Echo Burning by Lee Child

by Echo Burning (com v2. 0) (lit)

  “That was the border patrol,” Bobby said.

  “No, it wasn’t. The report wasn’t a whitewash. It didn’t read like one, and the inside word is it was kosher. Sergeant Rodríguez told me that. And people like Sergeant Rodríguez know things like that, believe me. The investigation got nowhere because it was looking in the wrong place. It wasn’t a bunch of rogue officers. It was three local boys called Sloop Greer and Al Eugene and Hack Walker. Having fun in that old pick-up truck that’s still parked in your barn. Boys will be boys, right?”

  Silence in the room.

  “The attacks were mostly in Echo County,” Reacher said. “That struck me as odd. Why would the border patrol come so far north? Truth is, they didn’t. Three Echo boys went a little ways south instead.”

  Silence.

  “The attacks stopped in late August,” Reacher said. “Why was that? Not because the investigation scared them off. They didn’t know about the investigation. It was because college opens early September. They went off to be freshmen. The next summer it was too dangerous or they’d grown out of it, and they didn’t ever do it again. The whole thing faded into history, until twelve years later Sloop was sitting in a cell somewhere and dragged it all up because he was so desperate to get out.”

  Everybody was staring straight at Walker. His eyes were closed tight and he was deathly pale.

  “It seemed so unfair, right?” Reacher said to him. “All that was way in the past. Maybe you weren’t even a willing participant in the first place. Maybe the others dragged you into it. And now it was all coming back at you. It was a nightmare. It was going to ruin your life. It was going to take away the big prize. So you made some calls. Made some decisions. Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”

  Another candle died. The wick hissed and smoke plumed.

  “No,” Walker said. “It wasn’t like that.”

  The lantern flickered behind him. Shadows danced on the ceiling.

  “So what was it like?” Reacher asked.

  “I was just going to take Ellie. Just temporarily. I hired some local people to do it. I had plenty of campaign money. They watched her for a week. I went up to the jail and told Sloop, don’t mess with me. But he didn’t care. He said, go ahead and take Ellie. He didn’t want her. He was all conflicted. He married Carmen to punish himself for what we did, I think. That’s why he hit her all the time. She was a permanent reminder. He thought she could read it in him. See it in his eyes. Like voodoo. Ellie, too. He thought she could see it in him. So taking her wasn’t a threat to Sloop.”

  “So then you hired some more people.”

  Walker nodded. “They took over and got rid of the watchers for me.”

  “And then they got rid of Al and Sloop.”

  “It was a long time ago, Reacher. He shouldn’t have brought it up. We were kids at the time. We all agreed we would never even mention it again. We promised each other. Never, ever. It was the unmentionable thing. Like it had never happened. Like it was just a bad dream, a year long.”

  There was silence.

  “You were driving the truck tonight,” Reacher said.

  Walker nodded again, slowly. “You two, then it would have been over. I knew you knew, you see. I mean, why else would you steal the files and lead us out into the desert? So I drove the truck. Why not? I’d driven out there at night before, many times.”

  Then he went quiet. Swallowed hard, twice. Closed his eyes.

  “But I got scared,” he said. “I got sick. I couldn’t go through with it. Not again. I’m not that person anymore. I changed.”

  Silence in the room.

  “Where’s Ellie?” Reacher asked.

  Walker shrugged and shook his head. Reacher fished in his pocket and came out with the chromium star.

  “Is this thing legal?” he asked.

  Walker opened his eyes. Nodded.

  “Technically, I guess,” he said.

  “So I’m going to arrest you.”

  Walker shook his head, vaguely.

  “No,” he said. “Please.”

  “Are you armed?” Reacher asked him.

  Walker nodded. “Pistol, in my pocket.”

  “Get it for me, Mrs. Greer,” Reacher said.

