17 A Wanted Man

that, I might be able to carry on.’
    They walked back to Sorenson’s car, a long curving route around the wreck, away from the heat and the smell, and when they got twenty feet from it she did what she had to do: she cleared her throat and took a breath and pulled her gun and arrested Jack-none-Reacher, on suspicion of conspiracy, and homicide in the first degree, and kidnapping.

THIRTY-EIGHT
    SORENSON WAS HOLDING her Glock two-handed again, steady and straight and level, feet properly planted, weight properly braced. She was less than four yards from Reacher. Her head was turned again, to the side, just a little, the same way as it had been before, as if quizzically. The same strand of hair was over the same eye.
    She said, ‘Look at it from my point of view. What’s my alternative? What else am I supposed to do? We lost the hostage, so the game has changed. Now it moves up a level. And we need to start with an arrest, or we’ll be crucified. You understand that, right?’
    Reacher said, ‘Are you apologizing to me?’
    ‘Yes. I suppose I am. I’m very sorry. But you know how these things work. If you are who you say you are, that is.’
    ‘I am who I say I am. You’re a very suspicious woman. A person’s feelings could get hurt.’
    ‘I have to be suspicious. But I’m sorry about that too.’
    Reacher smiled, just briefly. ‘I must say this is a very civilized arrest. Could be the politest ever. Apart from the gun, that is. You don’t need it. Where am I going to escape to?’
    ‘Forgive me. But I need the gun. You’re a legitimate suspect. And you have valuable information. I’m sure my SAC would prefer to airbrush the Omaha field office right out of this whole thing altogether, but it’s far too late for that now. So he’s got to be able to show something for a night’s work. Either a suspect, or a material witness. And you’re one or the other. Maybe you’re both.’
    ‘Suppose I don’t want to go to Omaha?’
    ‘She’ll wait.’
    ‘Who will?’
    ‘The woman in Virginia. Or maybe she won’t. Or maybe she’s already forgotten all about you. But whatever, that’s all on hold now.’
    ‘I wasn’t thinking about Virginia. I agree, that’s on hold now. I was thinking about Iowa. Right here, right now. This is where the trail starts. With those tyre tracks.’
    Tyre tracks
.
    Reacher glanced behind him, at the yard-wide skim of mud on the edge of the road, but he couldn’t see what he needed to see.
    Sorenson said, ‘Where the hell do you think you are, in the movies? You’re a civilian. This isn’t your trail. This isn’t my trail any more, either. We lost the hostage. Remember? An innocent woman. An innocent member of the public. A carjacking victim. A
mother
, for God’s sake. You get that? There’s going to be a big task force now. Dozens of people. Maybe even hundreds. An assistant SAC leading it at the very least. There’s going to be media. Cable news. It’s all going to be way above my pay grade. They’re going to hide me away like an idiot child. So there’s nothing for either one of us here in Iowa. Not now. Get used to it.’
    Reacher said, ‘The trail will go cold before the task force even gets here.’
    ‘There’s nothing we can do about that.’
    ‘There is. We can stop wasting time. We can make a start.’
    ‘Have you got unemployment insurance?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Neither do I. So don’t include me in your harebrained schemes.’
    ‘OK, I could make a start.’
    ‘How? You’re a civilian. You’re one man. You have no resources. What could you possibly do?’
    ‘I could find them.’
    ‘Because?’
    ‘I’ve found people before.’
    ‘And then what?’
    ‘I could impress upon them the error of their ways.’
    ‘An eye for an eye?’
    ‘I’m not interested in their eyes.’
    ‘I can’t let that happen. It would be a crime in itself. There has to be due process. Let the law take care of it. That’s the price of civilization.’
    ‘Civilization can go sit on its thumb. I liked Delfuenso. She was a nice woman. Brave too. And smart. And tough. She worked all evening at a shitty job, and still she was thinking right to the end.’
    ‘I don’t dispute any of that.’
    ‘They opened the wrong door, Julia. They get what they get.’
    ‘From you? How so? Who died and made you king of the world?’
    ‘Someone has to do it. Are you guys going to?’
    Sorenson didn’t answer.
    Reacher said, ‘I’ll take that as a no, shall I?’
    Sorenson