One Shot (24 page)

Will anything come back?'

'From the initial shadowy period, possibly. He might be
able to work backwards from the last thing he
remembers, through the preceding few days. He might
be able to pick out a few previous incidents. Working
forward, he'll be much more limited. If he remembers his
last lunch, he might eventually get as far as dinner. If he
remembers being out at a movie, he might eventually
recall driving home. But there'll be a hard boundary
somewhere. Typically it would be when he went to sleep
on the last day he's aware of.'

'Will he remember fourteen years ago?'

Mason nodded. 'His long term memory should be
unimpaired. Different people seem to have different
internal definitions of long term, because there seems to
be a literal chemical migration from one part of the brain
to another, and no two brains are identical. The physical
biology isn't well understood.

People like to use computer metaphors now, but that's
all wrong. It's not about hard drives and random access
memory. The brain is entirely organic. It's like throwing a
bag of apples down the stairs. Some bruise, some don't.

But I would say fourteen years counts as long term for
just about anybody.'

The waiting area went quiet. Reacher listened to the
distant electronic pulse.

It was a sinus rhythm, he guessed, from a machine that
was either monitoring a heartbeat, or causing one. It
was running at about seventy beats a minute. It was a
restful sound. He liked it. Then a door opened halfway
down a corridor and Rosemary Barr stepped out of a
room. She was showered and her hair was brushed but
she looked thin and exhausted and sleepless and ten
years older than the day before. She stood still for a
moment and then looked right, looked left, and walked
slowly towards the waiting area. Helen Rodin got up
and went to meet her halfway. They stood together,
talking low. Reacher couldn't hear what they were
saying. A two-way progress report, he guessed, first
medical, and then legal. Then Helen took Rosemary's
arm and led her onward to the group. Rosemary looked
at the two psychiatrists, at Alan Danuta, at Reacher. She
said nothing. Then she walked on alone towards the
security desk. Didn't look back.

'Avoidance,' Niebuhr said. We're all here to poke and
prod at her brother, physically, mentally, legally,
metaphorically. That's invasive and unattractive. And to
acknowledge us means to acknowledge her brother's
jeopardy.'

'Maybe she's just tired,' Reacher said.

'I'm going in to see him now,' Helen said.

She walked back up the corridor and went into the
room Rosemary had come out of. Reacher watched her
until he heard the door close. Then he turned back to
Niebuhr.

'Seen this kind of thing before?' he asked him.

'Coercion? Have you seen it before?'

Reacher smiled. Every psychiatrist he had ever met
liked to answer questions with questions. Maybe they
were taught to, day one at psychiatry school.

'I've seen it a lot,' he said.

'But?'

'Usually there was more evidence of a dire threat'

'A threat against the sister isn't dire? You came up with
that hypothesis yourself, I believe.'

'She hasn't been kidnapped. She's not a prisoner
somewhere. He could have arranged to have her
safeguarded. Or told her to get out of town.' 'Exactly,'

Niebuhr said. 'We can only conclude that he was
instructed not to do any such thing. Evidently he was
told to leave her open, and ignorant, and vulnerable.

That demonstrates to us how powerful the coercion
must have been. And it demonstrated to him how
powerful it was. And it demonstrated to him how
powerless he was in comparison. Every day. He must
have been living with deep dread, and helplessness,
and guilt for his obedience.' 'Ever seen a rational man
afraid enough to do what he did?'

'Yes,' Niebuhr said.

'Me too,' Reacher said. 'Once or twice.'

'The threatener must be a real monster. Although I'd
expect to see other factors present, as enhancers, or
multipliers. Very likely a recent relationship, some kind
of dependency, an infatuation, a desire to please, to
impress, to be valued, to be loved.' 'A woman?'

'No, you don't kill people to impress women. That
usually has the opposite effect. This will be a man.

Seductive, but not in a sexual way. Compelling,
somehow.' 'An alpha male and a beta male.'

'Exactly,' Niebuhr said again. 'With any final reluctance
resolved by the threat to the sister. Possibly Mr Barr was
never entirely sure whether the threat was a joke or for
real. But he chose not to test it. Human motivation is
very complex. Most people don't really know why they
do things.' 'That's for sure.'

'Do you know why you do things?'

'Sometimes,' Reacher said. 'Other times I don't have
the faintest idea. Maybe you could tell me.'

'I'm normally very expensive. That's why I can afford to
do things like this for nothing.'

'Maybe I could pay you five bucks a week, like rent.'

Niebuhr smiled, uncertainly.

'Uh, no,' he said. 'I don't think so.'

Then the waiting area went quiet again and stayed
quiet for ten long minutes. Danuta stretched his legs
way out and worked on papers inside an open briefcase
that he kept balanced on his knees. Mason had her eyes
closed and might have been asleep. Niebuhr stared into
space. The three of them were clearly accustomed to
waiting. As was Reacher himself. He had been a military
cop for thirteen years, and Hurry Up And Wait was the
real MP motto. Not Assist, Protect, Defend. He focused
on the distant electronic heartbeat, and passed the time.

