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She followed that with an arreen and had numbers in it for all our posts and installations ide Then she gave me more curled fax paper It was Detective Clark&039;s street canvass results, from New Year&039;s Eve, up in Green Valley
"Franz in California told me you wanted it," she said
"Great," I said "Thanks Thanks for everything"
She nodded "You better believe I&039;uy And someone better be prepared to say so when they start with the force reduction"
"I&039;ll tell them," I said
"Don&039;t," she said "Won&039;t help a bit, co from you You&039;ll either be dead or in prison"
"You brought all this stuff," I said "You haven&039;t given up on
"Where did Vassell and Coomer park their car?" I asked
"On the fourth?" she said "Nobody knows for sure The first night patrol saw a staff car backed in all by itself at the far end of the lot But you can&039;t take that to the bank Patrol didn&039;t get a plate number, so it&039;s not a positive ID And the second patrol can&039;t reainst another&039;s"
"What exactly did the first guy see?"
"He called it a staff car"
"Was it a black Grand Marquis?"
"It was a black soreen Nothing unique about a black car"
"But it was out of the way?"
She nodded "On its own, far end of the lot But the second guy can&039;t confirm it"
"Where was Major Marshall on the second and the third?"
"That was easier," she said "Two travel warrants To Frankfurt on the second, back here on the third"
"An overnight in Gerain "There and back"
We sat quiet The counterman came over with a pad and a pencil I looked at the menu and the forty-seven dollars on the table and ordered less than two bucks&039; worth of coffee and eggs Summer took the hint and ordered juice and biscuits That was about as cheap as we could get, consistent with staying vertical
"Aeant asked
I nodded "Thanks I et up
"Kiss your baby for eant just stood there, all bone and sinew Hard as woodpecker lips Staring straight at me
"My mos like these"
She nodded once and walked to the door A ure all alone at the wheel She drove off into the dawn mist A rope of exhaust followed behind her and then drifted away
I shuffled all the paper into a logical pile and started with Marshall&039;s personal file The quality of the fax transible There was the usual e I found out that Marshall had been born in September of 1958 Therefore he was thirty-one years old He had no wife and no children No ex-wives either He edded to the uessed He was listed at six-four and two hundred twenty pounds The army needed to know that to keep their quarterht-handed The army needed to know that because bolt-action sniper rifles are ht-handers Left-handed soldiers don&039;t usually get assigned as snipers Pigeonholing starts on day one in the e
Marshall had been born in Sperryville, Virginia, and had gone all the way through kindergarten and grade school and high school there
I smiled Sues and slid theer to point out the relevant lines Then I slid her the memo paper with the Jefferson Hotel number on it
"Go find a phone," I said
She found one just inside the door, on the wall, near the register I saw her put two quarters in, and dial, and talk, and wait I saw her give her name and rank and unit I saw her listen I saw her talk some more I saw her wait some more And listen souessed she was getting transferred all over the place Then I saw her say thank you I saw her hang up I saw her corim and satisfied
"He had a roo himself, the day before Three rooms, for hi charge"
"Did you speak to the valet station?"
She nodded "It was a black Mercury In just after lunch, out again at twenty to one in the , out again finally after breakfast on New Year&039;s Day"
I riffed through the pile of paper and found the fax from Detective Clark in Green Valley The results of his house-to-house canvass There was a fair amount of vehicle activity listed It had been New Year&039;s Eve and lots of people were heading to and froht was a taxi on Mrs Kra
"A staff car could be mistaken for a taxi," I said "You know, a plain black sedan, clean condition but a little tired, a lot of miles on it, the same shape as a Crown Victoria"
"Plausible," Summer said
"Likely," I said
We paid the check and left a dollar tip and counted as left ofto have to keep on eating cheap, because ere going to need gas money And phone money And some other expenses
"Where to now?" Summer asked me
"Across the street," I said "To theto hole up all day A little more work, and then we sleep"
We left the Chevy hidden behind the lounge bar and crossed the street on foot Woke the skinny guy in the motel office and asked him for a room
"One room?" he said
I nodded Summer didn&039;t object She knee couldn&039;t afford two roo Paris had worked out OK for us, as far as nighttiements were concerned
"Fifteen bucks," the skinny guy said
I gave hiave ured it was an atte I didn&039;t uy had died in was better than the rooether down the row and unlocked the door and stepped inside The room was still dank and brown and miserable The corpse had been hauled away, but other than that it was exactly the same as when I had first seen it
