Lee Child - Without Fail

“You sound disappointed,” Stuyvesant said.

“I am disappointed. I thought they might come close enough to give us a chance at them. But they stayed away. They’re cowards.”

Nobody spoke.

“Cowards are bullies,” Reacher said. “Bullies are cowards.”

Neagley glanced at him. Knew him well enough to sense when to push.

“So?” she asked.

“So we need to go back and rethink a couple of things. Information is stacking up fast and we’re not processing it. Like, now we know these guys are outsiders. Now we know this is not a genteel inside game.”

“So?” Neagley asked again.

“And what happened in Minnesota and Colorado shows us these guys are prepared to do just about anything at all.”

“So?”

“The cleaners. What do we know about them?”

“That they’re involved. That they’re scared. That they’re not saying anything.”

“Correct,” Reacher said. “But why are they scared? Why aren’t they saying anything? Way back we thought they might be playing some cute game with an insider. But they’re not doing that. Because these guys aren’t insiders. And they’re not cute people. And this isn’t a game.”

“So?”

“So they’re being coerced in some serious way. They’re being scared and silenced. By some serious people.”

“OK, how?”

“You tell me. How do you scare somebody without leaving a mark on them?”

“You threaten something plausible. Serious harm in the future, maybe.”

Reacher nodded. “To them, or to somebody they care about. To the point where they’re paralyzed with terror.”

“OK.”

“Where have you heard the word cousins before?”

“All over the place. I’ve got cousins.”

“No, recently.”

Neagley glanced at the window.

“The cleaners,” she said. “Their kids are with cousins. They told us.”

“But they were a little hesitant about telling us, remember?”

“Were they?”

Reacher nodded. “They paused a second and looked at each other first.”

“So?”

“Maybe their kids aren’t with cousins.”

“Why would they lie?”

Reacher looked at her. “Is there a better way to coerce somebody than taking their kids away as insurance?”

They moved fast, but Stuyvesant made sure they moved properly. He called the cleaners’ lawyers and told them he needed the answer to just one question: the name and address of the children’s baby-sitters. He told them a quick answer would be much better than a delay. He got the quick answer. The lawyers called back within a quarter of an hour. The name was Gálvez and the address was a house a mile from the cleaners’ own.

Then Froelich motioned for quiet and got on the radio net and asked for a complete situation update from the hotel. She spoke to her acting on-site leader and four other key positions. There were no problems. Everything was calm. Armstrong was working the room. Perimeters were tight. She instructed that all agents should accompany Armstrong through the loading bay at the function’s conclusion. She asked for a human wall, all the way to the limo.

“And make it soon,” she said. “Compress the exposure.”

Then they squeezed into the single elevator and rode down to the garage. Climbed into Froelich’s Suburban for the drive Reacher had slept through first time around. This time he stayed awake as Froelich raced through traffic to the cheap part of town. They passed right by the cleaners’ house. Threaded another mile through dark streets made narrow by parked cars and came to a stop outside a tall thin two-family house. It was ringed by a wire fence and had trash cans chained to the gatepost. It was boxed in on one side by a package store and on the other by a long line of identical houses. There was a sagging twenty-year-old Cadillac parked at the curb. Yellow sodium lighting was cutting through the fog.

“So what do we do?” Stuyvesant said.

Reacher looked through the window. “We go talk with these people. But we don’t want a mob scene. They’re scared already. We don’t want to panic them. They might think the bad guys are back. So Neagley should go first.”

Stuyvesant was about to offer an objection but Neagley slid straight out of the car and headed for the gate. Reacher watched her turn a fast circle on the sidewalk before going in, to read the surroundings. Watched her glance left and right as she walked up the path. Nobody was around. Too cold. She reached the door. Searched for a bell. Couldn’t find one, so she rapped on the wood with her knuckles.

There was a one-minute wait and then the door opened and was stopped short by a chain. A bar of warm light flooded out. There was a one-minute conversation. The door eased forward to release the chain. The bar of light narrowed and widened again. Neagley turned and waved. Froelich and Stuyvesant and Reacher climbed out of the Suburban and walked up the path. There was a small dark guy standing in the doorway, waiting for them, smiling shyly.

“This is Mr. Gálvez,” Neagley said. They introduced themselves and Gálvez backed into the hallway and made a follow-me gesture with the whole of his arm, like a butler. He was a small guy dressed in suit pants and a patterned sweater. He had a fresh haircut and an open expression. They followed him inside. The house was small and clearly overcrowded, but it was very clean. There was a line of seven children’s coats hung neatly on a row of pegs inside the door. Some of them were small, some of them were a little bigger. There were seven school backpacks lined up on the floor underneath them. Seven pairs of shoes. There were toys neatly piled here and there. Three women visible in the kitchen. Shy children peering out from behind their skirts. More easing their heads around the living room door. They kept moving. Kept appearing and disappearing in random sequences. They all looked the same. Reacher couldn’t get an accurate count. There were dark eyes everywhere, open wide.

Stuyvesant seemed a little out of his depth, like he didn’t know how to broach the subject. Reacher squeezed past him and moved ahead toward the kitchen. Stopped in the doorway. There were seven school lunch boxes lined up on a counter. The lids were up, like they were ready for assembly-line loading first thing in the morning. He moved back to the hallway. Squeezed past Neagley and looked at the little coats. They were all colorful nylon items, like small versions of the things he had browsed in the Atlantic City store. He lifted one off its peg. It had a white patch inside the collar. Somebody had used a laundry marker and written J. Gálvez on it in careful script. He put it back and checked the other six. Each was labeled with a surname and a single initial. Total of five Gálvez and two Alvárez .

Nobody was speaking. Stuyvesant looked awkward. Reacher caught Mr. Gálvez’s eye and nodded him through to the living room. Two children scuttled out as they stepped in.

“You got five kids?” Reacher asked.

Gálvez nodded. “I’m a lucky man.”

“So who do the two Alvárez coats belong to?”

“My wife’s cousin Julio’s children.”

“Julio and Anita’s?”

Gálvez nodded. Said nothing.

“I need to see them,” Reacher said.

“They’re not here.”

Reacher glanced away.

“Where are they?” he asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Gálvez said. “At work, I guess. They work nights. For the federal government.”

Reacher glanced back. “No, I mean their kids. Not them. I need to see their kids.”

Gálvez looked at him, puzzled. “See their kids?”

“To check they’re OK.”

“You just saw them. In the kitchen.”

“I need to see which ones they are exactly.”