heard the four-minute warning, and the sirens were sounding loud in her mind. “No,” he said.
She was quiet for a long moment. “Will you at least stay with me?” she asked.
The killing crew moved fifty miles closer to Pecos in the middle of the night. They did it secretly, some hours after booking in for a second night at their first location. It was the woman’s preferred method. Six false names, two overlapping sets of motel records, the confusion built fast enough to keep them safe.
They drove east on I-10 until they passed the I-20 interchange. They headed down toward Fort Stockton until they saw signs for the first group of motels serving the Balmorhea state recreation area. Those motels were far enough from the actual tourist attraction to make them cheap and anonymous. There wasn’t going to be a lot of cutesy decor and personal service. But they would be clean and decent. And they would be full of people exactly like themselves. That was what the woman wanted. She was a chameleon. She had an instinct for the right type of place. She chose the second establishment they came to, and sent the small dark man to pay cash for two rooms.
Reacher woke Up on Sloop Greer’s sofa with the Sunday dawn. Beyond him, the bedroom window faced east and the night insects were gone and the sky was bright. The bed sheet looked damp and tangled. Carmen wasn’t under it. He could hear the shower running in the bathroom. And he could smell coffee.
He got off the sofa and stretched. Wandered through the archway to the bedroom. He saw Carmen’s dress on the floor. He went to the window and checked the weather. No change. The sky was hazed with heat. He wandered back to the sitting area. There was a credenza in one corner, set up with a small coffee machine. There were two upturned mugs beside it, with spoons, like a hotel. The bathroom door was closed. The shower sounded loud behind it. He filled a mug with coffee and wandered into the dressing area. There were two large closets there, parallel, one on each side. Not walk-ins, just long deep alcoves screened with sliding doors made out of mirrored glass.