Echo Burning

Ellie is.”
    “Why do you think it was the same people as killed Eugene?”
    “It’s a deployment issue,” he said. “I can’t see anybody using a separate hit team and kidnap team. Not down here in the middle of nowhere. So I think it’s one team. Either a hit team moonlighting on the kidnap, or a kidnap team moonlighting on the hits. Probably the former, because the way they did Eugene was pretty expert. If that was moonlighting, I’d hate to see them do what they’re really good at.”
    “All they did was shoot him. Anybody could do that.”
    “No, they couldn’t. They got him to stop the car, they talked him into theirs. They kept him quiet throughout. That’s really good technique, Alice. Harder than you can imagine. Then they shot him through the eye. That means something, too.”
    “What?”
    He shrugged. “It’s a tiny target. And in a situation like that, it’s a snap shot. You raise the gun, you fire. One, two . No rational reason to pick such a tiny target. It’s a kind of exuberance. Not exactly showing off, as such. More like just celebrating your own skill and precision. Like reveling in it. It’s a joy thing.”
    Silence in the car. Just the hum of the motor and the whine of the tires.
    “And now they’ve got the kid,” Alice said.
    “And they’re uneasy about it, because they’re moonlighting. They’re used to each other alone. They’re accustomed totheir normal procedures. Having a live kid around makes them worried about being static and visible.”
    “They’ll look like a family. A man, a woman, a little girl.”
    “No, I think there’s more than two of them.”
    “Why?”
    “Because if it was me, I’d want three. In the service, we used three. Basically a driver, a shooter and a back-watcher.”
    “You shot people? The military police?”
    He shrugged. “Sometimes. You know, things better not brought to trial.”
    She was quiet for a long moment. He saw her debating whether to hitch an inch farther away from him. Then he saw her decide to stay where she was.
    “So why didn’t you do it for Carmen?” she asked. “If you’ve done it before?”
    “She asked me the same question. My answer is, I really don’t know.”
    She was quiet again, another mile.
    “Why are they holding Ellie?” she said. “I mean, still holding her? They already coerced the confession. So what’s still to gain?”
    “You’re the lawyer,” he said. “You have to figure that one out. When does it become set in stone? You know, irrevocable?”
    “Never, really. A confession can be retracted anytime. But in practice, I guess if she answered nolo contendere to the grand jury indictment, that would be regarded as a milestone.”
    “And how soon could that happen?”
    “Tomorrow, easily. Grand jury sits more or less permanently. It would take ten minutes, maybe a quarter of an hour.”
    “I thought justice ground real slow in Texas.”
    “Only if you plead not guilty.”
    Silence again, for many miles. They passed through the crossroads hamlet with the school and the gas station and the diner. It whipped backward through the headlight beams, three short seconds end to end. The sky up ahead was still clear. The stars were still visible. But the clouds were building fast behind them, in the south.
    “So maybe tomorrow they’ll let her go,” Alice said.
    “And maybe tomorrow they won’t. They’ll be worried she could make the ID. She’s a smart kid. She sits quiet, watching and thinking all the time.”
    “So what do we do?”
    “We try to figure out where she is.”
    He opened the glove compartment and took out the maps again. Found a large-scale plan of Pecos County and spread it on his knee. Reached up and clicked on the dome light.
    “How?” Alice asked. “I mean, where do you start?”
    “I’ve done this before,” Reacher said. “Years and years, I hunted deserters and AWOLs. You train yourself to think like them, and you usually find them.”
    “That easy?”
    “Sometimes,” he said.
    Silence in the speeding car.
    “But they could be anywhere,” Alice said. “I mean, there must be a million hide-outs. Abandoned farmsteads, ruined buildings.”
    “No, I think they’re using motels,” Reacher said.
    “Why?”
    “Because appearances are very important to them. Part of their technique. They suckered Al Eugene somehow, and they looked plausible to Rusty Greer, not that she cared too much. So they need running water and showers and closets and working