  Rusty turned in her chair and went for Walker’s pocket. He offered no resistance. Even leaned sideways to make it easier for her. She came out with a small blued-steel revolver. A Colt Detective Special, .38 caliber, six shots, two-inch barrel. A small weapon. Rusty cradled it in her palm, and it looked right at home in a woman’s hand.

  “Where’s Ellie, Hack?” Reacher asked again.

  “I don’t know,” Walker said. “I really don’t. They use motels. I don’t know which one. They wouldn’t tell me. They said it’s safer that way.”

  “How do you contact them?”

  “A Dallas number. It must be rerouted.”

  “Phones are out,” Bobby said.

  “Where is she, Hack?” Reacher asked again.

  “I don’t know. I’d tell you if I did.”

  Reacher raised Alice’s gun. Held it straight out across the table. His arms were long, and the muzzle came to rest two feet from Walker’s face.

  “Watch the trigger finger, Hack,” he said.

  He tightened his finger until the skin shone white in the candlelight. The trigger moved backward, a sixteenth of an inch, then an eighth.

  “You want to die, Hack?”

  Walker nodded.

  “Yes, please,” he whispered.

  “Tell me first,” Reacher said. “Make it right. Where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” Walker said.

  He stared at the muzzle. It was so close, his eyes were crossing. The candle flames were reflected in the polished nickel. Reacher sighed and slackened his finger and lowered the gun all the way back to the tabletop. It hit the wood with a quiet sound. Nobody spoke. And nobody moved, until Rusty’s hand came up with the tiny revolver in it. She raised it in a wavering circle and it finished up pointing at nobody in particular.

  “Sloop wouldn’t hit a woman,” she whispered. “Those were all riding accidents.”

  Reacher shook his head. “He beat Carmen for five years, Rusty, almost every day they were married, until he went to jail. Broke her bones and split her lips and bruised her flesh. And that was after raping and torturing and murdering twenty-five human beings, at night, in the desert, twelve years ago.”

  She trembled wildly.

  “No,” she said. “That isn’t true.”

  The gun wavered unsteadily.

  “Point that thing at me and I’ll shoot you,” Reacher said. “Believe me, it would be an absolute pleasure.”

  She stared at him for a second and then crooked her arm and touched the gun to the side of her own head, just above her ear. The metal penetrated her lacquered hair like a stick thrust through a bird’s nest. She kept it there for a long moment and then pulled it away and turned and twisted in her chair and moved it again and brought it level with Hack Walker’s forehead, with the muzzle no more than two inches from his skin.

  “You killed my boy,” she whispered.

  Walker made no attempt to move. He just nodded, very slightly.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered back.

  No revolver has a safety mechanism. And a Colt Detective Special is a double-action pistol. Which means the first half of the trigger’s travel clicks the hammer back and revolves the cylinder under it, and then, if you keep on pulling, the hammer drops and the gun fires.

  “No, Rusty,” Reacher said.

  “Mom,” Bobby called.

  The hammer clicked back.

  “No,” Alice shouted.

  The hammer tripped. The gun fired. There was colossal noise and flame, and the crown of Walker’s head blasted backward into the candlelit gloom. It just came off like a lid and splintered into mist. Colt Super Autos with hollow points, Reacher’s subconscious mind told him. The flame died abruptly and he saw a blackened hole between Walk
er’s eyes and his hair on fire from the muzzle flash. Then Rusty fired again. The second bullet followed the first straight through Walker’s head and he went down and Rusty kept the gun rock-steady in the air above him and fired into space, three, four, five, six. The third shot splintered the wall, and the fourth hit the Coleman lantern and shattered its glass, and the fifth hit its kerosene reservoir and exploded it over a ten-foot square of wall. It blew sideways and ignited with a bright flash and the sixth shot hit the exact center of the flames. She kept on pumping the trigger even after the gun was empty. Reacher watched her finger flexing and the hammer clicking and the cylinder stepping around obediently. Then he turned and watched the wall.