"It ain&039;t the George V," Summer said
"That&039;s for das on the floor and I put eant&039;s paperwork on the bed The counterpane felt slightly daot some warmth out of it
"What next?" Summer asked
"The phone records," I said "I&039; for a call to a 919 area code"
"That&039;ll be a local call Fort Bird is 919 too"
"Great," I said "There&039;ll be a million local calls"
I spread the printout on the bed and started looking There weren&039;t a million local calls But there were certainly hundreds I started at ht on New Year&039;s Eve and worked forward fronored the numbers that had been called ured those would be cab conored the nue code as Fort Bird Those would be off-post housing,ho their spouses and children a happy new year I concentrated on numbers that stood out Numbers in other North Carolina cities In particular I was looking for a number in another city that had been called once only et I went through the printout, patiently, line by line, page by page, looking for it I was in no hurry I had all day
I found it after the third concertina fold It was listed at twelve thirty-two Thirty-two ht about when I would have expected it It was a call that lasted nearly fifteen ht too, in terms of duration It was a solid prospect I scanned ahead Checked the next twenty or thirty ood I went back and put er under the number I liked It was my best bet Or my only hope
"Got a pen?" I said
Suave me one from her pocket
"Got quarters?" I said
She showed me fifty cents I wrote the best-bet nuht underneath the DC number for the Jefferson Hotel Passed it to her
"Call it," I said "Find out who answers You&039;ll have to go back across the street to the diner The htet tiood substitute If you can&039;t get ti
I left lass in the bathrooht cold and olf resort outside of Raleigh," she said
"Good enough for me," I said
"Brubaker," she said "That&039;s where Brubaker was On vacation"
"Probably dancing," I said "Don&039;t you think? At half past ht on New Year&039;s Eve? The desk clerk probably had to drag him out of the ballroom to the phone That&039;s why the call lasted a quarter of an hour Most of it aiting time"
"Who called hi the location of the originating phone Theyto eant had supplied a key for me On the sheet after the last concertina fold was a list of the codes and the locations they stood for She had been right She was better than the day guy But then, she was an E-5 sergeant and he was an E-4 corporal, and sergeantsin
I checked the code against the key
"Someone on a pay phone in the Delta barracks," I said
"So a Delta guy called his CO," Su is suggestive," I said "Must have been an urgent ht?"
"Who was it?"
"One step at a time," I said
"Don&039;t shut me out"
"I&039; up"
I said nothing
"Yourin on yourself But you shouldn&039;t You can&039;t do this alone, Reacher You can&039;t live your whole life alone"
I shook my head
"It&039;s not that," I said "It&039;s that I&039;shot after another And I don&039;t want to fall flat on ht in front of you You wouldn&039;t respect
"I know," I said "You already don&039;t respect me because you saw me naked"
She paused Then she set used to that," I said "Because it&039;s going to happen again Right now, in fact We&039;re taking the rest of the day off"
The bed ful The mattress dipped in the middle and the sheets were damp Maybe worse than damp A place like that, if the room hadn&039;t been rented since Kramer died, I was pretty sure the bed wouldn&039;t have been changed either Kraht on top of it He had probably leaked all kinds of bodily fluids Summer didn&039;t seeray and white and inert
But then I figured, What do you want for fifteen bucks? And Su-time We were plenty tired, but not too tired We did well, second time around The second time is often the best That&039;s beenforward to it, and you&039;re not bored with it yet
Afterward, we slept like babies The heater finally put some temperature into the roohere soothing Like white noise We were safe Nobody would think of looking for us there Kramer had chosen well It was a hideaway We rolled down into the ht I ended up thinking it was the best bed I had ever been in
We woke up ry It was after six o&039;clock in the evening Already dark outside theThe January days were spooling by one after the other, and eren&039;t paying much attention to them We showered and dressed and headed across the street to eat I took the army phone directory with me
We went for the most calories for the fewest dollars but still ended up blowing ot my own back with the coffee The diner had a bottomless cup policy and I exploited it ruthlessly Then I caister and used the phone on the wall Checked the number in the army book and called Sanchez down at Jackson
"I hear you&039;re in the shit," he said
"Te more about Brubaker?"
"Like what?"
"Like, did they find his car yet?"
"Yes, they did And it was a long way frouess," I said "Somewhere more than an hour due north of Fort Bird, and h How about Smithfield, North Carolina?"
"How the hell did you know that?"
"Just a feeling," I said "Had to be close to where I-95Do they think that&039;s where he was killed?"
