Lee Child - Gone Tomorrow

‘I think he’s OK.’

‘You think or you know?’

He didn’t answer, because the waitress came by. The same woman from the morning. I was too hungry to be sensitive about whether or not Jake was going to eat. I ordered a big platter, tuna salad with eggs and a bunch of other stuff. Plus coffee to drink. Jake followed my lead and got a grilled cheese sandwich and water.

I said, ‘Tell me what happened.’

He said, ‘The campus cops helped me out. They were happy to. Peter’s a football star. He wasn’t home. So they rousted his buddies and got the story. Turns out Peter is away somewhere with a woman.’

‘Where?’

‘We don’t know.’

‘What woman?’

‘A girl from a bar. Peter and the guys were out four nights ago. The girl was in the place. Peter left with her.’

I said nothing.

Jake said, ‘What?’

I asked, ‘Who picked up who?’

He nodded. ‘This is what makes me feel OK. He did all the work. His buddies said it was a four-hour project. He had to put everything into it. Like a championship game, the guys said. So it wasn’t Mata Hari or anything.’

‘Description?’

‘A total babe. And these are jocks talking, so they mean it. A little older, but not much. Maybe twenty-five or six. You’re a college senior, that’s an irresistible challenge, right there.’

‘Name?’

Jake shook his head. ‘The others kept their distance. It’s an etiquette thing.’

‘Their regular place?’

‘On their circuit.’

‘Hooker? Decoy?’

‘No way. These guys get around. They ain’t dumb. They can tell. And Peter did all the work, anyway. Four hours, everything he had ever learned.’

‘It would have been over in four minutes if she had wanted it to be.’

Jake nodded again. ‘Believe me, I’ve been through it a hundred times. Any funny business, an hour would have been enough to make it look kosher. Two, tops. Nobody would stretch it to four. So it’s OK. More than OK, from Peter’s point of view. Four days with a total babe? What were you doing when you were twenty- two?’

‘I hear you,’ I said. When I was twenty-two I had the same kinds of priorities. Although a four-day relationship would have seemed long to me. Practically like engagement, or marriage.

Jake said, ‘But?’

‘Susan was delayed four hours on the Turnpike. I’m wondering what kind of a deadline could have passed, to make a mother feel like killing herself.’

‘Peter’s OK. Don’t worry about it. He’ll be home soon, weak at the knees but happy.’

I said nothing more. The waitress came by with the food. It looked pretty good, and there was a lot of it. Jake asked, ‘Did the private guys find you?’

I nodded and told him the story between forkfuls of tuna. He said, ‘They knew your name? That’s not good.’

‘Not ideal, no. And they knew I talked to Susan on the train.’

‘How?’

‘They’re ex-cops. They’ve still got friends on the job. No other explanation.’

‘Lee and Docherty?’

‘Maybe. Or maybe some day guy who came in and read the file.’

‘And they took your picture? That’s not good, either.’

‘Not ideal,’ I said again.

‘Any sign of this other crew they were talking about?’ he asked.

I checked the window and said, ‘So far, nothing.’

‘What else?’

‘John Sansom isn’t exaggerating about his career. He seems to have done nothing very special. And that kind of a claim isn’t really worth refuting.’

‘Dead end, then.’

‘Maybe not,’ I said. ‘He was a major. That’s one automatic promotion plus two on merit. He must have done something they liked. I was a major too. I know how it works.’

‘What did you do that they liked?’

‘Something they regretted later, probably.’

‘Length of service,’ Jake said. ‘You stick around, you get promoted.’

I shook my head. ‘That’s not how it works. Plus this guy won three of the top four medals available to him, one of them twice. So he must have done something special. Four somethings, in fact.’

‘Everybody gets medals.’

‘Not those medals. I got a Silver Star myself, which is pocket change to this guy, and I know for a fact they don’t fall out of the box with the breakfast cereal. And I got a Purple Heart, too, which Sansom apparently didn’t. He doesn’t mention one in his book. And no politician would forget about a wound in action. Not in a million years. But it’s relatively unusual to win a gallantry medal without a wound. Normally the two things go hand in hand.’

‘So maybe he’s bullshitting about the medals.’

I shook my head again. ‘Can’t be done. Maybe with a combat pip on a Vietnam ribbon, something like that, but these are heavy-duty awards. This guy’s got everything except the Medal of Honor.’

‘So?’

‘So I think he is bullshitting about his career, but in reverse. He’s leaving stuff out, not putting stuff in.’

‘Why would he?’

‘Because he was on at least four secret missions, and he still can’t talk about them. Which makes them very secret indeed, because the guy is in the middle of an election campaign, and the urge to talk must be huge.’

‘What kind of secret missions?’

‘Could be anything. Black ops, covert actions, against anybody.’

‘So maybe Susan was asked for details.’

‘Impossible,’ I said. ‘Delta’s orders and operational logs and after-action reports aren’t anywhere near HRC. They’re either destroyed or locked up for sixty years at Fort Bragg. No disrespect, but your sister couldn’t have gotten within a million miles of them.’

‘So how does this help us?’

‘It eliminates Sansom’s combat career, that’s how. If Sansom is involved at all, it’s in some other capacity.’

‘Is he involved?’

‘Why else would his name have been mentioned?’

‘What capacity?’

I put my fork down and drained my cup and said, ‘I don’t want to stay in here. It’s ground zero for this other crew. It’s the first place they’ll check.’

I left a tip on the table and headed for the register. This time the waitress was pleased. We were in and out in record time.

Manhattan is both the best and the worst place in the world to be hunted. The best, because it is teeming with people, and every square yard of it has literally hundreds of witnesses all around. The worst, because it is teeming with people, and you have to check each and every one of them, just in case, which is tiring, and frustrating, and fatiguing, and eventually drives you crazy, or makes you lazy. So for the sake of convenience we went back to West 35th and walked the shady side of the street, up and down opposite the row of parked cop cars, which seemed like the safest stretch of sidewalk in the city.

‘What capacity?’ Jake asked again.

‘What did you tell me were the reasons behind the suicides you saw in Jersey?’

‘Financial or sexual.’

‘And Sansom didn’t make his money in the army.’

‘You think he was having an affair with Susan?’

‘Possible,’ I said. ‘He could have met her at work. He’s the kind of guy who is always in and out of the place. Photo opportunities, stuff like that.’

‘He’s married.’

‘Exactly. And it’s election season.’

‘I don’t see it. Susan wasn’t like that. So suppose he wasn’t having an affair with her.’

‘Then maybe he was having one with another HRC staffer, and Susan was a witness.’

‘I still don’t see it.’

‘Me either,’ I said. ‘Because I don’t see how information would be involved. Information is a big word. An affair is a yes-no answer.’

‘Maybe Susan was working with Sansom. Not against him. Maybe Sansom wanted dirt on someone else.’