Echo Burning

battered woman can’t necessarily be effective on the spur of the moment. Sometimes she needs to wait until he’s drunk, or asleep. You know, bide her time. There are lots of cases like that in other jurisdictions.”
    “So where do we start?”
    “Where we’re forced to,” Alice said. “Which is a pretty bad place. The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. Res ipsa loquitur, they call it. The thing speaks for itself. Her bedroom, her gun, her husband lying there dead on the floor. That’s murder one. We leave it like that, they’ll convict her on the first vote.”
    “So?”
    “So we back-pedal on the premeditation and then we prove the abuse through the medical records. I already started the paperwork. We joined with the DA’s office for a common-cause subpoena. All Texas hospitals, and all neighboring states. Domestic violence, that’s standard procedure, because people sometimes drive all over to hide it. The hospitals generally react pretty fast, so we should get the records overnight. Then it’s res ipsa loquitur again. If the injuries were caused by violence, then the records will at least show they could have been. That’s just common sense. Then she takes the stand and she talks about the abuse. She’ll have to take it on the chin over the bullshit stories about her past. But if we present it right, she could even look quite good. No shame in being an ex-hooker trying to reform. We could build up some sympathy there.”
    “You sound like a pretty good lawyer.”
    She smiled. “For one so young?”
    “Well, what are you, two years out of school?”
    “Six months,” she said. “But you learn fast down here.”
    “Evidently.”
    “Whatever, with careful jury selection, we’ll get at least half and half don’t-knows and not-guiltys. The not-guiltyswill wear down the don’t-knows within a couple of days. Especially if it’s this hot.”
    Reacher pulled the soaked fabric of his shirt off his skin. “Can’t stay this hot much longer, can it?”
    “Hey, I’m talking about next summer,” Alice said. “That’s if she’s lucky. Could be the summer after that.”
    He stared at her. “You’re kidding.”
    She shook her head. “The record around here is four years in jail between arrest and trial.”
    “What about Ellie?”
    She shrugged. “Just pray the medical records look real good. If they do, we’ve got a shot at getting Hack to drop the charges altogether. He’s got a lot of latitude.”
    “He wouldn’t need much pushing,” Reacher said. “The mood he’s in.”
    “So look on the bright side. This whole thing could be over in a couple of days.”
    “When are you going to go see her?”
    “Later this afternoon. First I’m going to the bank to cash a twenty-thousand-dollar check. Then I’m going to put the money in a grocery bag and drive out and deliver it to some very happy people.”
    “O.K.,” Reacher said.
    “I don’t want to know what you did to get it.”
    “I just asked for it.”
    “I don’t want to know,” she said again. “But you should come with me and meet them. And be my bodyguard. Not every day I carry twenty thousand dollars around the Wild West in a grocery bag. And it’ll be cool in the car.”
    “O.K.,” Reacher said again.

    The bank showed no particular excitement about forking over twenty grand in mixed bills. The teller treated it like a completely routine part of her day. She just counted the money three times and stacked it carefully in a brown-paper grocery bag Alice provided for the purpose. Reacher carried it back to the parking lot for her. But she didn’t need him to.There was no danger of getting mugged. The fearsome heat had just about cleared the streets, and what few people remained were moving slowly and listlessly.
    The interior of the VW had heated up to the point where they couldn’t get in right away. Alice started the air going and left the doors open until the blowers took thirty degrees off it. It was probably still over a hundred when they slid inside. But it felt cool. All things are relative. Alice drove, heading north and east. She was good. Better than him. She didn’t stall out a single time.
    “There’ll be a storm,” she said.
    “Everybody tells me that,” he said. “But I don’t see it coming.”
    “You ever felt heat like this before?”
    “Maybe,” he said. “Once or twice. Saudi Arabia, the Pacific. But Saudi is drier and the Pacific is wetter. So, not exactly.”
    The sky ahead of