Echo Burning

walking around in the Lebanon.”
    She laughed. “Actually, it’s not so bad here. Texas is a pretty nice place, overall. Some great people, really.”
    “What does Judith do?”
    “She’s a lawyer, too. She’s in Mississippi right now.”
    “Same reasons?”
    Alice nodded. “A five-year plan.”
    “There’s hope for the legal profession yet.”
    “So it doesn’t bother you?” she said. “That it’s just a meal with a new friend and then back to the motel on your own?”
    “I never thought it would be anything else,” he lied.

    The meal was excellent. It had to be, because he wasn’t hungry. It was some kind of a homemade dark chewy confection made out of crushed nuts bound together with cheese and onions. Probably full of protein. Maybe some vitamins, too. They drank a little wine and a lot of water with it. He helped her clear up and then they talked until eleven.
    “I’ll drive you back,” she said.
    But she was barefoot and comfortable, so he shook his head.
    “I’ll walk,” he said. “Couple of miles will do me good.”
    “It’s still hot,” she said.
    “Don’t worry. I’ll be O.K.”
    She didn’t put up much of a protest. He arranged to meet her at the mission in the morning and said goodnight. The outside air was as thick as soup. The walk took forty minutes and his shirt was soaked again when he got back to the motel.

    He woke early in the morning and rinsed his clothes and put them on wet. They were dry by the time he reached the law offices. The humidity had gone and the hot desert air sucked the moisture right out of them and left them as stiff as new canvas. The sky was blue and completely empty.
    Alice was already at her usual desk in a black A-line dress with no sleeves. A Mexican guy was occupying one of her client chairs. He was talking quietly to her. She was writing on a yellow pad. The young intern from Hack Walker’s office was waiting patiently behind the Mexican guy’s shoulder. He was holding a thin orange and purple FedEx packet in his hand. Reacher took a place right behind him. Alice was suddenly aware of the gathering crowd and looked up. Sketched a surprised just a minute gesture in the air and turned back to her client. Eventually put her pencil down and spoke quietly in Spanish. The guy responded with stoic blank-faced patience and stood up and shuffled away. The intern moved forward and laid the FedEx packet on the desk.
    “Carmen Greer’s medical reports,” he said. “These are the originals. Mr. Walker took copies. He wants a conference at nine-thirty.”
    “We’ll be there,” Alice said.
    She pulled the packet slowly toward her. The intern followed the Mexican guy out. Reacher sat down in the client chair. Alice glanced at him, her fingers resting on the packet, a puzzled expression on her face. He shrugged. The packet was a lot thinner than he had expected, too.
    She unfolded the flap and pressed the edges of the packet inward so it opened like a mouth. Held it up and spilled the contents on the desk. There were four separate reports packed loose in individual green covers. Each cover was marked with Carmen’s name and her Social Security number and a patient reference. There were dates on all of them. The dates ranged back more than six years. The older the date, the paler the cover, like the green color had faded out with age. Reacher slid his chair around the desk and put it next to Alice’s. She stacked the four reports in date order, with the oldest at the top of the pile. She opened it up and nudged it left, so it was exactly between them. Then she moved her chair a fraction, so her shoulder was touching his.
    “O.K.,” she said. “So let’s see.”
    The first report was about Ellie’s birth. The whole thing was timed in hours and minutes. There was a lot of gynecological stuff about dilation and contractions. Fetal monitorshad been attached. An epidural anesthetic had been administered at thirteen minutes past four in the morning. It had been judged fully effective by four-twenty. There had been a delivery-room shift change at six. Labor had continued until the following lunchtime. Accelerants had been used. An episiotomy had been performed at one o’clock. Ellie had been born at twenty-five minutes past. No complications. Normal delivery of the placenta. The episiotomy had been stitched immediately. The baby was pronounced viable in every respect.
    There was no mention of facial bruising, or a split lip, or loosened