Part 11 (1/2)

Reacher said, 'OK, keep talking. I should try to make the name fit the person.'

'What do you want me to say?'

'Read the phone book. That would work for me.'

Another smile in the voice. 'People say the dent in the desk came from a colonel's head. They say that's why you got canned from the 110th.'

'I didn't get canned. I got new orders, that's all.'

'Only because no one liked that particular colonel. But you definitely walked the plank. That's what people say.'

'Amanda.'

'Amanda? OK, that's who I am. You need me again, call the number and ask for Amanda. Now, what can I do for you today?'

'There's a small town in South Dakota called Bolton. Roughly in the middle of the state, twelve or thirteen miles north of I-90.'

'I know where it is. Our system includes your coordinates. I'm looking at Bolton right now.'

'Looking at it how?'

'On my laptop. With Google Earth.'

'You guys have it easy.'

'Technology is indeed a wonderful thing. How can I help you?'

'Five miles west of town is an abandoned Cold War installation. I need to know what it was.'

'Can't you tell what it was?'

'I haven't seen it. And apparently there isn't much to see. It could be nothing. But I want you to check it out for me.'

'You sure it isn't a missile silo? The Dakotas are full of them.'

'They say it isn't a silo. Doesn't sound like one, either.'

'OK, hold on. I'm zooming and scrolling. According to the most recent image the only thing west of town looks like a prison camp. Fifteen huts and an older building, in two lines of eight. Plus a long straight road. Maybe two miles of it.'

'Does the older building look like a house?'

'From above it looks exactly like a house.'

'OK, but I need more than that.'

'You want me to come all the way up to South Dakota and go out there and look at it with you?'

'Since I'm stuck here in a snowstorm with nothing much else to do, that would be great. But a records check will do it. It'll show up somewhere. I need to know its purpose, its scope, and its architecture.'

'Call me back at close of business.'

Then there was a click, and the voice was gone. Five to ten in the morning.

Forty-two hours to go.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE LAWYER PARKED HIS CAR IN HIS OFFICE LOT AND PUT ON HIS overshoes. He took them off again inside his building's lobby and placed them in a plastic grocery bag and carried the bag with his briefcase to the elevator. His secretary greeted him at her cubicle outside his door. He didn't answer. He didn't yet know whether it was or wasn't a good morning. He just held out his hand for his message slips. overshoes. He took them off again inside his building's lobby and placed them in a plastic grocery bag and carried the bag with his briefcase to the elevator. His secretary greeted him at her cubicle outside his door. He didn't answer. He didn't yet know whether it was or wasn't a good morning. He just held out his hand for his message slips.

There were eight of them.

Three were trivial inter-office issues.

Four were legitimate legal matters.

The last was a request for a client conference at the prison, on an urgent matter relating to case number 517713, at noon.

Reacher sat alone for a spell and then wandered out and found Peterson in an empty office off the corridor near the entrance to the squad room. The office had four desks boxed together in the centre of the s.p.a.ce. The walls had long horizontal pin boards extending waist-high to head-high. Peterson was tacking yesterday's crime scene photographs to the boards. The dead guy, dressed in black. The establis.h.i.+ng shot, the close-ups. Snow on the ground, blunt force trauma to the right temple. No blood.

Peterson said, 'We just got the autopsy report. He was definitely moved.'

Reacher asked, 'Were there other injuries?'

'Some perimortem bruising.'

'Are there bad parts of town?'

'Some are worse than others.'

'Have you checked the bars?'

'For what?'

'Newly cleaned floors, suspicious stains.'

'You think this was a bar fight?'

'Somewhere in the low rent district, but not in the war zone.'

'Why?'

'Tell me what the pathologist said about the weapon.'

'It was round, fairly smooth, probably machined metal or wood, maybe a fence post or a rainwater pipe.'