"No question about it Killed right there in his car Someone shot him from the backseat The windshield was blown out in front of the driver&039;s position and as left of the glass was all covered in blood and brains And there were spatters on the steering wheel that hadn&039;t been sed Therefore nobody drove the car after he died Therefore that&039;s where he was killed Right there in his car Smithfield, North Carolina"
"Did they find shell cases?"
"No shell cases No significant trace evidence either, apart from the kind of norot a narrative theory?"
"It was an industrial unit parking lot Big place, like a local landht They think it was a two-car rendezvous Brubaker gets there first, the second car pulls up alongside, at least two guys get out of it, they get into Brubaker&039;s car, one in the front and one in the back, they sit a spell, un and shoots Which by the way is how they figure Brubaker&039;s watch got busted They figure he had his left wrist up on the top of the wheel, the way guys do when they&039;re sitting in their cars But whatever, he goes down and they drag him out and they put him in the trunk of the other car and they drive him down to Columbia and they leave him there"
"With dope and money in his pocket"
"They don&039;t knohere that cauys move his car?" I said "Seems kind of dumb to take the body to South Carolina and leave the car where it was"
"Nobody knohy Maybe because it&039;s conspicuous to drive a car full of blood with a bloindshield Or uys are duot notes about what Mrs Brubaker said about the phone calls he took?"
"After dinner on the fourth?"
"No, earlier," I said "On New Year&039;s Eve About half an hour after they all held hands and sang &039;Auld Lang Syne&039;"
"Maybe I took soo look"
"Be quick," I said "I&039;o down on his desk Heard faint scratchy movement far away in his office I waited Put another pair of quarters in the slot We were already doo bucks on toll calls Plus twelve for eating and fifteen for the roohteen dollars left Out of which I knew for sure I was going to be spending another ten, hopefully pretty soon I began to wish the ar V-8s in the like Kraht bucks&039; worth of gas
I heard Sanchez pick up the phone again
"OK, New Year&039;s Eve," he said "She told ed out of a dinner dance around twelve-thirty in the rieved about it"
"Did he tell her anything about the call?"
"No But she said he danced better after it Like he was all fired up Like he was on the trail of so He was all excited"
"She could tell that fro tiet to know a person"
"OK," I said "Thanks, Sanchez I got to go"
"Be careful"
"Always a up and walked back to our table
"Where now?" Suirls take their clothes off," I said
It was a short walk across the lot froe bar There were a few cars around, but not many It was still early It would be another couple of hours before the crowds really built up The locals were still ho the sports news Guys froetting changed, hooking up in twos and threes, finding car keys, picking out designated drivers But I still kept my eye out I didn&039;t want to bump into a crowd of Delta people Not outside in the dark Time was too precious to waste
We pulled the door and stepped inside There was a new face behind the register Maybe a friend or a relative of the fat guy I didn&039;t know hinations No indication that ere MPs So the new face was happy enough to see us He figured us for a nice little upward tick in his first-hour cash flow We walked right past him
The place was less than one-tenth full It felt very different that way It felt cold and vast and empty Like some kind of a factory Without a press of bodies the music was louder and tinnier than ever There hole expanses of vacant floor Whole acres Hundreds of unoccupied chairs There was only one girl perfore She was bathed in warht, but she looked cold and listless I saw Su her Saw her shudder I had said: So what are you going to do? Go work up at the strip club with Sin? Face-to-face, it wasn&039;t a very appealing option
"Why are we here?" she asked
"For the key to everything," I said "My biggest mistake"
"Which was?"
"Watch," I said
I walked around to the dressing rooirl I didn&039;t know opened up She kept the door close to her body and stuck her head around Maybe she was naked
"I need to see Sin," I said
"She&039;s not here"
"She is," I said "She&039;s got Christmas to pay for"
"She&039;s busy"
"Ten dollars," I said "Ten dollars to talk No touching"
The girl disappeared and the door swung shut behind her I stood out of the way, so the first person Sin would see would be Suain and Sin stepped out She was in a tight sheath dress It was pink It sparkled She was tall on clear plastic heels I stepped behind her Got between her and the dressing room door She turned and saw me Trapped
"Couple of questions," I said "That&039;s all"
She looked better than the last time I had seen her The bruises on her face were ten days old and were more or less healed up Her makeup was n of her troubles Her eyes looked vacant I guessed she had just shot up Right between her toes Whatever gets you through the night
"Ten dollars," she said
"Let&039;s sit," I said
We found a table far from a speaker It was relatively quiet there I took a ten-spot out of o of it
"You remember me?" I said
She nodded
"Reain
"OK, here&039;s the thing Who hit you?"
"That soldier," she said "The one you were talking to just before"