Grigor Linsky turned his car round and watched the
hospital door in his mirror. Made a bet with himself that
nothing would happen for at least sixty minutes. At least
sixty, but not more than ninety. Then he rehearsed an
order of priority in case they didn't all come out
together. Who should he ignore and who should he tail?

In the end he decided to stick with whoever acted alone.

He figured that was most likely to be the soldier. His
guess was the lawyers and the doctors would head
back to the office. They were predictable.

The soldier wasn't.

Helen Rodin came out of James Barr's room fifteen
minutes after she went in.

She walked straight back to the waiting area. Everyone
looked at her. She looked at Mary Mason.

'Your turn,' she said. Mason stood up and walked away
down the corridor. She took nothing with her. No
briefcase, no paper, no pen. Reacher watched her until
Barr's door closed behind her. Then he leaned back in
his chair, in the silence.

'I liked him,' Helen said, to nobody in particular.

'How is he?' Niebuhr asked.

Weak,' Helen said. 'Smashed up. Like he got hit by a
truck.'

'Is he making sense?'

'He's coherent. But he doesn't remember anything.

And I don't think he's faking.'

'How far back is he blanking?'

'I can't tell. He remembers listening to a baseball game
on the radio. Could have been last week or last month.'

'Or last year,' Reacher said.

'Did he accept your representation?' Danuta asked.

'Verbally,' Helen said. 'He can't sign anything. He's
handcuffed to the bed.'

'Did you walk him through the charges and the
evidence?'

'I had to,' Helen said. 'He wanted to know why I
thought he needed a lawyer.'

'And?'

'He assumes he's guilty.'

There was silence for a moment. Then Alan Danuta
closed his briefcase and took it off his knees and put it
on the floor. Sat up straight, fast, all in one fluid
movement. "Welcome to the grey areas,' he said. 'This is
where good law comes from.'

'Nothing good about it,' Helen said. 'Not so far.' "We
absolutely cannot let him go to trial. The government
injured him through its own negligence and now it
wants to put him on trial for his life? I don't think so. Not
if he can't even remember the day in question. What
kind of a defence could he conduct?' 'My father will
have kittens.'

'Obviously. We'll have to cut him out. We'll have to go
straight to federal court. It's a Bill of Rights issue
anyway. Federal, then Appeals, then the Supremes.

That's the process.' 'That's a long process.'

Danuta nodded.

'Three years,' he said. 'If we're lucky. The most
applicable precedent is Wilson, and that case took three
and a half years. Almost four.' 'And we've got no
guarantee of winning. We might lose.'

'In which case we'll go to trial down the road and we'll
do the best we can.'

'I'm not qualified for this,' Helen said.

'Intellectually? That's not what I heard.'

'Tactically and strategically. And financially.'

'There are veterans' associations that can help with
the money. Mr Barr served his country, after all. With
honour.' Helen didn't reply to that. Just glanced
Reacher's way. Reacher said nothing. He turned away
and stared at the wall. He was thinking this guy is going
to get away with murder again? Twice?

Alan Danuta moved in his chair.

'There is an alternative,' he said. 'Not very exciting
legally, but it's out there.' "What is it?' Helen asked.

'Give your father the puppet master. Under these
circumstances, half a loaf is better than none. And the
puppet master is the better half anyway.' Would he go
for it?'

You know him better than me, presumably. But he'd be
a fool not to go for it.

He's looking at a minimum three-year appeals process
before he even gets Mr Barr inside a courtroom. And
any prosecutor worth his salt wants the bigger fish.'

Helen glanced at Reacher again.

'The puppet master is only a theory,' she said. We
don't have anything that even remotely resembles
evidence.' 'Your choice,' Danuta said. 'But one way or
the other, you can't let Barr go to trial.'

'One step at a time,' Helen said. 'Let's see what Dr
Mason thinks.'

Dr Mason came back twenty minutes later. Reacher
watched her walk. The length of her stride and the look
in her eyes and the set of her jaw told him she had
arrived at a firm conclusion. There was no uncertainty
there. No diffidence, no doubt. None at all. She sat back
down and smoothed her skirt across her knees.

'Permanent retrograde amnesia,' she said. 'Completely
genuine. As clear a case as I ever saw.' 'Duration?'

Niebuhr asked.

'Major League baseball will tell us that,' she said. 'The
last thing he remembers is a particular Cardinals game.

But my bet would be a week or more, counting
backwards from today.' Which includes Friday,' Helen
said.

'I'm afraid so.'

'OK,' Danuta said. 'There it is.'

'Great,' Helen said. She stood up and the others joined
her and they all moved round and ended up facing the
exit, either consciously or unconsciously, Reacher
wasn't sure. But it was clear that Barr was behind them,
literally and figuratively. He had changed from being a
man to being a medical specimen and a legal argument.