61 Hours

and turned the fan to maximum. He waited. Five minutes later the ambulances showed up, with flashing lights pulsing bright red and blue against the snow. They hauled the two guys away. They were still out cold. Concussions, and probably some minor maxillary damage. No big deal. Three days in bed and a cautious week’s convalescence would fix them up good as new. Plus painkillers.
    Reacher waited in the car. Thirty feet ahead of him through the clear frigid air he could see Holland and Peterson talking. They were standing close together, half turned away, speaking low. Judging by the way they never glanced back, Reacher guessed they were talking about him.
    Chief Holland was asking: ‘Could he be the guy?’
    Peterson was saying, ‘If he’s the guy, he just put two of his presumptive allies in the hospital. Which would be strange.’
    ‘Maybe that was a decoy. Maybe they staged it. Or maybe one of them was about to say something compromising. So he had to shut them up.’
    ‘He was protecting you, chief.’
    ‘At first he was.’
    ‘And then it was self-defence.’
    ‘How sure are you he’s not the guy?’
    ‘One hundred per cent. It’s just not feasible. It’s a million-to-one chance he’s here at all.’
    ‘No way he could have caused the bus to crash right there?’
    ‘Not without running up the aisle and physically attacking the driver. And no one said he did. Not the driver, not the passengers.’
    ‘OK,’ Holland said. ‘So could the driver be the guy? Did he crash on purpose?’
    ‘Hell of a risk.’
    ‘Not necessarily. Let’s say he knows the road because he’s driven it before, summer and winter. He knows where it ices up. So he throws the bus into a deliberate skid.’
    ‘A car was coming right at him.’
    ‘So he says now.’
    ‘But he could have been injured. He could have killed people. He could have ended up in the hospital or in jail for manslaughter, not walking around.’
    ‘Maybe not. Those modern vehicles have all kinds of electronic systems. Traction control, antilock brakes, stuff like that. All he did was fishtail around a little and drive off the shoulder. No bigdeal. And then we welcomed him with open arms, like the Good Samaritan.’
    Peterson said, ‘I could talk to Reacher tonight. He was a witness on the bus. I could talk to him and get a better picture.’
    Holland said, ‘He’s a psychopath. I want him gone.’
    ‘The roads are closed.’
    ‘Then I want him locked up.’
    ‘Really?’ Peterson said. ‘Tell the truth, chief, he strikes me as a smart guy. Think about it. He saved you from a busted nose and he saved me from having to shoot two people. He did us both a big favour with what he did tonight.’
    ‘Accidentally.’
    ‘Maybe on purpose.’
    ‘You think he knew what he was doing? Right there and then?’
    ‘Yes, I think he did. I think he’s the sort of guy who sees things five seconds before the rest of the world.’
    ‘Are you serious?’
    ‘Yes, sir. I’ve spent a little time with him.’
    Holland shrugged.
    ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Talk to him. If you really want to.’
    ‘Can we use him for more? He’s ex-military. He might know something.’
    ‘About what?’
    ‘About what’s out there to the west.’
    ‘You like him?’
    ‘Doesn’t matter if we like him. We can use him. It would be negligent not to, in the current circumstances.’
    ‘That’s an admission of defeat.’
    ‘No, sir, it’s common sense. Better to ask for help beforehand than get our asses kicked afterwards.’
    ‘How much would we have to tell him?’
    ‘Most of it,’ Peterson said. ‘Maybe all of it. He’d probably figure it out anyway.’
    ‘Is this what you would do if you were chief?’
    ‘Yes, sir, it is.’
    Holland thought about it. Nodded.
    ‘OK,’ he said again. ‘Good enough for me. Talk to him.’ Five minutes to eleven in the evening.
    Fifty-three hours to go.

SEVEN
    P ETERSON DROVE HOME IN HIS SQUAD CAR . W HICH R EACHER thought was unusual. In his experience town cops dumped their squads in a motor pool and rode home in their personal vehicles. Then the next watch climbed in and drove away while the motors and the seats were still warm. But Peterson said the Bolton PD had a lot of cars. Every member of the department was issued with one. And every member of the department was required to live within ten minutes’ drive of the station house.
    Peterson lived within two minutes’ drive, a mile out of town to the east, in a house sitting