17 A Wanted Man

anyway.’
    No response.
    He said, ‘I’m not going to give you the slip. I wouldn’t be in this car in the first place unless I wanted to be. We have a deal. You remember that, right?’
    She said, ‘The Omaha field office has to show something for a night’s work.’
    ‘I understand that. I’m coming with you, all the way.’
    ‘I have to be sure of that. So we’ll eat if there’s a drive-through.’
    ‘No,’ he said. ‘We’ll go inside and sit at a table, like civilized people who trust each other. And I need to take a shower. And I need to buy some clothes.’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘At the outlet mall.’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘So I can change.’
    ‘Why do you need to change?’
    ‘So I make a good impression.’
    ‘Were your bags still in the Impala?’
    ‘I don’t have bags.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘What would I put in them?’
    ‘Clean clothes, for instance.’
    ‘And then what, three days later?’
    Sorenson nodded. ‘You make a good point.’ She was quiet for half a mile and then she slowed the car and put on her turn signal for the exit. She said, ‘OK, I’m trusting you, Reacher. Don’t embarrass me. I’m way out on a limb here.’
    Reacher said nothing. They turned left off the end of the ramp and nosed into a Texaco station. Sorenson got out of the car. Reacher got out too. She didn’t like that much. He shrugged. He figured if she was going to trust him at all, she might as well trust him from the very beginning. She dipped a plain Amex and started pumping. He said, ‘I’m going in the store. You need anything?’
    She shook her head. She was worried. With good reason. A live gas hose was like a ball and chain. He was free, and she was anchored.
    ‘I’ll be back,’ he said, and walked away. The store was like a shabby version of the Shell station’s, south and east of Des Moines. Same kind of aisles, same kind of stuff, but run down and dirty. Same kind of clerk at the register. The guy was staring at Reacher’s nose. Reacher prowled the aisles until he found the section with travel necessities. He took a tube of antiseptic cream and a small box of Band-Aids. And a small tube of toothpaste. And a bottle of aspirin. He paid in cash at the register. The clerk was still staring at his nose. Reacher said, ‘Mosquito bite. That’s all. Nothing to worry about.’
    He found Sorenson waiting for him halfway between the store and the pump. Still worried. He said, ‘Where do you want to get breakfast?’
    She said, ‘Is McDonald’s OK with you?’
    He nodded. He needed protein and fats and sugars, and he didn’t really care where they came from. He had no prejudice against fast food. Better than slow food, for a travelling man. They got back in the car and drove a hundred yards and pulled off again and parked. They went inside to fluorescent light and cold air and hard plastic seats. He ordered two cheeseburgers and two apple pies and a twenty-ounce cup of coffee. Sorenson said, ‘That’s lunch, not breakfast.’
    Reacher said, ‘I’m not sure what it is. Last time I woke up was yesterday morning.’
    ‘Me too,’ Sorenson said, but she ordered regular breakfast items. Some kind of a sausage patty, with egg, in a bun, also with a cup of coffee. They ate together across a wet laminate table. Sorenson asked, ‘Where are you going to get a shower?’
    ‘Motel,’ Reacher said.
    ‘You’re going to pay for a night’s stay just to take a shower?’
    ‘No, I’m going to pay for an hour.’
    ‘They’re all chains here. They’re not hot-sheet places that rent by the hour.’
    ‘But they’re all run by human beings. And it’s still morning. So the maids are still around. The clerk will take twenty bucks. He’ll give a maid ten to do a room over again, and he’ll put ten in his own pocket. That’s how it usually works.’
    ‘You’ve done this before.’
    ‘I’d be pretty far gone if I hadn’t.’
    ‘Expensive, though. With the clothes and all.’
    ‘How much do you pay for your mortgage every month? And the insurance and the oil and the maintenance and the repairs and the yard work and the taxes?’
    Sorenson smiled.
    ‘You make a good point,’ she said again.
    Reacher finished first and headed for the men’s room. There was a pay phone on the wall outside. He ignored it. There was no window. No fire exit. He used the john and washed his hands and when he got back he found two men crowding Sorenson from behind. She was still in her chair and they were one each side