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[ 1570] “No,” I said. “That’s the very last thing he would have done. He was depending on him to get him out from under. Something went wrong, is all.”

[ 1571] “May I ask you a question?” she said. “Why do you refer to my husband in the past tense?”

[ 1572] I looked straight at her.

[ 1573] “Because he’s dead,” I said. “I’m very sorry.”

[ 1574] Charlie hung in there. She went pale and clenched her hands until her knuckles shone waxy white. But she didn’t fall apart.

[ 1575] “I don’t think he’s dead,” she whispered. “I would know. I would be able to feel it. I think he’s just hiding out somewhere. I want you to find him. I’ll pay you whatever you want.”

[ 1576] I just slowly shook my head at her.

[ 1577] “Please,” she said.

[ 1578] “I won’t do it, Charlie,” I said. “I won’t take your money for that. I would be exploiting you. I can’t take your money because I know he’s already dead. I’m very sorry, but there it is.”

[ 1579] There was a long silence in the kitchen. I sat there at the table, nursing the coffee she’d made for me.

[ 1580] “Would you do it if I didn’t pay you?” she said. “Maybe you could just look around for him while you find out about your brother?”

[ 1581] I thought about it. Couldn’t see how I could say no to that.

[ 1582] “OK,” I said. “I’ll do that, Charlie. But like I say, don’t expect miracles. I think we’re looking at something very bad here.”

[ 1583] “I think he’s alive,” she said. “I would know if he wasn’t.”

[ 1584] I started worrying about what would happen when his body was found. She was going to come face to face with reality the same way a runaway truck comes face to face with the side of a building.

[ 1585] “You’ll need expense money,” Charlie said.

[ 1586] I wasn’t sure about taking it, but she passed me a thick envelope.

[ 1587] “Will that do?” she asked.

[ 1588] I looked in the envelope. There was a thick wad of hundred dollar bills in there. I nodded. That would do.

[ 1589] “And please keep the car,” she said. “Use it as long as you need it.”

[ 1590] I nodded again. Thought about what else I needed to say and forced myself to use the present tense.

[ 1591] “Where does he work?” I asked her.

[ 1592] “Sunrise International,” she said. “It’s a bank.”

[ 1593] She reeled off an Atlanta address.

[ 1594] “OK, Charlie,” I said. “Now let me ask you something else. It’s very important. Did your husband ever use the word ‘Pluribus’?”

[ 1595] She thought about it and shrugged.

[ 1596] “Pluribus?” she said. “Isn’t that something to do with politics? Like on the podium when the president gives a speech? I never heard Hub talking about it. He graduated in banking studies.”

[ 1597] “You never heard him use that word?” I asked her again. “Not on the phone, not in his sleep or anything?”

“Never,” she said.

[ 1598] “What about next Sunday?” I asked her. “Did he mention next Sunday? Anything about what’s going to happen?”

[ 1599] “Next Sunday?” she repeated. “I don’t think he mentioned it. Why? What’s going to happen next Sunday?”

[ 1600] “I don’t know,” I said. “That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

[ 1601] She pondered it again for a long moment, but just shook her head and shrugged, palms upward, like it meant nothing to her.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

[ 1602] “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Now you’ve got to do something.”

[ 1603] “What do I have to do?” she said.

[ 1604] “You’ve got to get out of here,” I said.

[ 1605] Her knuckles were still white, but she was staying in control.

[ 1606] “I’ve got to run and hide?” she said. “But where to?”

[ 1607] “An FBI agent is coming here to pick you up,” I said.

[ 1608] She stared at me in panic.

[ 1609] “FBI?” she said. She went paler still. “This is really serious, isn’t it?”

[ 1610] “It’s deadly serious,” I said. “You need to get ready to leave right now.”

[ 1611] “OK,” she said, slowly. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

[ 1612] I WALKED OUT OF HER KITCHEN AND INTO THE GARDEN room where we had drunk iced tea the day before. Stepped through the French doors and strolled a slow circuit outside the house. Down the driveway, through the banks of greenery, out onto Beckman Drive. Leaned up on the white mailbox on the shoulder. It was silent. I could hear nothing at all except the dry rustle of the grass cooling under my feet.

[ 1613] Then I could hear a car coming west out of town. It slowed just before the crest of the rise and I heard the automatic box slur a change down as the speed dropped. The car rose up over the crest into view. It was a brown Buick, very plain, two guys in it. They were small dark guys, Hispanic, loud shirts. They were slowing, drifting to the left of the road, looking for the Hubble mailbox. I was leaning on the Hubble mailbox, looking at them. Their eyes met mine. The car accelerated again and swerved away. Blasted on into the empty peach country. I stepped out and watched them go. I saw a dust plume rising as they drove off Margrave’s immaculate blacktop onto the dusty rural roadway. Then I sprinted back up to the house. I wanted Charlie to hurry.

[ 1614] She was inside, flustered, chattering away like a kid going on vacation. Making lists out loud. Some kind of a mechanism to burn off the panic she was feeling. On Friday she’d been a rich idle woman married to a banker. Now on Monday a stranger who said the banker was dead was telling her to hurry up and run for her life.

[ 1615] “Take the mobile phone with you,” I called to her.

[ 1616] She didn’t reply. I just heard a worried silence. Footsteps and closet doors banging. I sat in her kitchen with the rest of the coffee for most of an hour. Then I heard a car horn blow and the crunch of heavy steps on the gravel. A loud knock on the front door. I put my hand in my pocket and closed it around the ebony handle of Morrison’s switchblade. Walked out into the hallway and opened up.

[ 1617] There was a neat blue sedan next to the Bentley and a gigantic black guy standing back from the doorstep. He was as tall as me, maybe even taller, but he must have outweighed me by at least a hundred pounds. Must have been three ten, three twenty. Next to him, I was a featherweight. He stepped forward with the easy elastic grace of an athlete.

[ 1618] “Reacher?” the giant said. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Picard, FBI.”

[ 1619] He shook hands with me. He was enormous. He had a casual competence about him which made me glad he was on my side. He looked like my type of a guy. Like he could be very useful in a tight corner. I suddenly felt a flood of encouragement. I stood aside to let him into Charlie’s house.

[ 1620] “OK,” Picard said to me. “I got all the details from Finlay. Real sorry about your brother, my friend. Real sorry. Somewhere we can talk?”

[ 1621] I led him through to the kitchen. He loped beside me and covered the distance in a couple of strides. Glanced around and poured himself the dregs of the stewed coffee. Then he stepped over next to me and dropped his hand on my shoulder. Felt like somebody had hit me with a bag of cement.

[ 1622] “Ground rules,” he said. “This whole thing is off the record, right?”

[ 1623] I nodded. His voice matched his bulk. It was a low rumble. It was what a brown bear would sound like if it learned to talk. I couldn’t tell how old the guy was. He was one of those big fit men whose peak years stretch on for decades. He nodded and moved away. Rested his giant frame against the counter.