She said, ‘Was it freebies from Stackley?’
He said, ‘Yes.’
‘I guess that’s really bad.’
‘I’m not loving it so far.’
‘What does Stackley have against you?’
‘His boss doesn’t like me.’
‘But you’re not here on business.’
‘I picked things up along the way.’
‘What happened up there?’
‘One KIA,’ he said. ‘Friendly fire. Hasty aim, a moving target, confusion in front of him.’
‘Let them go,’ she said. ‘Keep the rifle. It’s their only remaining weapon.’
The two guys shuffled off down their own path, and the sisters moved to meet Reacher and Bramall at the porch step, where they all sat down to talk. Sanderson had her hood pulled forward again. It was moulded into a narrow vertical aperture. It turned and lined up with Reacher’s face, and she said, ‘I apologize for them.’
‘No need,’ he said. ‘No harm, no foul. Tactical sophistication and superior skill in manoeuvring overcame an initial material deficit.’
‘When did you know?’
‘First sign was we stopped in a clearing and they got a bit weird. But I guess the guy couldn’t pull the trigger. I guess he had never done it before.’
‘I apologize for them,’ she said again. ‘They were my friends.’
‘No need,’ he said again.
‘But I can’t condemn them. You have no idea of the magnitude of what they were offered.’
‘I’m getting an idea. From cause and effect alone. I’m taking it seriously, believe me. I’m not judging it, either. It is what it is. You got to do what you got to do. Right?’
‘Yes.’
‘Right now what you got to do is go inside and get a brand new patch, because after that the next thing you got to do is make a choice.’
‘Between what?’
‘You can have a sensible conversation about what comes next.’
‘Or?’
‘I’m moving on without you.’
THIRTY-EIGHT
ROSE SANDERSON WENT inside to get a brand new patch, and as the door closed behind her Bramall’s cell phone rang. He checked the screen and said, ‘It’s Special Agent Noble, from his office in Denver.’
‘Don’t answer,’ Reacher said. ‘He’s going to ask if you found Rose. Either as a pleasantry in passing, or because he wants her for a witness. You can’t tell him where she is. Not now. You’ll feel bad holding out on him.’
‘He might have something for us.’
‘He hasn’t retired yet. He’s all take and no give. Don’t answer.’
Bramall didn’t. The call timed out and voice mail clicked in. Bramall retrieved it immediately. He listened, and he said, ‘He wants to know if we found Rose.’
Behind them the door opened again and Rose stepped out. Small, lithe, graceful. With the hem of her hood leading the way. She sat down on the step.
She turned her hood Reacher’s way.
She said, ‘Obviously it’s your own decision when to move on.’
He said, ‘I’m not looking to save the world. All I wanted was to know the story. Which I do now. Not a happy ending. I don’t want to be here when it turns even worse. I don’t want to be here while you go cold turkey in federal lock-up. With no medical supervision. Not even antiseptic cream. While your sister gets busted as some kind of an accessory, all because the Boy Detective thinks a rich white woman would balance the books on the TV news. While she goes bankrupt, fighting the bullshit charges. While Mr Bramall loses his licence and has to find a third career. I want to be gone before all that happens.’
She said, ‘You make it sound certain to happen.’
‘They have Billy in a cell. And you have a dead cowboy on your land. Someone will find him, like someone found Porterfield. Sheriff Connelly will search your place. Unless the Boy Detective has already gotten here first, thanks to Billy drawing a hand-lettered map. Unless the supply cuts off before either one of them arrives, in which case you’ll be in the ER five times a day with a toothache. One of those things is certain to happen.’
‘How long before the supply cuts off, do you think?’
The thing that mattered most.
‘That’s a circular argument,’ Reacher said. ‘If I move on without you, my first stop will be Rapid City, South Dakota. I need to pay Arthur Scorpio a visit. He lied to me about Porterfield, and he told two separate people to shoot me from behind a tree. He crossed the line. It’s not going to end well for him. He’s going in the tumble dryer. Two days for me to get there, and one day to do it. I would say the supply cuts off about three days from now.’
‘You’re forcing my hand. Either I agree to go now, or you’ll make me go anyway. It’s a unilateral three-day deadline.’
‘It’s an unintended consequence. Look at it from my point of view. Obviously I don’t want to be here when it goes from bad to worse. And obviously when I leave here I have no choice except go straight to Rapid City. What else could I do? The guy is messing with me. What would you do if you were taking rounds from a distant building?’
‘I would call in an air strike.’
‘This is my version.’
‘So I have three more days here.’
‘But only as an unintended consequence. I’m not looking to save the world.’
She didn’t reply.
Jane Mackenzie said, ‘Reacher, three days is not possible.’
‘Let’s challenge that assumption,’ he said. ‘Let’s make it possible.’
They moved inside. Bramall took a chair, and Mackenzie took the other. Sanderson said she was happy sitting cross-legged on the floor. Reacher laid out on his back, with his arm behind his head, and he stared at the ceiling, and listened. They started out by making a list of what Rose would need, which was easiest done by making a list of what she already had, which was quiet and isolated accommodations, and access to pharmaceutical-grade opioid medications in daily doses wildly in excess of what any responsible physician could even contemplate.
Mackenzie said in the long term the accommodations were no problem at all. But in the short term they didn’t exist yet. She and her husband owned no beach houses or hunting cabins. There was an original staff apartment over their stable block, but it would need new heat and a new bathroom.
Reacher said, ‘Do you have a guest suite?’
‘Two, but they’re in the house.’
‘With you and Mr Mackenzie, a nice man and a good match. Is he going to be a problem with all of this?’
‘No, he’s going to be totally on board.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Completely.’
‘OK,’ Reacher said. ‘How about Rose lives in a guest suite until further notice. Put her in the east wing, facing the lake. You’ve got a six-acre yard and I’m sure it’s a quiet leafy street. Not like living in the middle of Times Square. We need to take fast decisions here. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.’