The Hard Way

“I’m not a fool,” Patti said. “I know what goes on. Who knows more than me? Who possibly could? And I know that the day after I stop seeing Kate Lane and Jade anymore, you show up and people put bags in cars and you hide in the back seat and you come here to interrogate Brewer about the last time one of Edward Lane’s wives disappeared.”

Reacher asked, “Why do you think I’m here?”

“I think he’s done it again.”

Reacher looked at Pauling and Pauling shrugged like maybe she agreed Patti deserved to hear the story. Like somehow she had earned the right through five long years of fidelity to her sister’s memory. So Reacher told her everything he knew. Told her all the facts, all the guesses, all the assumptions, all the conclusions. When he finished she just stared at him.

She said: “You think it’s real this time because of how good an actor he is?”

“No, I think nobody’s that good of an actor.”

“Hello? Adolf Hitler? He could work himself into all kinds of phony rages.”

Patti stood up and stepped over to an armoire drawer and pulled out a packet of photographs. Checked the contents and tossed the packet into Reacher’s lap. A fresh new envelope. A one-hour service. Thirty-six exposures. He thumbed through the stack. Top picture was of himself, face-on, coming out of the Dakota’s lobby, preparing to turn toward the subway on Central Park West. Early this morning, he thought. The B train to Pauling’s office.

“So?”

“Keep going.”

He thumbed backward and close to the end of the stack he saw Dee Marie Graziano, face on, coming out of the Dakota’s lobby. The sun in the west. Afternoon. The picture behind it showed her from the back, going in.

“That’s Hobart’s sister, am I right?” Patti said. “It has to be, according to your story. She’s in my notebook, too. Close to forty, overweight, not rich. Previously unexplained. But now I know. That’s when the Dakota doormen told her the family was in the Hamptons. Then she went out there.”

“So?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Kate Lane takes this weird woman walking on the beach, and she hears a weird and fantastical story, but there’s something about it and something about her husband that stops her from just dismissing it out of hand. Enough of a grain of truth there to make her think for a moment. Maybe enough to make her ask her husband for an explanation.”

Reacher said nothing.

Patti said, “In which case all hell would break loose. Don’t you see? Suddenly Kate is no longer a loyal and obedient wife. Suddenly she’s as bad as A

“Lane would have gone after Hobart and Dee Marie, too. Not just Kate.”

“If he could find them. You only found them because of the Pentagon.”

“And the Pentagon hates Lane,” Pauling said. “They wouldn’t give him the time of day.”

“Two questions,” Reacher said. “If this is history repeating itself, A

“He’s gambling,” Patti said. “He’s gambling because he’s arrogant. He’s putting on a show for his men, and he’s betting that he’s smarter than you are.”

“Second question,” Reacher said. “Who could be playing Knight’s part this time around?”

“Does that matter?”

“Yes, it matters. It’s an important detail, don’t you think?”

Patti paused. Looked away.

“It’s an inconvenient detail,” she said. “Because there’s nobody missing.” Then she said, “OK, I apologize. Maybe you’re right. Just because it was fake for A

Then out of what Reacher guessed was sheer habit Patti moved to the window and stood with her hands linked behind her back, staring out and down.

“It’s not over for me,” she said. “It won’t be over for me until Lane gets what he deserves.”

CHAPTER 44

REACHER AND PAULING rode down to the Majestic’s lobby in silence. They stepped out to the sidewalk. Early evening. Four lanes of traffic, and lovers in the park. Dogs on leashes, tour groups, the bass bark of fire truck horns.

Pauling asked, “Where now?”

“Take the night off,” Reacher said. “I’m going back to the lions’ den.”

Pauling headed for the subway and Reacher headed for the Dakota. The doorman sent him up without making a call. Either Lane had put him on some kind of an approved list or the doorman had grown accustomed to his face. Either way it didn’t feel good. Poor security, and Reacher didn’t want to be recognized as part of Lane’s crew. Not that he expected to be around the Dakota ever again. It was way above his pay grade.

There was nobody waiting for him in the corridor on five. Lane’s door was closed. Reacher knocked and then found a bell button and pushed it. A minute later Kowalski opened up. The biggest of Lane’s guys, but no giant. Maybe six feet, maybe two hundred pounds. He seemed to be alone. There was nothing but stillness and silence behind him. He stepped back and held the door and Reacher stepped inside.

“Where is everybody?” Reacher asked.

“Out shaking the trees,” Kowalski said.

“What trees?”

“Burke has a theory. He thinks we’re being visited by ghosts from the past.”

“What ghosts?”

“You know what ghosts,” Kowalski said. “Because Burke told you first.”

“Knight and Hobart,” Reacher said.

“The very same.”

“Waste of time,” Reacher said. “They died in Africa.”

“Not true,” Kowalski said. “A friend of a friend of a friend called a VA clerk. Only one of them died in Africa.”

“Which one?”

“We don’t know yet. But we’ll find out. You know what a VA clerk makes?”

“Not very much, I guess.”

“Everyone has a price. And a VA clerk’s is pretty low.”

They moved through the foyer to the deserted living room. Kate Lane’s picture still had pride of place on the table. There was a recessed light fixture in the ceiling that put a subtle glow on it.

“Did you know them?” Reacher asked. “Knight and Hobart?”

“Sure,” Kowalski said.

“Did you go to Africa?”

“Sure.”

“So whose side are you on? Theirs or Lane’s?”

“Lane pays me. They don’t.”

“So you have a price, too.”

“Only a bullshitter doesn’t.”

“What were you, back in the day?”

“Navy SEAL.”

“So you can swim.”

Reacher stepped into the interior hallway and headed for the master bedroom. Kowalski kept close behind him.

“You going to follow me everywhere?” Reacher asked.

“Probably,” Kowalski said. “Where are you going anyway?”

“To count the money.”

“Is that OK with Lane?”

“He wouldn’t have given me the combination if it wasn’t.”

“He gave you the combination?”

I hope so, Reacher thought. Left hand. Index finger, curled. Ring finger, straight. Middle finger, straight. Middle finger, curled. 3785. I hope.

He pulled the closet door and entered 3785 on the security keypad. There was an agonizing second’s wait and then it beeped and the i

“He never gave me the combination,” Kowalski said.

“But I bet he lets you be the lifeguard out in the Hamptons.”

Reacher opened the i

“You know how to count?” Reacher asked.