Never Go Back

‘I need you to go see a law firm receptionist and act your way into her good books.’ Reacher told her what he wanted. She showed no curiosity as to why. He said, ‘If there’s a choice, pick a motherly type. She’ll be sympathetic. This is about a struggling mother getting some help. Tell her Ms Dayton is a friend of your aunt, and she loaned you some money when you were in college, and it got you out of a hole, and now you can repay the favour. And you want to see her again anyway. Something like that. You can write your own script. But the receptionist is not supposed to give up the location. In fact she’s prohibited from doing so. So this is your Oscar moment.’

‘Who gets hurt here?’

‘No one gets hurt. The opposite.’

‘For two thousand dollars? I never heard of that before.’

‘If she’s for real, she gets helped. If she’s not for real, I don’t get hurt. It’s all good.’

Emily said, ‘I don’t know if I want to do it.’

‘You took our money.’

‘For an hour of my time. I’m happy to stand here and talk. Or we could get in the car. I’ll get naked if you like. That’s what usually happens.’

‘How about an extra five hundred in cash? As a tip. When you get back.’

‘How about seven hundred?’

‘Six.’

Emily said, ‘And the Oscar goes to … Emily.’

She wouldn’t let them drive her. Smart girl. Words were cheap. The long preamble could have been nothing but a hot-air fantasy, ahead of her unclothed body being found dead in a ditch three days later. So they gave her the address and twenty bucks and she caught a cab instead. They watched it out of sight, and then they turned back and got in the Range Rover and waited.

Turner said, ‘Man up, Reacher. A.M. 3435 is Emal Zadran, who has a documented history of buying and selling United States ordnance in the hills of the tribal areas. Whereas Peter Lozano and Ronald Baldacci have a documented history of being part of a company tasked to get that very same United States ordnance in and out of those very same hills. Is that deafening noise I hear the sound of the pieces falling into place?’

‘He was buying and selling U.S. ordnance in the hills seven years ago.’

‘After which he fell off the radar. By getting better at it. He moved right up to the top of the tree. Now he’s the top boy and the go-to guy. He’s making a fortune for somebody. He has to be. Why else would they go to such lengths to hide him?’

‘You’re probably right.’

‘I need your serious input here. Not mindless agreement. You’re my executive officer.’

‘Is that a promotion?’

‘Just new orders.’

‘I mean it, you could be right. The informer called him a tribal elder. Which strikes me as a status-based label. Like an honorific. And a black sheep who sits around all day doing nothing productive wouldn’t be thought of as a person of status. More likely the village idiot. Certainly he wouldn’t be honoured. So old Emal is doing something for somebody. And my only objection was having a team on standby in North Carolina, when all the action is in Afghanistan. But maybe there’s a legitimate role for them. Because if what you think is true, then there’s a lot of money coming home. Wagonloads, probably. A big, physical quantity. So yes, they need a team in North Carolina. Just not to handle weapons. To handle the money.’

Romeo called Juliet and said, ‘It’s getting worse.’

Juliet said, ‘How could it?’

‘They just used Lozano’s Amex. Two thousand dollars on an entertainer. Do you know what that means?’

‘They’re bored?’

‘There’s only one kind of entertainer who carries her own card reader, and that’s a prostitute. They’re taunting us. They’d be giving it to homeless people, if homeless people had card readers on their phones. Or phones at all, I suppose.’

‘Which they don’t.’

‘And Reacher’s lawyer got Zadran’s full jacket, about an hour ago. So it’s out there now.’

‘You worry too much.’

‘It’s an obvious connection. It won’t take a genius to work it out.’

‘Or maybe you worry too soon,’ Juliet said. ‘You haven’t heard the good news yet.’

‘Is there any?’

‘Our boys just saw them drive past the lawyer’s office. In a twenty-year-old Range Rover, black. Hard to be sure, because it had dark windows, but the strong impression was there were two people inside, one large and one small.’

‘When was this?’

‘Less than an hour ago.’

‘Just once?’

‘So far. Reconnaissance, obviously.’

‘Is there much activity there?’

‘It’s a strip mall. It’s like a Fourth of July parade.’

‘Where did they go after they cruised by?’

‘They took the freeway. Probably looped around. They’re probably holed up a few blocks to the north.’

‘Anything we can do?’