One Shot (17 page)

But not today, Reacher thought. Not here. The big guy
went down. He fell on his knees and pitched forward on
his face.

Then it got real easy.

The next two guys came in together shoulder to
shoulder and Reacher dropped the first with a head butt
and the second with an elbow to the jaw. They both
went straight down and lay still. Then it was over,
because the last two guys ran. The last two guys always
do. The girl called Sandy ran after them. Not fast. The
tight Spandex and the high-heeled boots impeded her.

But Reacher let her go. He turned back and kicked her
three downed brothers onto their sides.

Checked they were still breathing. Checked their hip
pockets. Found their wallets. Checked their licences.

Then he dropped them and straightened up and turned
round because he heard a car pull up behind him at the
kerb.

It was a taxi. It was a taxi with Helen Rodin getting out
of it.

She threw a bill at the driver and he took off fast,
gazing straight ahead, deliberately not looking left or
right. Helen Rodin stood still on the sidewalk and
stared. Reacher was ten feet away from her, with three
neon shadows and three inert forms on the ground
behind him.

'What the hell is going on?' she asked.

'You tell me,' he said. 'You live here. You know these
damn people.' "What does that mean? What the hell
happened?'

'Let's walk,' he said.

They walked south, fast, and turned a corner and went
east. Then south again.

Then they slowed a little. You've got blood on your
shirt,' Helen Rodin said.

'But not mine,' Reacher said.

'What happened back there?'

'I was in the bar watching the game. Minding my own
business. Then some underage red-haired bimbo
started coming on to me. I wasn't playing and she got it
to where she found a reason to slap me. Then five guys
jumped up. She said they were her brothers. We took it
outside.' 'Five guys?'

'Two ran away.'

'After you beat up the first three?'

'I defended myself. That's all. Minimum force.'

'She slapped you?'

'Right in the face.'

"What had you said to her?'

'Doesn't matter what I said to her. It was a set-up. So
I'm asking you, is that how people get their kicks around
here? Picking on strangers in bars?'

'I need a drink,' Helen Rodin said. 'I came to meet you
for a drink.' Reacher stopped walking. 'So let's go back
there.'

'We can't go back there. They might have called the
cops. You left three men on the sidewalk.' He looked
back over his shoulder.

'So let's try my hotel,' he said. 'There's a lobby. There
might be a bar.'

They walked together in silence, through dark quiet
streets, four blocks south. They stayed east of the plaza
and passed by the courthouse. Reacher glanced at it.

'How was dinner?' he asked.

'My father was fishing. He still thinks you're my
witness.' 'Did you tell him?'

'I can't tell him. Your information is classified. Thank
God.'

'So you let him stew.'

'He's not stewing. He's totally confident.'

'He should be.'

'So are you leaving tomorrow?'

'You bet I am. This place is weird.'

'Some girl comes on to you, why does that have to be
a big conspiracy?'

Reacher said nothing.

'It's not unheard of,' she said. 'Well, is it? A bar, the new
guy in town all alone, why shouldn't some girl be
interested? You're not exactly repulsive, you know.'

Reacher just walked.

What did you say to her to get slapped?'

'I wasn't showing any interest, she kept on coming on,
I asked her if she was a hooker. Something like that.' 'A
hooker? That'll get you slapped, in Indiana. And her
brothers would hate it.' 'It was a set-up, Helen. Let's be
realistic. It's nice of you to say it, but I'm not the sort of
guy that women chase after. I know that, OK? So it was
a setup.' 'No woman ever chased you before?'

'She smiled in triumph. Like she had found an opening
and delivered me. Like she had succeeded at
something.' Helen Rodin said nothing.

'And those guys weren't her brothers,' Reacher said.

'They were all more or less the same age and when I
checked their licences they all had different last names.'

'Oh.'

'So it was all staged. Which is weird. There are only
two reasons for doing something like that. Fun, or
money. A guy in a bar might have a few bucks, but that's
not enough. So they staged it for fun. Which is weird.

Doubly weird, because why pick on me? They must
have known they were going to get their butts kicked.'

'There were five of them. Five guys never think one guy
could kick their butts. Especially not in Indiana.' 'Or
maybe I was the only stranger in the bar.'

She looked ahead, down the street. 'You're at the
Metropole Palace?'

He nodded. The and not too many other people.'

'But I called and they said you weren't registered. I
called all the hotels, looking for you this afternoon.' 'I
use aliases in hotels.' "Why on earth?'

'Just a bad habit. Like I told you. It's automatic now.'

They went up the front steps together and in through
the heavy brass door. It wasn't late, but the place was
quiet. The lobby was deserted. There was a bar in a side
room. It was empty, except for a lone barman leaning
back against the register. 'Beer,' Helen Rodin said.

'Two,' Reacher said.