  The kerosene was thicker than water and had more surface tension. It flung outward and dripped and ran and burned fiercely. It set the wall on fire immediately. The dry old wood burned with no hesitation at all. Blue flames crept upward and sideways and the faded red paint bubbled and peeled ahead of them. Tongues of flame found the vertical seams between the boards and raced up them like they were hungry. They reached the ceiling and paused momentarily and then curved horizontally and spread outward. The air in the room stirred to feed them. The candles guttered in the sudden draft. Within five seconds the wall was burning along its full height. Then the fire started creeping sideways. The flames were blue and smooth and curled and liquid, like they were sculpted out of something wet and soft. They glowed with mysterious inner light. Flakes of burning paint were drifting on hot currents and landing randomly. The fire was creeping clockwise, very fast, coming around behind everybody in the room.

  “Out,” Reacher shouted.

  Alice was already on her feet and Bobby was staring at the fire. Rusty was sitting absolutely motionless, still patiently working the trigger. The clicking of the firing mechanism was lost behind the crackle of the flames.

  “Get her out,” Reacher shouted.

  “We’ve got no water,” Bobby shouted back. “The well pump won’t work without electricity.”

  “Just get your mother out,” Reacher shouted.

  Bobby stood completely still. The flames had found the floorboards. The paint bubbled and peeled outward in a wide arc and the fire started a patient journey in pursuit. Reacher kicked chairs out of the way and lifted the table and overturned it on top of the flames. They died under it and then detoured neatly around it. The ceiling was well alight. Walker’s body was sprawled on the floor near the window. His hair was still on fire from the muzzle flash. It smoked and smoldered with flames of a different color. The fire had found the door frame. Reacher stepped across and pulled Rusty out of her chair. Spun her around and straight-armed her through the smoke and out of the room ahead of him. Alice was already in the foyer. She had the front door open. Reacher could feel damp air sucking in to feed the fire. It was keeping low, down by his feet. It was already a strong breeze.

  Alice ran down the steps to the yard and Reacher pushed Rusty after her. She clattered down and staggered out onto the wet dirt and got steady on her feet and just stood there, still holding the empty gun straight out from her shoulder, still clicking the useless trigger. Walker’s Lincoln was parked next to the Jeep, wet and dirty and travel-stained. Reacher ducked back inside the foyer. It was filling with smoke. It was pooling near the ceiling and crowding downward in layers. The air was hot and paint was scorching everywhere. Bobby was coughing hard near the parlor door. The parlor was already a mass of flame. An inferno. The fire was curling out of the door. The door itself was on fire. The red-framed mirror cracked in the heat and Reacher turned and saw two of himself staring back. He took a deep spluttering breath and ran toward the flames and grabbed Bobby by the wrist. Twisted his arm and grabbed the back of his belt like he was arresting him and ran him out into the darkness. Hustled him down the steps and shoved him toward the center of the yard.

  “It’s burning down,” Bobby screamed. “All of it.”

  The windows were alive with yellow light. Flames were dancing behind them. Smoke was drifting through the screens and there were loud random cracking sounds from inside as timbers yielded and moved. The soaked roof was already steaming gently.

  “It’s burning down,” Bobby screamed again. “What are we going to do?”

  “Go live in the barn,” Reacher said. “That’s where people like you belong.”

  Then he grabbed Alice’s hand and ran straight for the Jeep.

  17

  When the storm moved north the driver knew his partners weren’t coming back. It was a sensation so strong it took on the weight of absolute fact. It was like the rain had left a void behind that would never be filled. He turned in his chair and stared at the motel room door. Sat like that for minutes. Then he stood up and walked over and opened it. Looked out into the parking lot, focusing left, focusing right. The blacktop was streaming with water. The air smelled sharp and clean.

  He stepped outside and walked ten paces in the dark. There was a running gutter somewhere and the gurgle of street drains and loud dripping from the trees. But nothing else. Nothing else at all. Nobody was coming. Nobody was ever going to come again. He knew it. He turned around. Wet grit slid under his shoes. He walked back. Stepped inside the room and closed the door gently behind him. Looked over at the bed. Looked at the sleeping child in it.

