The Midnight Line (Jack Reacher #22)

‘We’re still going inside?’

‘We were before,’ Reacher said. ‘I don’t see why we shouldn’t now. This is practically an open invitation. We have a duty as citizens.’

‘To call the sheriff, technically.’

‘It’s a grey area. The owner is dead. There are no heirs. It’s a different situation. People read whole books about this kind of thing in law school. I’m sure the sheriff doesn’t want to get in a big long discussion. Plus this could be where she called her sister. Right here. When she said, shut up, Sy, I’m on the phone. Had to be his place or hers. Either way she spent time here. So you know we’re going in.’

‘I know I am,’ Bramall said. ‘But you’re under no obligation.’

‘You looking out for me now?’

‘I feel I ought to point out the legal downside.’

‘I get it. You want me to go first. So you can say to yourself the worst thing you ever did was get all swept up. You want me to be the bad guy. Because you have scruples.’

‘Not as such. What I have is a licence from the state of Illinois. Which I would like to keep. Doesn’t matter who goes first. What matters is, it would count against me if I didn’t explicitly caution a junior partner against potential legal jeopardy.’

‘Are we partners?’

‘Effectively.’

‘Junior and senior?’

‘By age and experience.’

‘Do you have to explicitly caution me every step of the way?’

‘Technically, yes.’

‘Let’s not do that part, OK? Let’s take it as read. More fun that way.’

‘OK,’ Bramall said. ‘You want fun, you go first.’

Bramall’s contribution was to stick his arm in through the hole in the glass and wind the window open with the inside handle. Reacher’s jacket was new, and his shirt was new. He didn’t want to smear either one of them with mildew, which he would if he pushed through the slit in the screen, like the original intruder or intruders must have, a year or more ago, back when the screen was clean. So he tore it out of its frame, all the way around, and folded it in a ragged square, and dropped it on the porch.

Best way into a kitchen was face down and feet first. Because of the countertop. You stood a chance of ending the manoeuvre standing on your feet, not your hands. But it was hard to set up. It required a contortion. Worse if there was a sink under the window, with a tap. Which could get to the wrong place at the wrong time. But Porterfield’s sink was on a different wall. Which helped. A little.

Reacher felt his legs swim free, and he jack-knifed at the waist, and planted his feet, and pushed himself upright. Inside, looking out. The kitchen was a little weather-beaten, because of the hole in the glass, but it had started out expensive. That was clear. The wood was thick, and the granite was thicker. There were appliances made out of stainless steel. They all had clock screens, dark and blank. There was absolute silence. No subliminal hum, no rustle in the pipes. No power, no water. No one paying the bills. All closed up.

He moved on through the gloom, out of the kitchen, into the dining area. From where he saw the living room, all open plan, with a complicated cathedral ceiling, and a full-height rock fireplace, made out of stones the size of tractor tyres.

A trophy cabin. Authentic designs didn’t have fireplaces built with forklift trucks and hydraulic cranes. They used smaller rocks. And why make a weird ceiling, where a flat one would fit?

But it was a lived-in trophy cabin. Reacher didn’t hate it. The log walls were stained a light honey shade. The furniture looked comfortable but unobtrusive. There were weird collections on shelves. Animal skulls, interesting stones, interesting pine cones. Almost a family feel. A rich-family feel.

He walked back to the kitchen. To the broken window. Bramall was looking in at him.

Reacher said, ‘Nothing to worry about. It’s like a time capsule. Which rules out a burglary. Because nothing is out of place. The dust is a uniform thickness everywhere. There’s no mess at all. Which I guess rules out squatters too.’

‘I’m coming in,’ Bramall said.

He was stiffer in the joints than Reacher, but those joints started out much closer together, because he was smaller, so overall his manoeuvre was easier. He pushed himself upright, and looked around the same way Reacher had. Kitchen, dining area, living room.

Undisturbed.

Bramall said, ‘Not what I expected.’

‘In what way?’ Reacher said.

‘If I had a cabin it might look like this.’

‘Dope dealers don’t have taste?’

‘Not usually.’

Reacher checked the hallway.

He said, ‘There are bedrooms at both ends.’

Bramall said, ‘If it wasn’t burglars or squatters, who broke the window?’

‘Not the sheriff,’ Reacher said. ‘But like the sheriff. A pro with a reason to search.’

‘But where’s the mess? Pro searchers tear a place apart.’

‘Maybe they found what they wanted the first place they looked. Maybe that’s what it means to be a pro. Or maybe they knew where it was all along. Maybe they came to get something back.’

‘Get what back?’

‘I don’t care,’ Reacher said. ‘All I want to do is find Sanderson.’

‘You think she was here. Back when she was dating a dope dealer worth getting gut-shot or stabbed in the stomach.’

‘You’re her older brother now?’

‘I doubt the relationship would have happened. She would have done better for herself.’

‘She said, shut up, Sy, I’m on the phone. Even the uptight twin called it friendly and comfortable and happy. Best case, they were real good friends.’

‘Even worse,’ Bramall said. ‘You choose your friends.’

‘Either way, they spent time together. Here, and her place. Wherever that is.’

‘A year and a half ago.’

‘Better than nothing.’

‘If your Sy is the right Sy.’

‘Fifty-fifty right or wrong. Not bad odds.’

Bramall took out his phone.

‘Two bars,’ he said. ‘She could have called from here.’

‘What did the cell records say?’

‘You need three masts to triangulate. There’s only one here. Omnidirectional. She was calling from somewhere inside a giant circular area about the size of New Jersey. That’s all we know.’

‘Could have been here. No reason why not.’

Bramall moved to the centre of the living room. He said, ‘It was a year and a half ago and this place has been searched twice since then. And if you’re right about someone getting something back, then the most important thing we could have found is already gone. So this is about looking for what two other parties missed. Which is slow work. How long have we got?’

‘Out here, about a hundred years, I would think,’ Reacher said. ‘Pull your car around the back, and we could move in and live here for ever. No one would ever know.’

‘OK, we’ll search together. No look-out. Two heads are better than one.’

They found the first missed item in less than a minute.





NINETEEN