They took a table near a curtained window and the guy
brought two beers in bottles, two napkins, two chilled
glasses, and a bowl of mixed nuts. Reacher signed the
check and added his room number. Helen Rodin smiled.

'So who does the Metropole think you are?'

'Jimmy Reese,' Reacher said.

"Who's he?'

'Wait,' Reacher said.

A flash of surprise in her eyes. He didn't know why.

I'm pleased to meet you, Jimmy Reese.

'The girl was looking for me personally,' he said. 'She
wasn't looking for some random lone stranger. She was
looking for Jack Reacher specifically.'

'She was?'

He nodded. 'She asked my name. I said Jimmy Reese.

It knocked her off balance for a second. She was
definitely surprised. Like, you're not Jimmy Reese,
you're Jack Reacher, someone just told me. She
paused, and then she recovered.' "The first letters are
the same. Jimmy Reese, Jack Reacher.

People sometimes do that.' 'She was fast,' he said.

'She wasn't as dumb as she looked. Someone pointed
her at me, and she wasn't going to be deflected.

Jack Reacher was supposed to get worked over
tonight, and she was going to make sure it happened.'

'So who were they?' "Who knows my name?'

'The police department. You were just there.'

Reacher said nothing.

"What?' Helen said. Were they cops? Protecting their
case?'

'I'm not here to attack their case.'

'But they don't know that. They think that's exactly
why you're here.' 'Their case doesn't need protecting.

It's solid gold. And they didn't look like cops.' 'Who else
has an interest?'

'Rosemary Barr. She has an interest. She knows my
name. And she knows why I'm here.' 'That's ridiculous,'

Helen said.

Reacher said nothing.

'That's ridiculous,' Helen said again. 'Rosemary Barr is
a mousy little legal secretary. She wouldn't try a thing
like that. She wouldn't know how. Not in a million years.'

'It was a very amateur attempt.'

'Compared to what? It was five guys. Enough for most
people.' Reacher said nothing.

'Rosemary Barr was at the hospital,' Helen said. 'She
went over there after the client conference, and she
stayed there most of the afternoon, and I bet she's back
there now. Because her brother is waking up. She
wants to be with him.' 'A buck gets ten she's got a cell
phone.'

'Can't use cell phones near the ICU. They cause
interference.' 'A pay phone, then.'

'She's too preoccupied.'

"With saving her brother.'

Helen Rodin said nothing.

'She's your client,' Reacher said. 'Are you sure you're
impartial?' "You're not thinking straight. James Barr
asked for you. He wanted you here. Therefore his sister
wants you here too. She wants you to stick around long
enough to figure out how you can help. And she knows
you can help, or why would her brother have asked for
you in the first place?' Reacher said nothing.

'Accept it,' Helen said. 'It wasn't Rosemary Barr. It's in
her best interests to have you here, alive and well and
thinking.' Reacher took a long pull on his beer. Then he
nodded. 'I was followed to the bar tonight, obviously.

From here. Therefore I was followed here, after lunch. If
Rosemary went straight to the hospital this morning she
didn't have time to set that up.' 'So we're back to
someone who thinks you can damage the case. Why
not the cops? Cops could follow you anywhere. There's
a lot of them and they all have radios.'

'Cops start trouble face to face. They don't get a girl to
do it for them.' "The girl might be a cop too.'

Reacher shook his head. 'Too young. Too vacant. Too
much hair.'

Helen took a pen from her purse and wrote something
on her cocktail napkin.

Slid it across the table.

'My cell phone number,' she said. 'You might need it.'

'I don't think anyone will sue me.'

'I'm not worried about you getting sued. I'm worried
about you getting arrested. Even if it wasn't cops
actually doing it, they might have gone to the bar
anyway. The owner might have called them. Or the
hospital might have called them. Those three boys went
to the hospital, that's for sure. And the girl definitely
knows your alias now. So you might be in trouble. If you
are, listen to the Miranda and then call me.' Reacher
smiled. 'Ambulance chasing?'

'Looking out for you.'

Reacher picked up the napkin. Put it in his back
pocket.

'OK,' he said. 'Thanks.'

'Are you still going to leave tomorrow?'

'Maybe. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll stick around and think
about why someone would use violence to protect a
case that's already a hundred per cent watertight'

Grigor Linsky called the Zee, on his cell phone from his
car. "They failed,' he said. 'I'm very sorry.' The Zee said
nothing, which was worse than a tirade. 'They won't be
traced to us,' Linsky said. Will you make sure of that?'

'Certainly.'

The Zee said nothing.

'No harm, no foul,' Linsky said.

'Unless it served merely to provoke the soldier,' the
Zee said. 'Then there would be harm. Possibly
considerable harm. He is James Barr's friend, after all.

That fact will have implications.'

Now Linsky said nothing.

'Let him see you one more time,' the Zee said. 'A little
additional pressure might help. But after that, don't let
him see you again.'