  “You drive,” he called. “North, O.K.?”

  He pushed her toward the driver’s door and ran around the hood. She pulled her seat forward and he racked his backward. Unfolded the maps on his knees. To his left the Red House was burning fiercely. All the windows were bright with flame. Both floors now. The maid ran out of the kitchen door, wrapped in a bathrobe. The light of the fire caught her face. There was no expression on it.

  “O.K., let’s go,” he said.

  She slammed the selector into Drive and gunned the motor. The transfer case was still locked in four-wheel drive and all four tires spun and scattered wet stones and the car took off. She slewed past Walker’s Lincoln. Made the right under the gate without pausing. Accelerated hard. He turned his head and saw the first flames appear at the eaves of the roof. They licked outward and paused and ran horizontally, searching for sustenance. Steam was pouring off the soaked shingles and mixing with smoke. Rusty and Bobby and the maid were watching it drift, hypnotized. He glanced away and didn’t look back again. Just stared ahead and then riffed through the maps on his knees and found the large-scale sheet showing Pecos County in its entirety. Then he reached up and clicked the dome light on.

  “Faster,” he said. “I’ve got a real bad feeling about this.”

  The four hours were long gone, but he waited anyway. He felt a certain reluctance. How could he not? He wasn’t a monster. He would do what he had to do, for sure, but he wasn’t going to enjoy it, exactly.

  He walked over and opened the door again and hung the Do Not Disturb tag on the outside handle. Closed the door and locked it from the inside. He appreciated the locks motels put on their doors. A big lever to turn on the inside, a satisfying heavy click, smooth and oily, no corresponding catch on the outside. It helped. Absolute undisturbed security was a useful thing. He slipped the chain on and started into the room.

  Alice drove as fast as she dared. The Jeep wasn’t a great road vehicle. It rolled too much and rocked violently from side to side. The steering was vague. It required constant correction. It was a problem. But Reacher ignored it and just held the map high, where it caught the light from the roof console. He stared hard at it and checked the scale and held his finger and thumb apart like a little compass and traced a circle.

  “You done any tourist stuff around here?” he asked.

  She nodded at the wheel. “Some, I guess. I went to the McDonald Observatory. It was great.”

  He checked the map. The McDonald Observatory was southwest of Pecos, high up in the Davis Mountains.

  “That’s eighty miles,” he said. “Too far.”

  “For what?”

  “For them to have been today. I think they’l
l have been a half hour from Pecos by road, max. Twenty-five miles, thirty tops.”

  “Why?”

  “To be close to Walker. He might have planned on smuggling Carmen out, if necessary. Or maybe bringing Ellie in to see her. Whatever it took to convince her that the threat was real. So I think they’ll have holed up somewhere nearby.”

  “And near a tourist attraction?”

  “Definitely,” he said. “That’s key.”

  “Can this work?” she asked. “Finding the right place in your head?”

  “It’s worked for me before.”

  “How many times? As a percentage?”

  He ignored the question. Went back to the map. She gripped the wheel and drove. Dropped her eyes to the speedometer.

  “Oh God,” she whispered.

  He didn’t look up. “What?”

  “We’re out of gas. It’s right on empty. The warning light is on.”

  He was quiet for a second.

  “Keep going,” he said. “We’ll be O.K.”

  She kept her foot hard down.

  “How? You think the gauge is broken?”

  He looked up. Glanced ahead.

  “Just keep going,” he said.

  “We’re going to run out,” she said.

  “Don’t worry,” he said.

  She drove on. The car rocked hard. The headlights bounced ahead of them. The tires whined on the streaming blacktop. She glanced down again.

  “It’s right on empty, Reacher,” she said. “Below empty.”

  “Don’t worry,” he said again.