But he also recalled a day nine months after that. Realizing he was running out of money, thinking hard. The cheapest motels still required some small amount of dollars. The cheapest diners, likewise. He had taken the job in the Keys, intending to work a couple of weeks. Then he had taken the evening job, too, and he was still working both of them when Costello came calling three whole months later. So the reality was that drifting was already over. He was already a working man. No point in denying it. Now it was just a question of where and how much and for who. He smiled. Like prostitution, he thought. No going back. He relaxed a little and pushed off the bulkhead and padded back through to first class. The guy with the striped shirt and the arms the same length as Victor Hobie’s was awake and watching him. He nodded a greeting. Reacher nodded back and headed for the
bathroom. Jodie was awake when he got back to his seat. She was sitting up straight, combing her hair with her fingers.
‘Hi, Reacher,’ she said.
‘Hey, Jodie,’ he said back.
He bent and kissed her on the lips. Stepped over her feet and sat down.
‘Feel OK?’ he asked.
She ducked her head in a figure eight to put her hair behind her shoulders.
‘Not bad. Not bad at all. Better than I thought I would. Where did you go?’
‘I took a walk,’ he said. ‘I went back to see how the other half lives.’
‘No, you were thinking. I noticed that about you fifteen years ago. You always go walking when you have something to think about.’
‘I do?’ he said, surprised. ‘I didn’t know that.’
‘Of course you do,’ she said. ‘I noticed it. I used to watch every detail about you. I was in love with you, remember?’
‘What else do I do?’
‘You clench your left hand when you’re angry or tense. You keep your right hand loose, probably from weapons training. When you’re bored, you play music in your head. I could see it in your fingers, like you’re playing along on a piano or something. The tip of your nose moves a little bit when you talk.’
‘It does?’
‘Sure it does,’ she said. ‘What were you thinking about?’
He shrugged.
‘This and that,’ he said.
‘The house, right?’ she said. ‘It’s bothering you,
isn’t it? And me. Me and the house, tying you down, like that guy in the book, Gulliver? You know that book?’
He smiled. ‘He’s a guy gets captured by tiny little people when he’s asleep. They peg him down flat with hundreds of tiny little ropes.’
‘You feel that way?’
He paused a beat. ‘Not about you.’
But the pause had been a fraction of a second too long. She nodded.
‘It’s different than being alone, right?’ she said. ‘I know, I was married. Somebody else to take into account all the time? Somebody to worry about?’
He smiled. ‘I’ll get used to it.’
She smiled back. ‘And there’s the house, right?’
He shrugged. ‘Feels weird.’
‘Well, that’s between you and Leon,’ she said. ‘I want you to know I’m not putting demands on you, either way. About anything. It’s your life, and your house. You should do exactly what you want, no pressure.’
He nodded. Said nothing.
‘So you going to look for Hobie?’
He shrugged again. ‘Maybe. But it’s a hell of a task.’
‘Bound to be angles,’ she said. ‘Medical records and things? He must have a prosthesis. And if he’s burned, too, there’ll be records of that. And you wouldn’t miss him in the street, would you? A one-armed man, all burned up?’
He nodded. ‘Or I could just wait for him to find me. I could just hang out in Garrison until he sends his boys back.’
Then he turned to the window and stared out at his pale reflection against the darkness and realized I’m
just accepting he’s alive. I’m just accepting I was wrong. He turned back to Jodie.
‘Will you give me the mobile? Can you manage without it today? In case Nash finds something and calls me? I want to hear right away, if he does.’